Scanlon battles to 20th as crash mars finish

DESPITE a ferocious last lap challenge Ireland’s Mark Scanlon had to settle for 20th place behind Francesco Chicchi of Italy in a spectacular finish to the men’s U-23 race at the world cycling championships in Zolder, Belgium, yesterday.

The Italian sprinted away from the carnage left by a crash that left a German rider seriously injured in the finishing straight to snatch the title from Hans Dekkers of Holland who appeared to have victory in his grasp with Francisco Guiterrez of Spain, who was involved in much of the earlier action, in the bronze medal position.

Afterwards the young German, the only rider not to get up from the debris after the crash, was removed to hospital on a drip as the other riders, including Mark Scanlon, were left wondering what might have been.