Tenth-place finish for Zberg in Lisbon
The world cycling championships in Lisbon, Portugal, reached a climax on Sunday with the 254-kilometre men's road race. Beat Zberg turned in the best Swiss performance of the day, finishing the race nine places behind Spain's Oscar Freire, who took the gold medal after a dramatic sprint finish.
Freire covered the gruelling course in a time of 6 hours, 7 minutes and 21 seconds, edging past both Italian rider Paolo Bettini, who took silver, and Andrej Hauptman of Slovenia, who finished third.
As the race went down to the wire, with a group of more than 40 riders funnelling into the final straight, Freire came up on the rail and weaved through to beat Bettini by less than a wheel’s length.
The first 45 riders out of 172 participants finished with the same time.
Zberg said he was not disappointed to have missed out on a podium position and was just delighted to have finished in the top 10.
“My form is excellent, and I am very satisfied with my overall performance,” Zberg said after the race.
Zberg’s Swiss compatriot, Niki Aebersold, finished ten places further behind in 20th position.
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