Bauke Mollema emerged as the strongest of the many Dutch climbers in today's world championships road race when the he made it to the finish with the 11-rider chase group that sprinted for 6th place. In what he described as one of his hardest races ever, the Belkin rider was completely satisfied with his 11th place.

With the world championships road race being held on a very hard course, the Netherlands had one of their best chances in recent years to come away with a medal. The country lined up a very strong team of climbers with Bauke Mollema and Robert Gesink expected to fly the flag at the pointy end of the race.

Prior to the race Gesink had told CyclingQuotes that he expected a race of attrition that would suit the pure climbers. That assessment proved to be correct but when it all was set to be decided on the final lap from an elite selection, Gesink had already disappeared from the front.

Instead, it was his Belkin teammate Mollema who fought to put his country in the spotlight. The recent Vuelta stage winner did his maximum to stay with the best on the final ascent of the Fiesole but ultimately had to settle for 11th.

The race was marred by torrential rain and many crashes, and Mollema didn't escape the carnage. The brutal conditions made it an epic race that wore down the Dutch leader before the finale.

"It was a really hard race," he told CyclingQuotes after the race. "It was maybe one of the hardest races I ever did: the distance, the rain, the crashes... I also crashed early in the race. I didn't feel so good after that. but I started to feel better towards the end. This was the maximum to hope for today."

The Netherlands lined up a powerful squad but never featured much in the spotlight. At some point, Wilco Kelderman tried to bridge across to the early break but otherwise the team stayed calm in the peloton.

With the major teams like Italy, Spain and Colombia expected to take the initiative, that strategy was planned beforehand.

"That was the plan," Mollema said. "If I was good enough, I wanted to follow the best riders on the last climb. I was just a few places behind. It was a pity but they were just too strong for me today. I am absolutely satisfied with this."

Italy tried to make the race hard when the peloton hit the circuit but after a few laps, the pace seemed to slow down. From an outside perspective, the race appeared to be getting easier at that point but Mollema refused that suggestion.

"After a while the peloton wasn't so big anymore because of the crashes and the hard pace on the first laps," he said. "That made it a little bit less stressful in the peloton. It was okay for everybody but on each lap it was still a fight to stay in front before the descent. There were always gaps and it was always hard to come back and stay in front."

Mollema has had a fantastic season with a good Ardennes campaign being followed by a 2nd place and stage win in the Tour de Suisse and a 6th place in the Tour de France. He appeared to be fatigued in the Vuelta but nonetheless managed to win a stage.

With today's race, his season has almost come to an end and he will  round things off next week in Il Lombardia where he hopes to improve on last year's 7th place.