Cycling-Denmark's Pedersen wins world road gold

Mads Pedersen won a brutal, rain-ravaged race to become Denmark's first road world champion on Sunday.

After an attritional 261km in diabolical weather conditions, the 23-year-old found himself in a three-man fight for gold and timed his sprint to perfection to beat Italian Matteo Trentin. Swiss Stefan Kung was third.

Dutch favorite Mathieu van der Poel looked poised for victory but faded late on. More than half of the field abandoned on a day of torrential rain that forced UCI Road World Championship organizers to shorten the race on safety grounds.