2018 UCI Road World Championships – Men's road race
The Men's road race of the 2018 UCI Road World Championships was a cycling event that took place on 30 September 2018 in Innsbruck, Austria. It was the 85th edition of the championship, and Slovakia's Peter Sagan was the three times defending champion, a record in the event. 188 riders from 44 nations entered the competition.
After previously winning six medals in the race without taking the gold medal, Spain's Alejandro Valverde took his first world title after a four-rider sprint finish decided the medals. Valverde went clear with a small group of riders on the steep Höttinger Höll climb, making headway on the descent with France's Romain Bardet and Canadian rider Michael Woods. Tom Dumoulin joined the trio on the run-in to the finish, but his efforts to do so resulted in him missing out on the medals, behind Bardet and Woods.
Valverde's victory was the first for Spain in the event since Óscar Freire won the title in Verona, Italy in 2004. France and Canada also ended long streaks without a medal in the event as Bardet's silver was the first medal for France since Anthony Geslin won the bronze medal in Madrid, Spain in 2005, while Woods won only the second medal for a Canadian male rider in the road race, after Steve Bauer's bronze medal at the 1984 race, also in Spain in Barcelona.
Course
The race started in Kufstein and headed south-west towards Innsbruck with a primarily rolling route, except for a climb of between Fritzens and Gnadenwald – as had been in the time trial events earlier in the week – with an average 7.1% gradient and maximum of 14% in places. After, the riders crossed the finish line for the first time, before starting six laps of a circuit in length. The circuit contained a climb of, at an average gradient of 5.9% but reaching 10% in places, from the outskirts of Innsbruck through Aldrans and Lans towards Igls. After a short period of flat roads, the race descended through Igls back towards Innsbruck.On the seventh and final lap, the race continued onto a further loop of just over at Hötting, with the -long Höttinger Höll climb towards Gramartboden starting almost immediately. The climb featured an average gradient of 11.5%, with a portion of the climb reaching 28% around two-thirds up. Upon reaching the top, the race descended through Hungerburg back towards rejoining the original circuit with around to go and heading towards the finish line in front of the Tyrolean State Theatre. In total, the race featured of climbing.
Qualification
Qualification was based mainly on the UCI World Ranking by nations as of 12 August 2018. The first ten nations in this classification qualified eight riders to start, the next ten nations qualified six riders to start, with the nations ranked 21st to 30th qualifying five riders to start. One rider from each of the next twenty nations was also qualified to start. In addition to this number, any rider within the top 200 of the UCI World Ranking by individuals that was not already qualified, the outgoing World Champion and the current continental champions were also able to take part.UCI World Rankings
The following nations qualified.Continental champions
Participating nations
188 cyclists from 44 nations were entered in the men's road race. The number of cyclists per nation is shown in parentheses.Results
Final classification
Of the race's 188 entrants, 76 riders completed the full distance of.| Rank | Rider | Country | Time |
| 1 | Alejandro Valverde | 6h 46' 41" | |
| 2 | Romain Bardet | + 0" | |
| 3 | Michael Woods | + 0" | |
| 4 | Tom Dumoulin | + 0" | |
| 5 | Gianni Moscon | + 13" | |
| 6 | Roman Kreuziger | + 43" | |
| 7 | Michael Valgren | + 43" | |
| 8 | Julian Alaphilippe | + 43" | |
| 9 | Thibaut Pinot | + 43" | |
| 10 | Rui Costa | + 43" | |
| 11 | Ion Izagirre | + 43" | |
| 12 | Bauke Mollema | + 49" | |
| 13 | Mikel Nieve | + 52" | |
| 14 | Sam Oomen | + 1' 21" | |
| 15 | Nairo Quintana | + 1' 21" | |
| 16 | Peter Kennaugh | + 1' 21" | |
| 17 | Jan Hirt | + 1' 21" | |
| 18 | George Bennett | + 1' 21" | |
| 19 | Jack Haig | + 1' 21" | |
| 20 | Jakob Fuglsang | + 1' 21" | |
| 21 | Domenico Pozzovivo | + 1' 21" | |
| 22 | Andrey Zeits | + 1' 21" | |
| 23 | Ben Hermans | + 1' 32" | |
| 24 | Simon Geschke | + 1' 54" | |
| 25 | Sergey Chernetskiy | + 2' 00" | |
| 26 | Mathias Frank | + 2' 10" | |
| 27 | Steven Kruijswijk | + 2' 10" | |
| 28 | Antwan Tolhoek | + 2' 10" | |
| 29 | Dylan Teuns | + 2' 10" | |
| 30 | Odd Christian Eiking | + 2' 42" | |
| 31 | Rudy Molard | + 2' 42" | |
| 32 | Sébastien Reichenbach | + 2' 42" | |
| 33 | Rigoberto Urán | + 2' 57" | |
| 34 | Primož Roglič | + 4' 00" | |
| 35 | Rafał Majka | + 4' 00" | |
| 36 | Alexey Lutsenko | + 4' 00" | |
| 37 | Adam Yates | + 4' 00" | |
| 38 | Wilco Kelderman | + 4' 00" | |
| 39 | Nelson Oliveira | + 5' 00" | |
| 40 | Alessandro De Marchi | + 5' 05" | |
| 41 | Merhawi Kudus | + 5' 44" | |
| 42 | Xandro Meurisse | + 5' 44" | |
| 43 | Vegard Stake Laengen | + 5' 44" | |
| 44 | David de la Cruz | + 5' 56" | |
| 45 | Michael Gogl | + 5' 56" | |
| 46 | Emanuel Buchmann | + 5' 56" | |
| 47 | Pavel Sivakov | + 6' 00" | |
| 48 | Sergio Henao | + 6' 02" | |
| 49 | Vincenzo Nibali | + 6' 02" | |
| 50 | Greg Van Avermaet | + 8' 08" | |
| 51 | Pavel Kochetkov | + 8' 08" | |
| 52 | Kasper Asgreen | + 10' 22" | |
| 53 | Franco Pellizotti | + 10' 33" | |
| 54 | Carl Fredrik Hagen | + 12' 24" | |
| 55 | Emil Vinjebo | + 12' 57" | |
| 56 | Łukasz Owsian | + 13' 05" | |
| 57 | Ilnur Zakarin | + 13' 05" | |
| 58 | Tony Gallopin | + 13' 05" | |
| 59 | Patrick Konrad | + 13' 05" | |
| 60 | Steve Morabito | + 13' 05" | |
| 61 | Jesús Herrada | + 13' 09" | |
| 62 | Toms Skujiņš | + 13' 13" | |
| 63 | Brent Bookwalter | + 14' 23" | |
| 64 | Damiano Caruso | + 14' 23" | |
| 65 | Dario Cataldo | + 14' 23" | |
| 66 | Hugh Carthy | + 14' 23" | |
| 67 | Nicolas Roche | + 14' 23" | |
| 68 | Tim Wellens | + 14' 23" | |
| 69 | Pieter Weening | + 14' 23" | |
| 70 | Rob Power | + 14' 23" | |
| 71 | Richard Carapaz | + 14' 48" | |
| 72 | Ben King | + 15' 57" | |
| 73 | Eduardo Sepúlveda | + 16' 51" | |
| 74 | Nico Denz | + 18' 17" | |
| 75 | Gianluca Brambilla | + 19' 35" | |
| 76 | Rob Britton | + 19' 37" |
Failed to finish
112 riders failed to finish.| Rider | Country |
| Enric Mas | |
| Simon Clarke | |
| Omar Fraile | |
| Jonathan Castroviejo | |
| Jacques Janse van Rensburg | |
| Tanel Kangert | |
| Michał Kwiatkowski | |
| Wout Poels | |
| Jesper Hansen | |
| Markus Hoelgaard | |
| Peter Stetina | |
| Kilian Frankiny | |
| Andriy Hrivko | |
| Ildar Arslanov | |
| Marcus Burghardt | |
| Dan Martin | |
| Bob Jungels | |
| Ilia Koshevoy | |
| Tobias Ludvigsson | |
| Karel Hník | |
| Tao Geoghegan Hart | |
| Damien Howson | |
| Nick Schultz | |
| Matej Mohorič | |
| Simon Yates | |
| Simon Špilak | |
| Jan Polanc | |
| Zdeněk Štybar | |
| Felix Großschartner | |
| Sepp Kuss | |
| Patrick Schelling | |
| Maximilian Schachmann | |
| Amanuel Gebrezgabihier | |
| Alexandr Riabushenko | |
| Daniil Fominykh | |
| Michael Schär | |
| Miguel Ángel López | |
| Ruben Guerreiro |
| Rider | Country |
| Paul Martens | |
| Michał Gołaś | |
| Chris Hamilton | |
| Edvald Boasson Hagen | |
| Winner Anacona | |
| Conor Dunne | |
| Hideto Nakane | |
| Ryan Mullen | |
| Laurens De Plus | |
| Jhonatan Narváez | |
| Tsgabu Grmay | |
| Gregor Mühlberger | |
| James Knox | |
| Connor Swift | |
| Tiago Machado | |
| Antoine Duchesne | |
| Josef Černý | |
| Anthony Roux | |
| Alexandre Geniez | |
| Ben Gastauer | |
| Rory Sutherland | |
| Mads Würtz Schmidt | |
| Laurent Didier | |
| Grega Bole | |
| Jan Tratnik | |
| Lukas Pöstlberger | |
| Georg Preidler | |
| Maciej Bodnar | |
| Maciej Paterski | |
| Patrick Bevin | |
| Peter Sagan | |
| Nikita Stalnov | |
| Rohan Dennis | |
| Serge Pauwels | |
| Dion Smith | |
| Sebastián Henao | |
| Daniel Felipe Martínez |
| Rider | Country |
| Tiesj Benoot | |
| Josip Rumac | |
| Matti Breschel | |
| Nicholas Dlamini | |
| Dmitry Strakhov | |
| Rodrigo Contreras | |
| Sven Erik Bystrøm | |
| Martin Haring | |
| Tom Wirtgen | |
| Juraj Sagan | |
| Patrik Tybor | |
| Michael Kukrle | |
| Marek Čanecký | |
| Krists Neilands | |
| Ian Stannard | |
| Jempy Drucker | |
| Román Villalobos | |
| Andrii Bratashchuk | |
| Warren Barguil | |
| Domen Novak | |
| Hugo Houle | |
| Vasil Kiryienka | |
| Luka Pibernik | |
| Rein Taaramäe | |
| Ignatas Konovalovas | |
| Yauhen Sobal | |
| Niklas Eg | |
| Erik Baška | |
| Martin Mahďar | |
| Esmail Chaichi | |
| Sam Bewley | |
| Serghei Țvetcov | |
| Alex Kirsch | |
| Stylianos Farantakis | |
| Norman Vahtra | |
| Ho San Chiu | |
| Nícolas Sessler |