Hushovd claims road race crown

Thor Hushovd made cycling history yesterday when he claimed Norway’s first-ever men’s elite title at the world road race championships in Australia.

Hushovd dominated a bunch sprint at the end of a thrilling 267.2 km race, beating Denmark’s Matti Breschel and Australia’s Allan Davis.

Breschel went one better than his bronze in 2008 to pick up the silver medal while Davis gave the hosts a consolation bronze, their second consecutive medal after Cadel Evans’s triumph last year.

Hushovd, a one-day classics specialist who is known for his ability to climb and finish well on uphill sprints, waited until the final 150 metres of the 750-metre home straight before unleashing a powerful sprint.

Afterwards he could not quite believe his achievement.

“It’s hard to understand I’ve won the worlds. It’s a dream, it’s unreal,” said Hushovd, who becomes the first rider from the Scandinavian country to don the coveted rainbow jersey.

“This has to be the best moment of my career.”

The elite men’s event broke with tradition by starting and finishing in two different locations, and shortly after the start in Melbourne a five-man attack formed.

The group contained no contenders but the peloton had to up the pace to bring down a lead of more than 20 minutes. If they had been lapped by the leaders on the 15.9km circuit in Geelong, they would have been disqualified.

Thankfully for race organisers the potential disaster was avoided and the star-studded chasing peloton continued to increase the pace and eventually pull in the tiring leaders.