60th World Championship Road Race 1993

Brash American Rides Away to the Victory

The 1993 edition of the UCI World Championship Road Race was held in Oslo, Norway. The race course started and finished outside City Hall and consisted of 14 laps of 18.4 km with two climbs, the 4 km Ryenberg and the 2 km Ekeberg. 

Cold temperatures and drizzling rain greeted the riders at the start. The miserable weather conditions only got worse as the race proceeded. 

The wet roads were very slippery, the wet lines painted on the road created a ice skating rink effect. Numerous riders crashed as the rain got heavier. American Lance Armstrong crashed twice in the horrible conditions. Caution among the riders in the peloton was very evident.

Denmark’s Bjarne Riis spent most of the day in a long breakaway. He was caught and passed midway through the last lap.  Over the final climb Armstrong escaped the lead group. By the bottom of the descent Armstrong had a 20 second gap and eleven riders chased with 4.4 km to go. Mayhem in the chase group as riders started attacking each other solo instead of steadily chasing Armstrong. 

An inspired American pushed his pace and rode into the finishing area alone. Always a showman the brash young American rode down the finishing straight blowing kisses to the crowd. 

Lance Armstrong became only the second American to win the World Road Race Championships.

WCRR 1992

WCRR 1994

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