European Championships 2021 [LAST 25 KM]

September 12, 2021

European Championships 2021 – Road Race ME – Trento – Trento : 179,2 km

The European Road Cycling Championships have been held every year since 1995, but it wasn’t until 2016 that we saw the event graced with Elite riders. The European Road Cycling Championships have often taken place around mid-summer, but for 2021 the events will take place in early September, just a few weeks before the all-important World Championships. As the riders race for their national teams in these kinds of events, the European Championships provide them with a great chance to get to know their teammates and work on their game plan ahead of the biggest one-day race of the year – the World Road Race Championships. Could this finally be the year we see a rider go on to win both the European and World title in the same year?

Sonny Colbrelli (Italy) won the men’s road race at the European Championships in front of a home crowd, prevailing in a two-up sprint against Remco Evenepoel (Belgium).

Though the pre-race favourite lived up to his billing, it was anything but a predictable race. A ferocious start saw multiple breakaways form and re-form before a nine-man group escaped 60km from the finish. Evenepoel attacked this group on the penultimate ascent of the Povo with an acceleration so fierce that only Colbrelli and Benoît Cosnefroy (France) could follow.

Another surge from the Belgian distanced Cosnefroy on the final ascent of this climb, but despite Evenepoel’s best efforts, he could not shake Colbrelli, and in the final sprint Colbrelli was victorious. Cosnefroy crossed the line 1:30 later to take the bronze medal.

“It’s fantastic because I had a super team and in the final [Matteo] Trentin was super,” Colbrelli said at the finish, “I followed Remco in the final climb. I’m very happy for this victory – it is double because it was achieved in Italy.”

How it unfolded

The road began to rise as soon as the race left the neutral roll out and, on these slopes, the breakaway struggled to form. A quartet comprised of Antonio Jesus Soto Guirao (Spain), Aurélien Paret-Peintre (France), Franck Bonnamour (France), Harm Vanhoucke (Belgium) eventually escaped. They seemed reluctant to fully commit, and though their languid pace was initially matched by the Italian-led peloton, their advantage never exceeded a minute and a half.

On the next climb, the Vigo Cavedine, the small time gap tempted attacks from the peloton as multiple riders sought to join the breakaway. A strong group containing Thibaut Pinot (France), four Spanish riders: Roger Adria, David de la Cruz, Gorka Izaguirre and Mikel Landa, Felix Großschartner (Austria), Sébastien Reichenbach (Switzerland), and Jonas Rapp (Germany) bridged across. The Italians, sensing the danger posed by this increasingly powerful group, sent Andrea Bagioli to foil its endeavours and, once again, the breakaway’s advantage never exceeded a minute and a half.

Twenty kilometres later, on the ascent and descent of the Candriai, the race exploded. First, the breakaway disintegrated as Landa and Bonnamour were both dropped. Then, Romain Bardet (France), Remco Evenepoel (Belgium), Gianni Moscon (Italy) and Pavel Sivakov (Russia) launched a short-lived, speculative attack from the peloton, still 116km from the finish. The corresponding acceleration doomed the breakaway’s efforts and it was a fragmented race that entered the finishing circuit.

Two large groups crossed the finish line for the first time, but on the Povo climb the race regrouped and, as the pace momentarily dropped, another fleeting breakaway formed. Diego Ulissi (Italy) caught this quartet with acceleration, but the group was soon caught by the peloton. With 85km still to race, only 48 riders remained while there had been four separate breakaways, all reabsorbed back into the peloton.

In the end, it took an échappée royale composed of Mark Padun (Ukraine), Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia), Matteo Trentin (Italy), Victor Campenaerts (Belgium) and Markus Hoelgaard (Norway) to escape the peloton and they built up an advantage of 36 seconds with 68km to go. Spooked by this move, France took control of the peloton, burning through riders alarmingly fast in their desperation to close the gap. Their pace distanced the majority of the peloton and the few who survived bridged up to the breakaway.

As Campenaerts and Padun were dropped in this mêlée, a nine-man group formed out front composed of Trentin, Colbrelli, Hoelgaard, Sivakov, Pogačar, Cosnefroy, Evenepoel, Ben Hermans (Belgium) and Marc Hirschi (Switzerland).

Wary of those in this group possessing a stronger sprint than him, Evenepoel attacked on the penultimate ascent of the Povo, 22km from the finish. His acceleration was partially successful, distancing three-quarters of his rivals, but two of the fastest finishers in Colbrelli and Cosnefroy were able to follow. Largely driven by Evenepoel, this group amassed a minute’s lead and, by the last lap, it was clear that they would be fighting for victory.

Cosnefroy too was dropped on the next and final ascent of the Povo but Colbrelli clung on, and, in front of a gleeful, Italian crowd some numbers deep at the finish, he won the sprint to take a memorable victory.

Results :
1 Sonny Colbrelli (Italy) 4:19:45
2 Remco Evenepoel (Belgium)
3 Benoit Cosnefroy (France) 0:01:30
4 Matteo Trentin (Italy) 0:01:44
5 Tadej Pogacar (Slovenia)
6 Marc Hirschi (Switzerland)
7 Markus Hoelgaard (Norway)
8 Ben Hermans (Belgium) 0:01:46
9 Pavel Sivakov (Russian Federation) 0:01:49
10 Victor Campenaerts (Belgium) 0:05:41
11 Stan Dewulf (Belgium) 0:05:49
12 Romain Bardet (France)
13 Matej Mohoric (Slovenia) 0:05:50
14 João Almeida (Portugal) 0:06:00
15 Diego Ulissi (Italy)
16 Simon Geschke (Germany)
17 Bauke Mollema (Netherlands) 0:06:15
18 Rui Costa (Portugal) 0:09:13
19 Koen Bouwman (Netherlands)
20 Michael Kukrle (Czech Republic)
21 Dmitrii Strakhov (Russian Federation)
22 Felix Grossschartner (Austria)
23 Odd Christian Eiking (Norway)
24 Matteo Badilatti (Switzerland)
25 Warren Barguil (France)
26 Sergei Chernetskii (Russian Federation)
27 Sébastien Reichenbach (Switzerland)
28 Nelson Oliveira (Portugal)
29 Roger Adria Oliveras (Spain) 0:09:16
30 Gianni Moscon (Italy) 0:09:21
31 Harm Vanhoucke (Belgium)
DNF Philippe Gilbert (Belgium)
DNF Dylan Teuns (Belgium)
DNF Gianni Vermeersch (Belgium)
DNF Franck Bonnamour (France)
DNF Valentin Madouas (France)
DNF Aurélien Paret Peintre (France)
DNF Pierre-Luc Périchon (France)
DNF Thibaut Pinot (France)
DNF Ziga Jerman (Slovenia)
DNF Domen Novak (Slovenia)
DNF David Per (Slovenia)
DNF Sebastian Langeveld (Netherlands)
DNF Timo Roosen (Netherlands)
DNF Ide Schelling (Netherlands)
DNF Julius van den Berg (Netherlands)
DNF Nick van der Lijke (Netherlands)
DNF Giovanni Aleotti (Italy)
DNF Andrea Bagioli (Italy)
DNF Mattia Cattaneo (Italy)
DNF Filippo Ganna (Italy)
DNF David de la Cruz (Spain)
DNF Imanol Erviti (Spain)
DNF Ivan Garcia Cortina (Spain)
DNF Gorka Izagirre Insausti (Spain)
DNF Ion Izagirre Insausti (Spain)
DNF Mikel Landa Meana (Spain)
DNF Antonio Jesus Soto Guirao (Spain)
DNF Miguel Heidemann (Germany)
DNF Florian Lipowitz (Germany)
DNF Jonas Rapp (Germany)
DNF Jonas Rutsch (Germany)
DNF Immanuel Stark (Germany)
DNF Jannik Steimle (Germany)
DNF Georg Steinhauser (Germany)
DNF Fabian Lienhard (Switzerland)
DNF Gino Mäder (Switzerland)
DNF Simon Pellaud (Switzerland)
DNF Roland Thalmann (Switzerland)
DNF Yannis Voisard (Switzerland)
DNF Ruben Guerreiro (Portugal)
DNF Rui Oliveira (Portugal)
DNF Rafael Reis (Portugal)
DNF Pavel Kochetkov (Russian Federation)
DNF Roman Maikin (Russian Federation)
DNF Denis Nekrasov (Russian Federation)
DNF Artem Nych (Russian Federation)
DNF Kristian Aasvold (Norway)
DNF Sven Erik Bystrøm (Norway)
DNF Alexander Kristoff (Norway)
DNF Andreas Leknessund (Norway)
DNF Sam Bennett (Ireland)
DNF Conn McDunphy (Ireland)
DNF Ryan Mullen (Ireland)
DNF Matthew Teggart (Ireland)
DNF Marcin Budzinski (Poland)
DNF Michal Golas (Poland)
DNF Jakub Kaczmarek (Poland)
DNF Przemyslaw Kasperkiewicz (Poland)
DNF Maciej Paterski (Poland)
DNF Szymon Tracz (Poland)
DNF Felix Gall (Austria)
DNF Marco Haller (Austria)
DNF Hermann Pernsteiner (Austria)
DNF Sebastian Schönberger (Austria)
DNF Jan Bárta (Czech Republic)
DNF Zdenek Stybar (Czech Republic)
DNF Adam Toupalík (Czech Republic)
DNF Daniel Turek (Czech Republic)
DNF Juraj Bellan (Slovakia)
DNF Marek Canecky (Slovakia)
DNF Martin Haring (Slovakia)
DNF Juraj Sagan (Slovakia)
DNF Peter Sagan (Slovakia)
DNF Patrik Tybor (Slovakia)
DNF Gert Kivistik (Estonia)
DNF Karl Patrick Lauk (Estonia)
DNF Mihkel Räim (Estonia)
DNF Rein Taaramäe (Estonia)
DNF Norman Vahtra (Estonia)
DNF Anatolii Budiak (Ukraine)
DNF Vitaliy Buts (Ukraine)
DNF Oleksandr Holovash (Ukraine)
DNF Mykhaylo Kononenko (Ukraine)
DNF Andrii Kulyk (Ukraine)
DNF Mark Padun (Ukraine)
DNF Kévin Geniets (Luxembourg)
DNF Michel Ries (Luxembourg)
DNF Luc Wirtgen (Luxembourg)
DNF Jan Petelin (Luxembourg)
DNF Aleksandr Riabushenko (Belarus)
DNF Emil Dima (Romania)
DNF Edgaras Kovaliovas (Lithuania)
DNF Venantas Lašinis (Lithuania)
DNF Evaldas Siskevicius (Lithuania)
DNF Viktor Filutás (Hungary)
DNF Barnabás Peák (Hungary)
DNF János Zsombor Pelikán (Hungary)
DNF Attila Valter (Hungary)
DNF Lucas Eriksson (Sweden)
DNF Kim Magnusson (Sweden)
DNF Georgios Boutopoulos (Greece)
DNF Marolino Hoxha (Albania)
DNF Mejdin Malhani (Albania)
DNF Ylber Sefa (Albania)
DNF Olsian Velia (Albania)
DNF Ukko Peltonen (Finland)
DNF Omer Goldstein (Israel)
DNF Guy Sagiv (Israel)
DNF Josip Rumac (Croatia)
DNF Spas Gyurov (Bulgaria)
DNF Hafsteinn Geirsson (Iceland)
DNF Ingvar Omarsson (Iceland)
DNF Cristian Raileanu (Moldova)
DNF Andrej Petrovski (North Macedonia)
DNF Andreas Miltiadis (Cyprus)
DNF Antoine Berlin (Monaco)
DNF Victor Langellotti (Monaco)
DNF Musa Mikayilzade (Azerbaijan)
DNS Jan Maas (Netherlands)