Road Race

Stuttgart - 133.7km (7 laps)

Race Writeup

Marta Bastianelli (Italy) broke away from the bunch early in the final lap (of 19km) and stayed away to win the 2007 World Championship title. Bastianelli managed a maximum advantage of around 20 seconds during her breakaway, but had to keep the pressure on to avoid being caught within sight of the line as a chase group of around 15 riders accelerated in the young Italian's wake.

The race didn't really get going until after half-distance. There was an unfortunate incident with about 40km to go, when the wind, which was blowing increasingly strongly through the race, blew some advertising boards into the path of several riders in the bunch. One of the pre-race favourites, Noemi Cantele was caught in the chaos, but recovered to regain her place in the bunch.

Throughout the race, the Italians and the Germans rode hard, chasing down attacks and counter-attacking. A rider who was particularly active with a defensive role was newly-crowned World TT Champion, Hanke Kupfernagel (Germany). Tatiana Guderzo (Italy) managed to break away from the bunch in the final 50 kilometres, staying away until caught by a chase from Amber Neben (USA) and Noemi Cantele (Italy). 

Neben and Cantele were chasing between the bunch and Guderzo for around 25 kilometres before being caught by the German chase pair of Hausler and Kupfernagel leading the bunch. A small group formed at the front of the race and Cantele attacked again and gained a small gap with 2006 champion, Marianne Vos (Netherlands), but there was no way that this pair were going to be allowed any space. Marta Bastianelli jumped off the front as some of the main contenders were bridging from the bunch to the lead group. Despite having some problems with her front derailleur early in her break, she managed to open a reasonable gap of around 20 seconds. The chasing group were closing the gap after the climb on the final lap, but not very quickly.

In the closing kilometres, the bunch realised the threat posed by the young Italian and began closing the gap more rapidly. Bastianelli held them off, glancing briefly over her shoulder in the finishing straight as they bore down upon her, then celebrating with a single-armed victory salute. The group sprint was won by last year's champion, Marianne Vos (Netherlands) with third place being taken by the Italian sprinter, Giorgia Bronzini. In fact it was a successful road race for the Italians, Noemi Cantele finished fifth, giving the Squadra Azzurra 3 riders in three top 5.

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Results - Top 10 - click here to see full result

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Photos   Click on any image to enlarge >>

 

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