Evans uses his local knowledge

CYCLING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS:AT THE end of the hardest world road race championship in over a decade, Cadel Evans yesterday finally shook off bad luck and a difficulty in coping with pressure when he soloed to victory in Mendrisio, Switzerland.

The 32-year-old Australian lives just five kilometres from the course and used that local knowledge to good effect, timing his move to perfection on the last lap and delivering two lethal blows.

The first was to ditch the other race favourites on the last lap and go clear with Alexandr Kolobnev (Russia) and Joaquin Rodriguez (Spain).

The second was an impressive surge on the final climb which carried him away from his two rivals in an attack which was never going to be matched.

Twelve months before the world championships are held in Australia, he crossed the line 27 seconds clear of the Russian/Spanish duo.

“This course suits me better than the one in Geelong and I think I proved that today,” an emotional Evans said.

“It’s also an answer to those criticisms that I’ve had, saying I never attack.”

Local rider Fabian Cancellara did what he could to become the first double champion at the same worlds, using the strength that won him the time trial on Thursday to try to break the other contenders. However, each burst was marked by the others and he ultimately had to be content with fifth behind Samuel Sanchez (Spain).

Irish riders Philip Deignan, Daniel Martin and Nicolas Roche started with hopes of a strong ride, but the best Irish elite team in over 15 years suffered for various reasons.

Deignan and Martin finished the Vuelta a España one week ago and knew that it was going to be touch and go if they recovered in time.

It was Deignan’s first time to do two Grand Tours in one season, while Martin was making his debut in a three-week race.

“I knew from when we did a couple of laps on Friday that it was going to be a really, really hard race,” admitted the former, who won a stage and finished ninth overall in Spain. “I hoped I’d be all right, but it was really hard when the big guys went with two laps to go on the climb. I was in the second group then. I felt pretty average all day.”

“Ideally we’d have had 10 or 12 days to recover from the Vuelta, but I wasn’t going to sacrifice my ninth place in that race to be fresh today. That (the Vuelta) was the most important goal.”

He said that Martin, the youngest of the three at 23, felt good until two laps to go, then started to weaken.

As for Roche, Deignan feels he may have got his final training wrong.

“Nicolas did seven hours training on Thursday and that was too much, too close to the worlds. He told me after 100 kilometres that he didn’t feel great today.”

That leaves David McCann’s excellent 11th place in Thursday’s Elite time trial as the best Irish performance of these worlds.

Siobhán Horgan (née Dervan) and Olivia Dillon lost time when they were caught behind crashes on Saturday and didn’t finish.

Deignan, Martin and Roche will take a pragmatic approach. Things didn’t click yesterday, but all three have proved that they are set for big, big careers.

Unlike Evans, who laid his ghosts to rest yesterday, they are going to have to wait a little longer for success at the worlds.