Roche finally runs out of gas

CYCLING:AFTER A long season when he had his first big result way back in February with third in the GP dell'Insubria, when he finished 15th in the Tour de France in July and seventh in the Tour of Spain in September, Nicolas Roche's batteries finally appeared to stutter and fade in yesterday's Elite world time trial championships.

The 26-year-old Irish professional rode strongly for much of the 263km event, but then lost pace inside the final hour and a half of racing.

Thor Hushovd scooped a first win for Norway at that level, winning a 20-man sprint to the line and netting gold ahead of Matti Breschel (Denmark) and Allan Davis (Australia).

Roche had earlier been part of the battle , squaring up with many of the top guns when he got clear in a 32-man group 90 kilometres from the finish in Geelong, Australia. However he ultimately finished over 13 minutes back, with David McCann and himself placing 68th and 97th.

"I felt good 200 kilometres into the race; by kilometre 215, my legs were going," he said afterwards.

"It wasn't anything to do with flying in this week. It's more that it's been a very long season, I've done two Grand Tours and at some point you have to pull the string. I'm pretty satisfied with my race until that point; I was in all the moves, I was racing with [pre-race favourites] Philippe Gilbert and Filippo Pozzato, and I was riding well. I just don't have much reserves left this late in the season."

Very few riders did both the Vuelta and the Tour and then travelled to the worlds; of those, only Roche and Spain's Luis León Sanchez were in the top 10 of the Spanish race. Sanchez was one of the many non-finishers yesterday.

The most prominent Irish rider was national champion Matt Brammeier, who was the first to attack and who was clear in a break for 200 kilometres. He was clearly going well, and rode very courageously, but it appeared to be a bizarre tactical decision for the three-man Irish team to send a rider up the road so soon, particularly as those early breaks almost never stay clear at the worlds.

Gilbert was for many the pre-race favourite and he and defending champion Evans unleashed a number of superb attacks. Gilbert's final move came on the last lap, when he jumped clear on the steep climb of The Ridge, but a headwind and flat run in to the finish meant that he was pulled back with three kilometres to go.

A similar effort by former winners Judith Arndt (Germany) and Nicole Cooke (Britain) was also reeled in at the end of Saturday's women's road race. They were caught inside the final 500 metres of the 127.2 km event.

The 2006 champion Marianne Vos (Rabobank) led out the sprint to the line, but she was overhauled by the Italian Giorgia Bronzini. This saw her take her fourth consecutive silver medal, while Emma Johansson(Sweden) was third.