UCI Road World Championships 1978

The 1978 UCI Road World Championships took place on August 23, 26 and 27. The individual races for professionals and amateurs were held on the Nürburgring in the Eifel and the race for women and the team time trial on a circuit in Brauweiler near Cologne .

From the point of view of the German hosts, the most gratifying result was the win of the title of road world champion by the 17-year-old Brauweiler Beate Habetz , who had also finished fourth in the sprint and sixth in the single pursuit at the track world championships that had ended a few days earlier . She benefited from a duel between the strong Dutch and Italian drivers and won the race in her hometown in a sprint.

Among the professional drivers, the German fans were hoping for Dietrich Thurau , who had a successful year in 1977 but only finished 14th at the Nürburgring because he lost a lot of time on the penultimate lap due to a defect. Pouring rain and the difficult course ensured that at half time of the 112 drivers who had started, only half were still there. The decision between the first two winners, Francesco Moser and Gerrie Knetemann, was so tight that Moser initially felt himself to be the winner and only a photo of the finish brought clarity.

The success of Beate Habetz on the morning of the same day ensured that over 50,000 spectators attended the team time trial, more than ever before. A total of 27 teams started where a victory for the Soviet team was expected, but which only achieved second place behind the Netherlands. Third place went to the Swiss team, from whose ranks the drivers Gilbert Glaus and Stefan Mutter won gold and bronze in the amateurs' individual races three days later . The best German in the amateurs race was Uwe Bolten in 39th place.

Results

Women

Single road race over 46.482 km (3 laps of 70.5 km)

space	Athlete	country	time
1	Beate Habetz	GER	1:45:02 h (40.272 km / h)
2	Keetie van Oosten-Hage	NED	same time
3	Emanuella Lorenzon	ITA	same time

Men (professionals)

Individual road race over 273.6 km (12 laps of 22.8 km)

space	athlete	country	time
1	Gerrie Knetemann	NED	7:32:04 h (36.329 km / h)
2	Francesco Moser	ITA	same time
3	Jørgen Marcussen	THE	+ 0:20 min

Men (amateurs)

Individual road race over 182.480 km (8 laps of 22.8 km)

space	athlete	country	time
1	Gilbert Glaus	CHE	4:41:47 h (38.855 km / h)
2	Krzysztof Sujka	POLE
3	Stefan's mother	CHE

Team time trial over 100 km

space	country	Athletes	time
1	NED	Bert Oosterbosch / Jan van Houwelingen / August Bierings / Bart van Est	1:59:51 h (49.161 km / h)
2	URS	Aavo Pikkuus / Wladimir Kaminski / Algimantas Guzevičius / Wladimir Kuznetsov	2:01:00 h
3	CHE	Gilbert Glaus / Stefan Mutter / Richard Trinkler / Kurt Ehrensperger	2:01:29 h

literature

• Helmer Boelsen : The history of the cycling world championship , Bielefeld 2007, ISBN 978-3-936973-33-4
• Werner Ruttkus / Wolfgang Schoppe : In the shine and shadow of the rainbow. Self-published, 2005, ISBN 3-00-005315-8
• Christian Schrange / Hans-Alfred Roth : Rad-WM '78 , Emmendingen 1978

See also

UCI Track World Championships 1978