Robbie McEwen and Stuart O'Grady came agonisingly close to putting two Australians on the podium in the road race at the 2006 road cycling World Championships in Salzburg, Austria, but a moment's hesitation by a rival cyclist and a blocking tactic by the Spaniards in the final run to the line saw the pair instead finish fifth and sixth.

The gold medal went to reigning Olympic Champion, Italy's Paolo Bettini, 32, who mowed down Tour de France sprint legend Erik Zabel (GER), 36, to claim his first rainbow jersey in a time of 6hr15min36sec. Spain's Alejandro Valverde, 26, crossed the line in third.

The race headed into the final sharp right hand corner less than a kilometre from the finish for what looked like a bunch sprint featuring all the main players but Zabel launched a daring surprise move on the inside of the corner.

"A Swiss guy had set his line going into the corner and Zabel came underneath him and surprised him and he tried to adjust his line and ended up losing a length," explained McEwen.

"Then he hesitated and suddenly (the gap was) 50 metres...and I'm looking at the guys riding away with the world title.

"It's a shame because I won the sprint of the group easily and I could see the World Title just up the street," said McEwen.

"We did a great race as a team and I rode exactly how I wanted to but that's racing."

"I think we (Australia) rode a really good race and Robbie and I were both perched perfectly in position and the next minute somebody let the wheel go and that was that," said a shattered O'Grady.

"You can't do much when guys let the wheel go in front of you. It's a real bummer."

Bettini was in a better position to react jumping on Zabel's wheel as Spaniard Xavier Cabre Florencio hit the brakes giving teammates Valverde, the runner up in 2003 and 2005, and his lead out man Samuel Gonzalez Sanchez the space to follow through.

"The Spaniards did a great move splitting the race which was a perfectly legal tactic and if we had done it we'd be 'high fiving' each other but unfortunately they caused the split that meant we couldn't win and then they basically ran last (fourth) and second last (third) in that little group so it didn't really work out for them either," said Cycling Australia Pro Rider Co-ordinator, Neil Stephens.

Stephens had nothing but praise for the work of the team during the race.

"Everyone did more than was expected. The leader of the team on the day was Stuey (O'Grady) and he did everything right riding a really aggressive race," Stephens explained.

"Then at the end Stuey recognised that he had played all his cards and that the fastest guy in a bunch kick would be Robbie (McEwen) so he switched roles to set up the most perfect scenario for us - one of the fastest riders in the world leading out arguably THE fastest rider in the world.

"That combination, without the split in the race, would have seen Australia first and second across the line but it didn't work out that way and we're all obviously pretty upset."

The Australian team had ridden the perfect race and the disappointment was tangible as McEwen and O'Grady commiserated with each other immediately after the race which began with an early breakaway of around a dozen riders.

"That early break looked dangerous but we figured the Belgians didn't have one of their protected riders up there and neither did the Italians or the Spanish so we just played it cool and let the other teams do it (chase it down)," explained McEwen.

"The Swiss and Austrians started to bring it back and before it was caught the Italians started attacking. "We kept our cool though and followed the breaks with Stuey, myself and Michael Rogers," McEwen said.

"The other guys did a great job keeping us out of the wind so it's disappointing when it splits, not because they were stronger but because it just split.

"That's racing and we'll get over it," said McEwen adding that Australia was right to have high expectations of the team today.

"If we had a tiny bit of luck today I'd be standing on the podium in the World Champion's jersey but we can be satisfied with how we rode."

Of the other Australians in the race Cadel Evans finished with the main bunch in 40th place, Michael Rogers was in the next group in 50th, Simon Gerrans was 6min19sec down in 89th place and Matthew Hayman was with the same group in 100th place while Matthew White, Nick Gates and Bradley McGee did not finish the race, pulling out after their respective jobs for the team were done.

Cycling Australia