Evenepoel attacks to win World Championships road race

Belgium's Remco Evenepoel stormed to a World Championship title on Sunday with a spectacular attack to claim his first rainbow jersey down under

The 22-year-old finished over 2 minutes ahead of a charging peloton where Frenchman Christophe Laporte won the bunch sprint ahead or Michael Matthews and Wout van Aert after 266 kms around the coastal city of Wollongong, near Sydney.

Dutch professional Mathieu van der Poel abandoned the race after he was arrested and charged with common assault late Saturday following an alleged altercation with two teenage girls.

Defending world champion Julian Alaphilippe finished 51st while Slovenian two-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar came 19th.

"After a long season it's amazing to finish like this," said Evenepoel to the press, "I'm super-happy I had the legs today, it's something I've been dreaming of."

Evenepoel launched a huge attack with around 35 kilometres to go, only Alexey Lutsenko could follow, he attacked again with nine kilometres to go and dropped the Kazakh. 

He built up a 1 utemin lead on the final 17km lap and time trialled to the finish to become the first Belgium winner since Philippe Gilbert back in 2012.

Remco Evenepoel has had a stellar season, winning the Vuelta a Espana and Liege-Bastogne-Liege.

VIDEO: 2022 UCI World Championships Elite Men's Road Race Highlights

2022 UCI World Championships Elite Men's Road Race

01 BEL Remco Evenepoel Belgium 06:16:08
02 FRA Christophe Laporte France + 02:21
03 AUS Michael Matthews Australia + 02:21
04 BEL Wout van Aert Belgium + 02:21
05 ITA Matteo Trentin Italy + 02:21
06 NOR Alexander Kristoff Norway + 02:21
07 SVK Peter Sagan Slovakia + 02:21
08 ITA Alberto Bettiol Italy + 02:21
09 GBR Ethan Hayter Great Britain + 02:21
10 DEN Mattias Skjelmose Jensen Denmark + 02:21