Cycling: Emil Herzog has achieved his big goal. The 17-year-old German won the junior road race. He is thus crowned the third German Junior World Champion in history. Yevgeniy Fedorov from Kazakhstan triumphed in the U23 class.
Herzog beats Morgado in sprint
Emil Herzog announced his big goal and finally achieved it today. The only 17-year-old German won the World Championship road race for juniors after 135,6 kilometers with start and finish in Wollongong. Holger Loew and Jonas Bokeloh achieved this in 1996 and 2014 respectively. Herzog is only the third German junior world champion in the history of cycling. And for that he had to do something. Because the Portuguese Antonio Morgado got away about 18 kilometers from the finish and seemed uncatchable. But then Emil Herzog ignited the turbo and drove the chasing group completely apart on the climb. Once at the top, he still had a relatively large deficit. But thanks to his skiing technique, Herzog was able to continue on the descent – until Morgado finally put his feet up and waited for him a few kilometers from the finish. Afterwards, however, the Portuguese no longer participated in the pace work, which led Herzog to ask "Can I win it?". Finally, on the home straight, there was a thrilling head-to-head sprint, which the German was able to win.
This must be one of the best sprints for the Rainbow Jersey I've ever seen. Emil Herzog beat Antonio Morgado, they will be teammates next year. It was definitely worth it to lose some sleep and watch this. #Wollongong2022
️ @StanSportAUpic.twitter.com/8rS3U2mGMM- Mihai Simion (@ faustocoppi60) September 23, 2022
Fedorov wins after a strong performance
After the juniors, it was the turn of the U23 class riders. Over 169,8 kilometers starting and finishing in Wollongong, they too had to struggle through the rain and on wet roads. In the end triumphed Yevgeny Fedorov. The Kazakh was extremely attentive throughout the race and was also involved in the decisive attack when he joined with Mathias Vacek from the Czech Republic were able to break away from the top group. He finally defeated this clearly in the final sprint. Bronze went to the Norwegian Soren Waerenskjold, who won gold in the time trial a few days ago. Best German was Michael Hessman in eleventh place.
Fedorov keeps the lead to the very end to give him a gold and crowned World Champion
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