Thor Hushovd – World Champion? If you didn’t see the race unfold, then here’s a brief rundown. If you did watch the event of the year, here’s a flashback. The peloton rolled out of Melbourne CBD and headed for the iconic West Gate Bridge, where a crucial move was initiated by Matthew Brammeier of Ireland – he was joined in his attempt by four other riders, all equally as determined to grab the reigns.

The main field barely flinched – ex World Champion Cadel Evans made small talk with Philippe Gilbert of Belgium, the latter being the favourite for victory in Geelong some 260km later. The escape group soon opened up a healthy lead of 2min45sec, which soon grew to over 4 minutes. Still the bunch rolled along casually as if on a training ride. It took a time gap of over 5min before young Serbian talent Esad Hasanovic got edgy, and attempted to bridge the gap… Solo. It was an attempt to say the very least, but in all honesty the young 25yr old put everything on the line and chased the leading five riders for over 2 hours. Unfortunately Hasanovic never made it across the monstrous gap, but still struggled on in his own battle against the elements.

Finally, after allowing the escapees to put over 22min of open road between themselves and the peloton, the Italian and Russian squads started forming, along with the Australians in a bid to reel in the runaway riders. As soon as the peloton hit the start of the circuit through Geelong central, all hell broke loose. The pace gradually increased, but on a circuit with such a brutal nature, a small increase in pace was all it took for riders to start dropping off the back and subsequently pulling out of the race. The Australian team took a back seat, allowing the Italians to dominate the coming laps with a show of aggression that would eventually tire the squad out.

From here on in, the race really started to lose any resemblance of an organized, even remotely tactical sport. Riders were laying down everything they had, stringing the field out for entire laps at a time. Top names like Fabian Cancellara, Edvald Boasson Hagen, and Dave Zabriske soon paid the price for riding with such fury, and eventually dropped out of the race, having completed their role in support of their respective team mates. Although seemingly chaotic, the race was unfolding in a very ruthless yet controlled manner. The basic idea being to get rid of as many contenders as possible, before starting the final two laps.

When the field had reached 4 laps to go, there was a group of 30 riders, followed by a group of 10 riders, followed by the remains of the main field. Cadel Evans was closing gaps, and assaulting the climbs, all with the full support of Aussie riders and fans alike. To match him, Philippe Gilbert replicated this approach, and added a few more solid attacks to the race outline. Once the big guns were resigned to the middle of the field, some lesser known riders stepped up to the plate and delivered powerful blows on their opponents.

In a show of ultimate power, Philipp Gilbert laid down his final bid for victory – and with only 10km of racing left, there was a universal opinion that he might actually be crowned the 2010 World Champion. But Cadel Evans had a different opinion to the universe, and tried to ride across to Gilbert with a few other riders in tow. Once together, it seemed this small group would ride the final kilometers together, and fight for the win. Wrong! This race was far from over!

The main field, who had originally splintered and lost contact with the Gilbert and Cadel group, had reformed. They chased the leading pack, and charged past them at over 60km/h.

With only 3km of racing left, riders were doing all they could to hold on to the wild freight train, as it sped toward the final right hand turn, and 650m of uphill to the finish. As the bunch hit the 2km mark, there was yet another acceleration as riders put all their cards on the table to get to the front; but at over 60km/h this was seemingly impossible! Rounding the final bend, riders such as Alexander Kolebnov, Oscar Freire and Filippo Pozzato started winding up to full power for the dash to the line. It seemed a very tight sprint until… Until the “Norwegian God of Thunder” charged up the left hand side of the road, with a clear run to the line. He was tailed by Matti Breschel and Aussie rider Allan Davis. A show of sheer strength saw Hushovd take the win by over two bike lengths.

After 257.2km of racing, the numbers looked like this.

1)Thor Hushovd

2)Matti Breschel

3)Allan Davis

An average speed of 40.14km/h

178 starters, with only 99 finishers.

38 Nations represented.

After over 6 hours of racing, it seems silly to summarise the race in one sentence. But here’s my best solution…

“Go buy the DVD”.

THIS ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED ON CYCLINGTRIBE