UCI Road World Championships 1968

The UCI Road World Championships 1968 were held on 31 August and 1 September for professional racers in women and Italian Imola instead. The Olympic disciplines , team time trials and amateur individual races reserved for amateurs were held on November 7th and 10th in Montevideo , Uruguay .

Racing action

Imola

84 starters took part in the professional race in Italy, of which only 19 made it to the finish. The rest had to pay tribute to the three “toxic climbs” (Boelsen) on the 277.3 kilometer route. A circuit of 15,406 kilometers was driven. The evening before the race, Jacques Anquetil had tried to set up an "anti- Merckx front". The planned special surveillance became unnecessary during the course of the race, as there were team -mates from Merckx in an eight-man breakaway group , including the later world champion Vittorio Adorni , whom Merckx let go because Adorni had enabled him to win the Giro d'Italia in 1968 . In the 13th lap, Adorni was able to pull away, drove a 75-kilometer solo and won with a lead of over nine minutes, the clearest lead at a World Cup since 1928 . For his victory he had to cope with an average speed of 38.9 km / h. Out of eight German starters, only Rudi Altig (12th) and Karl-Heinz Kunde (13th) crossed the finish line. In front of the home crowd, five Italian drivers placed in the top six.

The women had to complete eleven laps on a five-kilometer circuit and had to deal with scorching heat and gusty winds. The Dutch student Keetie van Oosten-Hage , who had won the bronze medal at the World Track Championships in the 3000 m pursuit a few days earlier , won the road world championship title in a sprint ahead of the Soviet driver Bajba Tsaune . Oosten-Hage had covered the 55.2-kilometer route at 36.8 km / ha. The GDR driver Hannelore Mattig fell 1000 meters from the goal, which she reached only 18th.

Montevideo

The amateur competitions in Montevideo were the first cycling world championships to be held in South America . There were practical reasons for separating the competitions: This solution was chosen because of the Olympic Games in Mexico in October and the associated long journey to Central America. The road race took place on the 20-kilometer Carrasco circuit , which was flat but very windy. 53 drivers from twelve nations started the individual race. The 24-year-old Italian Vittorio Marcelli won in the sprint with an hourly average of 40 km / h. He had previously finished third in the team time trial with the four-man from Italy. The Brazilian Luis Carlos Florès was vice world champion ahead of the Swedish team world champion Erik Pettersson .

The Swedish team with the four Pettersson brothers had won the world championship in team time trial for the second time after 1967. The Swiss team came in surprisingly second ahead of the Italians.

Neither East nor West German athletes competed in either competition. The GDR sports management had already withdrawn their road riders from the individual race at the Olympic Games, after which the road four had disappointingly only finished 13th. Because of the lack of German presence, there was only sparse World Cup coverage in the German media.

Results

Imola

September 1, women (55.2 km)

space	Athlete	country	time
1	Keetie van Oosten-Hage	NED	1:29:06 h
2	Bajba Tsaune	URS	?
3	Morena Tartagni	ITA	?
4th	Elsy Jacobs	LUX	all ?
5	Audrey McElmury	United States
6th	Thea Smulders	NED
7th	Nina Trofimova	URS
8th	Emilija Sonka	URS
9	Nicole Van Den Broeck	BEL
10	Lyuba Zadorozhnaya	URS
11	Anna Konkina	URS
12	Carla Bosio	ITA
13	Beryl Burton	GBR
14th	Bernadette Swinnerton	GBR
15th	Elisabetta Maffeis	ITA
16	Jacky Barbedette	FRA
17th	Maria Cressari	ITA
18th	Hannelore Mattig	GDR
19th	Hennie Faber-Hondeveld	NED
20th	Irma Jussila	FIN

September 1st, professionals (277.3 km)

space	athlete	country	time
1	Vittorio Adorni	ITA	7:27:39 h
2	Herman Van Springel	BEL	+ 09:50 min
3	Michele Dancelli	ITA	+ 10:18 min
4th	Franco Bitossi	ITA	all + 10:18 min
5	Vito Taccone	ITA
6th	Felice Gimondi	ITA
7th	Raymond Poulidor	FRA
8th	Eddy Merckx	BEL
9	Jean Jourden	FRA
10	Lucien Aimar	FRA
11	Jacques Anquetil	FRA
12	Rudi Altig	GER	+ 11:07 min
13	Karl-Heinz customer	GER	+ 12:05 min
14th	Gianni Motta	ITA	+ 12:07 min
15th	Rik Van Looy	BEL	+ 12:07 min
16	Joaquim Agostinho	POR	+ 15:25 min
17th	Johny Schleck	LUX	+ 18:10 min
18th	Harry Steevens	NED	+ 20:00 min
19th	Louis Pfenninger	SUI	+ 20:00 min

Montevideo

November 7th,
team time trial (95 km)

space	country	athlete	time
1	SWE	Erik Pettersson / Gösta Pettersson / Sture Pettersson / Tomas Pettersson	1:54:48 h
2	CHE	Bruno Hubschmid / Robert Thalmann / Walter Bürki / Erich Spahn	2:01:20 h
3	ITA	Vittorio Marcelli / Flavio Martini / Giovanni Bramucci / Benito Pigato	2:02:05 h

November 10, men:
amateur individual race (200.0 km)

space	athlete	country	time
1	Vittorio Marcelli	ITA	5:00:24 h
2	Luis Carlos Florès	BRA	5:00:24 h
3	Erik Pettersson	SWE	5:00:24 h
4th	Martin Rodriguez	COL	every 5:00:24 h
5	Mogens Frey	THE
6th	Flavio Martini	ITA
7th	Verner Blaudzun	THE
8th	Arturo Martinez	CHI
9	Constantino Conti	ITA
10	Giovanni Bramucci	ITA
0 ...

literature

• Helmer Boelsen : The history of the cycling world championship , Bielefeld 2007, p. 108, ISBN 978-3-936973-33-4
• Cycling , August / September / November 1968
• German sports echo , September / November 1968

See also

• UCI Track World Championships 1968