• Spaniard outsprinted Bardet, Dumoulin and Woods in road race
• Valverde had previously won two silver and four bronze medals
An epic day of racing was given a fitting sountrack for its denouement. As a select group of riders ascended the Höttinger Höll climb – with a fearsome maximum gradient of 28% – the organisers of the 2018 UCI Road World Championships blared AC/DC’s Highway to Hell throughout Innsbruck. Almost seven hours after the men’s road race began on Sunday only a handful of contenders remained.
Ultimately it was the veteran Alejandro Valverde who found heaven. The Spaniard has contested the world championships 11 times since his debut in 2003. Twice he had secured silver medals, four times he claimed bronze. On his 12th attempt the 38-year-old gained the illustrious rainbow stripes. Valverde outsprinted France’s Romain Bardet, the Canadian Michael Woods and the Dutchman Tom Dumoulin into Innsbruck. His primal screams of celebration said it all.
Written by Kieran Pender in Innsbruck
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/sep/30/evergreen-alejandro-valverde-top-of-world under the title “Evergreen Alejandro Valverde triumphs in Road World Championships”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
