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Slovenia's Brajkovic take surprise win U-23 TT
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With shoulders hunched and eyes cast down at the ground in front of him, Thomas Dekker was not just happy to be there. Standing two feet to Dekker’s left, Janez Brajkovic of Slovenia was wiggling his arms into a white jersey with rainbow stripes, a garment that Dekker, a favorite for gold in Monday’s under-23 time trial at the 2004 world championships, must have imagined himself wearing.
The 20-year-old Dekker, a rookie pro for Rabobank, was hoping to erase the disappointment of last year, when he got sick before the U23 time trial at the Hamilton world’s and struggled to a ninth-place finish. But at the end of Monday’s 36.75km race against the clock, the second of two races on the opening day of the world road racing championships, the Dutchman had to settle for silver.
Even Brajkovic, a 19-year-old who hopes to sign with a professional team next year, was surprised with the outcome.
“I didn’t expect to win,” said the new world champion. “I thought maybe third through fifth, but I was certain that Thomas would win today.”
On a perfect autumn day in northern Italy, with warm sunshine and gentle winds, the U23 men raced on a clockwise circuit of smooth roads that started and finished in the town of Bardolino, near the shores of Lake Garda. There were two major climbs to tackle, and the difference turned out to be the second one. It was there, on a short pitch that rose 165 feet, that Brajkovic destroyed the competition.
“I think the key point was the top of that climb,” said the crew-cut Slovenian, who has been racing for three years but said that he has really just found his form this season.
Brajkovic’s assessment was probably right; Dekker was fastest out of the start house, covering the first 6.3km with a 2-second advantage over Brajkovic, but after a long descent and the short climb near the town of Pastrengo, the Slovenian had turned the tables. That was the part of the course where Brajkovic was fastest and Dekker was slowest.
In that section, Dekker was only fifth fastest, and one of the riders that he gave up time to was Italian Vincenzo Nibali, who thrilled the Italian fans with an eventual third-place finish.
For a short time it looked like Nibali might have had a shot at gold after he knocked fellow Italian Francesco Rivera out of the lead, but with six riders left – including Dekker and Brajkovic – Nibali knew better.
“I knew [Brajkovic] was very strong,” he said. “I knew when I crossed the finish line, I hadn’t won. But I’m happy with my result, I’m not disappointed.”
The host country will be happy as well, having had to wait a year for a world championship medal after an uncharacteristically poor showing at the 2003 world’s in Canada, when Italy failed to win a single medal.
The home team will be hoping for more neckwear throughout the week, especially on Sunday, when the elite men, led by Olympic champion Paolo Bettini, take to the roads of Verona in the pro men’s road race.
The time trial races will continue on Tuesday, as the elite women and the junior men tackle the hills near Lake Garda. The U.S. team, which scored a silver medal earlier on Monday with the impressive performance of Rebecca Much in the junior women’s time trial, will pin its hopes on Olympic silver medalist Dede Barry in Tuesday’s 24.05km elite women’s time trial.
Results
1. Janez Brajkovic (Slo), 36.750km in 46:56(46.975kph),
2. Thomas Dekker (Nl), at 0:18
3. Vincenzo Nibali (I), at 0:19
4. Dominique Cornu (B), at 0:20
5. Christian Muller (G), at 0:47
6. Francesco Rivera (I), at 1:00
7. Piotr Mazur (Pol), at 1:21
8. Andriy Grivko (Ukr), at 1:23
9. Lukasz Bodnar (Pol), at 1:27
10. Stanislav Belov (Rus), at 1:33
11. Olivier Kaisen (B), at 1:35
12. Lasse Bochman (Dk), at 1:50
13. Paul Martens (G), at 1:52
14. Andrei Kunitski (Blr), at 2:01
15. Miha Svab (SLO), at 2:03
16. Mads Christensen (Dk), at 2:08
17. Ignas Konovalovas (Lit), at 2:21
18. Alexey Esin (Rus), at 2:21
19. Ricardo Martins (P), at 2:32
20. Dimitri Champion (F), at 2:34
21. Tyler Farrar (USA), at 2:35FullResults
