Great Britain fail to finish a single rider in men's Worlds
Froome: "It's a big disappointment"


Great Britain has become one of the strongest nations in Elite men's cycling in recent years and dominated the 2011 road race, with 168🍎澳洲5最新开奖结果:Mark Cavendish taking the rainbo🔯w jersey. Yet two years on, after back-to-back Tour de France victories, the team failed to finish a single rider in this year's 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:road race in Florence, Italy.
National coach Rod Ellin🔯gworth struggled to hide his embarrassment and anger and was not afraid to criticise the riders who failed to perform.
"All of them sitting on the bus with 100km of the race still to go is very disappointing," Ellingworth told Cyclingnews.
Mark Cavendish and Luke Rowe rode on tꦏhe front of the peloton for much of the 106km from Lucca to Florence but the rest o🍎f the team barely made an impact.
168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Bradley Wiggins 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:won a silver medal in the time trial and dominated the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Tour of Britain just a week ago but he struggled in the rain, b🅰ringing back the ghosts ๊of his Giro d'Italia descending problems.
168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Chris Froome was designated team leader for Great Britain after spending several weeks training at altitude in Colorado. 168澳洲5最🐭新开奖结果:He'd claimed he had an outside shot a medal but was quickly isolated and then was dropped from the front group after 170km. He quickly threw in the towel when he realised there was no way ﷺback ✱to the head of the race.
A total 61 riders finished the Elite men's road race but there were no Great Britain riders📖 amongst them.
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"It's a big disappointment, especially after trying so hard coming into it and making it a big objective," Froome said. "It would've been fantastic to finish off the season with a result here. Wit🐟h these condition, it wasn't to be."
Froome was critical of hi🐭s teammates' performances and of his own ride in the rain.
"I think the only two guys who actually did anything on the GB side, were Cav (Mark Cavendish) and Luke Rowe, who brought us to the circuit. They're the only ones who pulled their weigh🏅t today. Myself included. I wasn't able to do anything," he said.
"Once we reached the circuit, it got blown to pieces and we lost guys all over the place, with the crashes, punctures. Pretty soon there was only myself and Geraint Thomas. That's when I figured I was really going to have to fight for any position, being alone. I wasn't feeling great, my back was feeling blocke𝓰d up. 🎃I think being on the brakes, being nervous all day, made a lot of back pain."
Where was Wiggo?
Wiggins was only notable by his absence. He qui⛦ckly left the team bus, too, after climbing off.
When asked if Wigginꦫs had done a turn on the front, Froome said: "Not that I saw. I didn’t see what ha🍨ppened to Brad."
Other questions about Brad went unanswered.
Ellingworth played down suggestions that the road race marked a new low point in the fractious Wiggins-Froome relationship but he did not hold back when talking about his riders' performances. Only Caven❀dish and Rowe✨ were spared of criticism.
"I think Luke Rowe and Cav were ok, average. The other guys were well below average," Ellingworth told Cyclingnews.
"I'm sure Brad will be disapp🤪ointed with his performance. It's not he hasn’🔯t got the form. I think he had the same as in the Giro: he couldn't go down the hill. He went out the back on (the early climb of) San Baronto. The writing was on the wall then, to be honest.
"Chris sa💯id he struggled with the cold and rain but it's𓄧 the same for everyone. It's never going to be his strong point when the weather's like that but that's what makes the Worlds the race it is."

Stephen is one of the most experienced member of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. He has been Head of News at Cyclingnews since 2022, before which he held the position of European editor since 2012 and previously worked for Reuters, Shift Active Media, and CyclingWeekly, among other publications.