It was a double dose of disappointment Saturday for the American U-23 men's team in the 168km world championships as Ukraine's Dmytro Grabovskyy soloed to an impressive victory. The motivated five-man team missed an early breakaway in the second of eight laps and then American captain Tyler Farrar crashed out in a high-speed pileup in the final kilometers. U.S. team doctor Eric Heiden reported Farrar had some "pretty bad road rash," but no broken bones, but the disappointment was obvious when teammate John Murphy led the Americans across the line 119th some 11 minutes down. "We were all working for Tyler, but we just missed that break so we had to pull all day," said Murphy in his world's debut. "I chased until the last climb and that front group was caught." The Americans were hoping to position Farrar for a sprint victory, but no one could match Grabovskyy's impressive strength as he counter-attacked out with about 8km to go just as the main bunch was zeroing on the leaders. "I was very angry about not winning the time trial," said Grabovskyy, who finished second in Wednesday's race. "I used that anger to make up for that disappointment. Now I will be able to wear the rainbow jersey all year." Just as Farrar had predicted, the U-23 race was a highly unpredictable affair. With only five-man teams and a wide range of experience among the racers, it was almost impossible to control the pace. It was nervous from the start as "riders were trying to show off," said Murphy. A break of about 15 riders slipped away, forcing the peloton to put on the chase early in the race. Sensing they might have missed the day's winning move, Grabovskyy and Italian Tiziano Dall'Antonio worked together to bridge out in the fourth lap. The Americans got some help from the Danes as they upped chase with three laps to go. The brutal pace split the peloton, but Farrar was safely tucked in the main bunch at 1:20 back. With fewer than two laps to go and the gap dropping below one minute, Dall'Antonio again took the initiative with a solo attack, but Grabovskyy wouldn't let him slip away. Other riders were bridging up, including Australian William Walker, but the day's uneven pace was taking its tolls on the escapees and the effort looked doomed. On the bell lap, the gap was down was cut to about 20 seconds coming into the final climb with 7km to go. Grabovskyy turned on the after-burners just as the peloton was barreling down on the remnants of the front group and chased the rainbow jersey on his own. Walker followed the chasing Russian Evgeny Popov, but couldn't trim the difference to the lanky Ukraine. "I could sense the break was getting tired and the main bunch was going to come back, so I decided to attack and it paid off," said Walker, a 19-year-old who rides on Rabobank's development team. "It's a pity there was another guy out there, because I would have been world champion." That other "guy" was Grabovskyy, who used his excellent time trialing skills to solo in for victory 26 seconds ahead of the sprinting Walker and Popov. Carlo Westphal (Germany) took fourth at 33 seconds and Christopher Sutton (Australia) was fifth to lead the main bunch across the line at 34 seconds. Steven Cozza was 131st and Michael Wolf was 134th, both at 19:39 back.

World Under-23 men’s world championship
Madrid, Spain, September 24, 2005
1. Dmytro Grabovskyy (Ukr), 168km in 3:56:23. (42.643 kph)
2. William Walker (Aus), 0:26
3. Evgeny Popov (Rus), 0:26
4. Carlo Westphal (G), 0:33
5. Chris Sutton (Aus), 0:34
6. Tiziano Dall'Antonia (I), 0:34
7. Gianni Meersman (B), 0:34
8. Steve Morabito (Swi), 0:34
9. Philip Deignan (Irl), 0:34
10. Pieter Jacobs (B), 0:34
11. Lars Boom (Nl), 0:34
12. Anton Reshetnikov (Rus), 0:34
13. Stephane Poulhies (F), 0:34
14. Mark Cavendish (GB), 0:34
15. Nic Ingels (B), 0:34
16. Martin Pedersen (Dk), 0:34
17. Gerald Ciolek (G), 0:34
18. Ignacio Sarabia (Mex), 0:34
19. Rafai Chtioui (Tun), 0:34
20. Filipe Cardoso (P), 0:34