On the first day of the road races at the world championships in Zolder, Belgium on Friday, things played out the way they were anticipated, with cold, overcast weather and races that boiled down to field sprint finishes. In the under-23 men's race, things worked out perfectly for Italian Francesco Chicchi, who came out of no-man's land to pull off the sprint win on the Circuit Zolder auto racetrack.

Chicchi stayed in front of an ugly pileup with 250 meters to go, and then came from six spots back, swooped across the road from right to left, and then came around Dutchman Hans Dekkers at the line to capture Italy's second gold medal of these championships.

Leading up to the sprint finish, the Zolder course, in and around the Circuit Zolder track, delivered on its promise to be fast and tailored to the sprinters. Despite the presence of two short hills in the second half of the circuit, there was little in the way of opportunity for anyone trying to escape the peloton.

"It's very easy pavement, there's not a whole lot of wind, and there wasn't a point where it was in the gutter for a long period of time," said American Shawne Milne, who was the U.S. team's best hope in a sprint finish but got slowed by the crash.

Still, people tried to get away, beginning just 100 meters into the race when Sweden's Jonas Olsson attacked with the full 166km ahead of him. His move set off a number of chasers, and he was eventually joined by two groups after being away solo for a full two laps.

First, Spaniard Jorge Garcia, Frenchman Arnaud Coyot and German Christian Knees latched onto Olsson at the beginning of lap 3 of 13. Then, one lap later three more joined up ¯ Australian Gene Bates, Russian Andrey Pchelkin and Spaniard Unai Elorriaga ¯ while the gap to the main field was held at about 35 seconds.

Despite no organized chase behind, the gap would hold steady over the next lap, but then on lap 5, with about 110km remaining to race, the Irish team went to the front and closed down the break in quick order.

And after that, the pattern of the race began to take shape: a brief attack, a counter, a small group materializing but then eventually fizzling out without much effort by the peloton. With the race flying along on the fast Zolder course at an average of 45 kph, any attack was pretty much doomed.

Creed

Photo: Graham Watson

"There just wasn't much you could do today," said American Michael Creed.

The one attack that mattered, however, set up Chicchi perfectly. On the last trip up the short Sterrenwacht hill, just 3km from the finish, Italian Antonio Bucciero broke clear of the field. Although he too was destined to fail, the move allowed Chicchi and the other Italians to sit back and watch until Bucciero was caught in the final kilometer, on the auto racetrack.

Then, in the final 250 meters, a bad crash near the front took down several riders, and took the majority of the peloton out of contention. Dekkers would eventually be disqualified for an irregular sprint, and relegated to last place in the peloton.

The crash, however, cleared a bit of room for Chicchi. Stuck back in about sixth, the Italian otherwise seemed to be out of options. "At 300 meters, I had no idea if it was possible to go ¯ left, right, left, right," he said. "But then I saw there was a little possibility on the left, so I went."

The Italian dove across the road from right to left and around four other riders and then charged to the line for the win. Spaniard Francisco Gutierrez took second spot after Dekkers was relegated, while Swiss David Loosli took third.

So, with two races down, the Zolder course has lived up to its expectations. And the junior men, women and pro sprinters are licking their chops.