Freire regains crown

Freire's rivals have no answer to his finish

An audacious finish by Oscar Freire has secured the Spaniard's second world road-race title.

Freire cheekily raced up the inside of a bunch sprint to finish first at the World Road Cycling Championships in Lisbon on Sunday.

The Spaniard first won the crown in 1999 but could only finish third at last year's championships.

He beat Italy's Paolo Bettini into second place, while Andrej Hauptman of Slovenia came third.

A number of big names, including time-trial winner Jan Ullrich and France's Richard Virenque, arrived metres behind the front runners with the main pack.

Ullrich's hopes of a second win were dashed

British rider David Millar dropped out of the race after just eight of the 21 laps.

The closing stages of the race featured numerous attempts by Italian and Belgian riders to break clear.

But even on the last lap the race was still wide open.

The most significant move came from Tour of Italy champion Gilberto Simoni who raced off near the end of the last lap.

Jostling

Simoni was to pay for the mistiming of his final burst when he was reeled in with only two kilometres to go.

As the finish line approached the leading group of riders began jostling for position.

Germany's Ullrich was in prime position and was expected to burst through at the last minute.

But he seemed to run out of steam and his determination waned as he was left trailing.

Bettini took the lead with only metres to the line, but 25-year-old Freire waited before pulling up the inside and stealing victory.

He said: "It reminded me of the Gijon stage finish in the Vuelta, where I was boxed in. But in the end I found a bit of a gap."

Freire drop out of last month's Vuelta (Tour of Spain) to prepare for the championships.

Sunday's win was a welcome return to form after a lacklustre season in which he was plagued with back trouble.

"At the beginning of the season, I couldn't sit down to eat without being in pain," he said. "But I recovered slowly and when I rode the Vuelta, I knew I was back in shape."

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Men's elite event over 251.4 kms

1. Oscar Freire Gomez (Spa) 6hr 7min 21sec
2. Paolo Bettini (Ita)
3. Andrej Hauptman (Slo)
4. Erik Dekker (Ned)
5. Erik Zabel (Ger)
6. Piotr Wadecki (Pol)
7. Giuliano Figueras (Ita)
8. Guennadi Mikhailov (Rus)
9. Tomas Konecny (Cze)
10. Beat Zberg (Swi)
11. Michele Bartoli (Ita)
12. Paolo Lanfranchi (Ita)
13. Jan Ullrich (Ger)
14. Faat Zakirov (Rus)
15. Arkadiusz Wojtas (Pol)
16. Zbigniew Piatek (Pol)
17. Dave Bruylandts (Bel)
18. Niklas Axelsson (Swe)
19. Alexandre Botcharov (Rus)
20. Niki Aebersold (Swi) all the same time