Michal Kwiatkowski times it right to make cycling history for

Poland
theguardian.com/sport/2014/sep/28/michal-kwiatkowski-times-it-right-to-make-cycling-history-for-poland

In the finale of a world road race championship, timing and calculation are all-important, and
Michal Kwiatkowski earned Poland their first elite men’s road title with a cunning attack just
before the final climb. He started it a mere 5km from the finish in Ponferrada, Spain, giving
him just enough time to hang on to the line as a select chasing group closed to within a few
metres.

The finale of the 255km race resembled a high-speed handicap, with Kwiatkowski out on his
own a handful of seconds ahead of a six-man chase group led by the 2012 champion,
Philippe Gilbert of Belgium, with the 20-strong remains of the peloton – including Britain’s
Ben Swift – also visible over their shoulders. Kwiatkowski eased visibly as he approached the
line, knowing victory was his, and as he did so, the chasers bore down, with Simon Gerrans
of Australia pipping Spain’s Alejandro Valverde and the Dane Matti Breschel for silver.

After an lengthy, attritional opening phase in which Kwiatkowski’s team had done the bulk of
the work chasing down an early escape, the Pole made his move at the foot of the descent
between the circuit’s two climbs, as the remnants of the field sped down from the top of a
long drag. With a few yards’ advantage, he was able to link up with four earlier attackers
approaching the final short ascent, Mirador.

Critically, having taken a brief breather, he pressed on again as the front of the peloton
approached them, meaning there was far less chance he would be caught before the
summit, which was followed by the vertiginous descent to the finish, where the riders were
hitting over 90km/h (56mph).

With Kwiatkowski a few seconds in front on Mirador, the strongmen who wanted to avoid a
sprint attempted to catch him, led by Gilbert, Gerrans and Valverde, but were unable to
close. “I could see him just ahead and knew it would be difficult from there,” Gerrans said.

“I was trying to take risks because some were calculating and waiting for the final climb,” said
Kwiatkowski, adding that he had seen the Norwegian Sven Erik Bystrom pull off a similar
victory in the under-23 race on Friday. “Two days ago I watched the under-23 race and I knew
it was possible to do this type of win. I just did my effort and had a little bit of a gap.”

While a promising series of placings at the Ardennes Classics this spring showed
Kwiatkowski’s potential on a course with short steep climbs, his form at the Tour of Britain a
couple of weeks earlier had made it clear he would be a man to watch in Spain. He was
clearly one of the strongest riders, at his ease on the race’s short, punchy climbs – not
dissimilar to the final little pull on the Ponferrada course – and ended up second overall.

Great Britain came to the race with a team built around Swift and, with Peter Kennaugh and
Luke Rowe prominent almost to the end, the plan worked because the Yorkshireman was
exactly where he needed to be on the final lap. His 12th place in the thick of the sprint

1/2
among the second chasing group a mere seven seconds behind Kwiatkowski was a fine
effort as the men around him – Alexander Kristoff, John Degenkolb, Michael Matthews and
Nacer Bouhanni – have been among the best sprinters this season.

2/2