Evenepoel rides solo breakaway to world road race title

SYDNEY :Remco Evenepoel concluded a magnificent season with a solo breakaway to win the world road race title on Sunday, adding the rainbow jersey to his triumphs in the Vuelta a Espana and the Liege–Bastogne–Liege monument classic.

Two weeks after giving Belgium its first Grand Tour champion in 44 years at the Vuelta, the 22-year-old rider gave his country its first world road race champion in a decade since Philippe Gilbert won in Valkenburg.

Evenepoel rode the last 25km of the 266.9km race on his own, crossing the line with his fists pumping at the beach in the centre of the Australian coastal city of Wollongong in six hours, 16 minutes and eight seconds.

"It's something I've been dreaming of and now after a monument, a big classic, a Grand Tour and now world champion, I think I've won everything I could this year," Evenepoel said.

"I don't think I will ever have a better season than this. I'm not going to see my bed tonight."

Christophe Laporte of France won a sprint for second place two minutes, 21 seconds behind Evenepoel, while Australian Michael Matthews took the bronze medal in third place.

Big crowds thronged the streets of the small city south of Sydney, where the riders completed 12 laps of a 17-km loop in the spring sunshine to conclude the race.

They had plenty to cheer early on as Australians Ben O'Connor and Luke Plapp joined a breakaway of 16 riders which built a lead over the peloton of up to seven minutes.

The race favourites were all tucked into the main pack until Evenepoel joined a handful of riders who chased down the breakaway.

The Belgian made his move to the front with 32km to go and rode Kazakh Alexey Lutsenko, the only rider to go with him, off his wheel up a climb 7 km later.

"I felt quite