Cycling Road World Championships 2015: Day 8 Results, Times, Updated Schedule

Lizzie Armitstead and Felix Gall took the gold medals during Saturday's 2015 Cycling Road World Championships, winning the elite women and junior men's races, respectively. Both were too strong for their opponents in a sprint, racing in tough conditions that decimated the peloton.

The course in Richmond, Virginia, has proved itself to be too difficult for the strong sprint teams to survive, setting up power sprints between the favourites in each race, and Saturday's action was no different. With an eye on Sunday's elite men's race, the final of this year's championships, fans should expect a similar outcome.

Here are the results from Saturday's races:

#	Rider Name (Country) Country	Result
1	Felix Gall (Austria)	3:11:09
2	Clement Betouigt-Suire (France)	Same Time
3	Rasmus Pedersen (Denmark)	0:00:01
4	Reto Muller (Switzerland)	0:00:10
5	Martin Salomon (Germany)	Same Time
6	Nicola Conci (Italy)	Same Time
7	Mathias Norsgaard (Denmark)	0:00:13
8	Nathan Draper (Great Britain)	Same Time
9	Marc Hirschi (Switzerland)	Same Time
10	Pit Leyder (Luxembourg)	0:00:20

Recap

Armitstead put together an impressive showing to win the elite women's gold, launching several attacks in the final lap before dominating the sprint from the very start.

The race was incredibly nervy, with attacks taking place from the first lap to the very last. In the peloton, the team struggled containing the race, and with every passage of Libby Hill, it seemed as if a new group of leaders took charge.

With two laps to go, the Australian team managed to sneak away with two riders, and with their team-mates shutting down the pace in the peloton, the race exploded. Cycling writer Ned Boulting noticed all of the favourites seemed well-positioned:

The Dutch team led the chase in the peloton even though they had a rider in the break, and with the final climb of Libby Hill fast approaching, things were looking up for the leaders. But then the Italians moved to the front, along with Armitstead, who attacked on 23rd street.

The British star failed to create much of a gap, leading to a sprint with several top riders. Giorgia Bronzini is a specialist, but there was just no stopping Armitstead, who led out herself and simply overpowered her opponents.

In the junior men's race, Gall took the win ahead of France's Clement Betouigt-Suire, who chased the Austrian down toward the line but didn't have enough strength left to win the sprint.

A big group separated itself inside the final two laps, and similar to Friday's races, attacks started to rain on the three climbing sections of the course. Gall surprised the pack by timing his jump before Libby Hill, allowing him to climb solo in the gutter and avoid the cobbles, but while his lead seemed safe, he started to weave in the final kilometre.

As shared by Peloton Watch, a large group started making ground on the Australian youngster:

Nathan Draper impressed throughout the stage but couldn't keep up with Betouigt-Suire and Rasmus Pedersen, who closed the gap during the final straight and seemed destined to sprint for gold.

But the Frenchman lost sight of Gall, who recovered in time to take the win by less than a wheel, despite a fantastic jump from Betouigt-Suire. The UCI's official Twitter account shared the final sprint:

Pro rider Bernhard Eisel thinks bigger things are in store for his compatriot:

Adrien Costa, the silver-medal winner in the time-trial event, failed to live up to the expectations, finishing outside of the top 10. As reported by VeloNews, he told reporters he simply didn't have the legs:

"

I was trying to attack early to break things up. I wasn’t feeling super good all race: I think with the time trial I still wasn’t able to recover super well. I don’t know, I guess we had lots of bad luck with my teammates, I’m not sure what happened. I know Ethan [Reynolds] went down and there were mechanicals and stuff.

"

Solo finishes have dominated the bulk of the events so far, and Sunday's elite men's race should be no different. The final kilometres of the race are tailor-made for the bigger, more powerful riders who can charge the cobblestones, and expect the classics specialists to have a strong showing.

Sprinters like John Degenkolb or Alexander Kristoff have the build to do some serious damage on Libby Hill, but Peter Sagan has to be considered the favourite, given his ability as a power sprinter and on the cobbles. With the final straight rising ever so slightly, expect the Slovak to be at his best. 

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