Strand Hagenes and Baroncini claim first road race rainbow jerseys in Flanders

The road races of the 2021 UCI Road World Championships took over Flanders (Belgium) on Friday, with the Men Junior and Under 23 events. The rainbow jerseys went respectively to Norway’s Per Strand Hagenes and Italy’s Filippo Baroncini.

Men Junior: Strand Hagenes gets the best of Grégoire

The first road race on Friday saw Per Strand Hagenes deliver an historic performance in Leuven. His solo win, 19secs ahead of Romain Grégoire (FRA) and 24secs ahead of Madis Mihkels (EST), brought Norway their first medal in the history of the Men Junior road race at the UCI Road World Championships. The furious pace of the race led to an impressive average speed of 44.615km/h.

“I knew it was possible when I looked at the course and its short, punchy climbs. To make it happen, it’s incredible. I laid in my bed last night and I was thinking about taking the win today,” Strand Hagenes said after claiming gold. “I knew I had to take the corner first at the bottom of the climb and go full gas. When I looked back, I saw I was gaining metre after metre, and I just put my head down and pushed as hard as I could until the finish line.”

It was an early start for the 173 riders from 55 nations. They faced eight laps of the circuit, for a total of 121.4km, and a fierce battle was on from the beginning. Three riders managed to break away, comprising the individual time trial (ITT) silver medallist Joshua Tarling (GBR), Luis-Joe Luehrs (GER) and Milan Kadlec (CZE). The Belgian rising star Cian Uijtdebroeks was among the main riders caught behind in early crashes and he never made it back to the front of the race.

Many teams worked in the peloton, with Norwegian riders among the most active to control the gap to under one minute and wear out their rivals on the four climbs and many twists of the circuit. The peloton stormed back to the early attackers with 33km to go.

A new group of attackers managed to open a gap on the penultimate lap. Daniel Schrag (GER) and Dario Belletta (ITA) were joined by Finlay Pickering (GBR), Eddy Le Huitouze, Pierre Gautherat (FRA) and, finally, Simon Dalby (DEN), as they entered the final lap (15.6km to go).

Strand Hagenes made a strong effort to bridge the gap inside the last 10km alongside Grégoire. The Norwegian youngster led the way to the bottom of the climb of Wijnpers and some of his rivals hit the deck. At the summit, only Grégoire and Belletta were still chasing between Strand Hagenes and the peloton.

Recently beaten by Grégoire in a sprint for the European Champion title, Strand Hagenes pushed his advantage. He had all the time necessary to celebrate his triumph in Leuven, as he succeeds Remco Evenepoel (2018) and Quinn Simmons (2019). The Norwegian, also a winner of two stage races of the 2021 UCI Men Junior Nations’ Cup, is set to join the Jumbo-Visma Development Team for 2022. Madis Mihkels rounded out the podium after the peloton caught Belletta.

Men Under 23: Baroncini takes up the Italian torch

Italians reign supreme over the Men’s Under 23 event with a fifth gold medal, won by Filippo Baroncini, who succeeded his compatriot Samuele Battistella with a late solo attack. Eritrea’s Biniam Girmay, a former UCI World Cycling Centre trainee, and the Dutch youngster Olav Kooij joined him on the podium.

“It’s been my dream for all my life,” Baroncini celebrated. “It all went perfectly with the team. My attack in the final was planned before the race and everything went well. It’s a big emotion for me, I have no words. I was just thinking, ‘Go, go, go!’”

A peloton of 174 riders, representing 54 nations, left from Antwerp in the early afternoon, heading for Leuven where they’d face two different circuits. In total, they had to cover 161.1km, with most of the challenges of the day lying inside the final 100km.

The 60km leading from Antwerp to Leuven allowed a group of three attackers – Logan Currie (NZL), Gleb Karpenko (EST) and Adam Ward (IRL) – to build a lead of 4mins over the bunch. The gap was down to under 2mins when Currie went solo at the front on the cobbles of Moskesstraat, 68km from the finish. After a counter led by Hugo Page (FRA), all the attackers were caught with 56km to go.

It took another 15km of attacks and counter-attacks for a bunch of strong contenders to get away. With two laps to go (31.1km), Luca Colnaghi (ITA), Daan Hoole (NED), Anders Johannessen (NOR), Tomas Kopecky (CZE), Jarrad Drizners (AUS), Mauro Schmid (SUI), Kevin Vermaerke (USA), Finn Fisher-Black (NZL) and Fabio Costa (POR) were 11secs ahead of chasing duo Kevin Vauquelin (FRA) and Yevgeniy Fedorov (KAZ). They quickly bridged the gap while Belgians were driving the chase with a gap of 40secs.

Schmid attacked on his own just ahead of the final lap, with a narrow lead on the bunch catching up to the chasers. He was eventually caught on the last climb of Wijnpers with just over 5km to go. At the summit, Filippo Baroncini (ITA) went solo.

The Italian youngster held on to a small lead all the way to the line. Eritrea’s Biniam Girmay dominated the sprint from the bunch to take the silver medal ahead of Olav Kooij (NED).