Cycling: Cavendish fades as Hushovd conquers world
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Your support makes all the difference.Thor Hushovd became Norway's first road world champion yesterday, powering clear of a mass sprint to edge out Denmark's Matti Breschel in a dramatic finish. It was a brutal race which saw 79 of the event's 178 starters, including Great Britain's Mark Cavendish, fail to finish.
Cavendish was among the pre-race favourites but a challenging course accounted for the Manxman. He and British team-mates David Millar, who was second in the time-trial, and Jeremy Hunt, were unable to stay the distance.
Hushovd timed his push to perfection, hanging back in the peloton as a number of attackers flagged on the steep climbs of the 262.7km course, before bursting to the front to win by a little more than a bike length. "It's a big dream, of course, to win big races and especially the world championship, it's something special," the soft-spoken 32-year-old said.
"In the end, coming into a sprint you don't really have time to think if it's possible or not and when I saw I passed Breschel in the last few metres it was just unbelievable and an amazing feeling."
Allan Davis took bronze as a consolation prize for Australia after champion Cadel Evans's title defence was swamped in the tide of the peloton before the final straight.
Riders enjoyed mild sunny weather, but windy conditions proved decisive late in the challenging course, which started with a mostly flat 88km run from Melbourne's Federation Square before heading into an undulating 15.9km circuit around Geelong.
A course that was supposed to discourage sprinters and reward the bigger teams suddenly grew teeth in the last lap as strong headwinds on the hills accounted for a string of favourites' chances. Philippe Gilbert of Belgium briefly opened a 40-second gap from a breakaway that included local hope Evans, but was swamped a few kilometres before the finishing line.
Further attacks by Russia's Pavel Brutt, Slovenia's Janez Brajkovic and Netherlands' Niki Terpstra came to nothing as the riders entered the final straight.
Breschel's late charge seemed to have the race won but Hushovd struck to haul in the Dane about 30m before the line as the championships ended on a high note after a week marred by Alberto Contador's doping controversy.
Australia were the only one of the fancied full-complement teams to take a podium spot as the Italians and Belgians fell away, while Spain hardly figured for a race in which team radios were banned for the first time.
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