Rui Costa won Portugal’s first ever gold medal in the Elite Men’s World Road Championship as he displayed all his tactical cunning and proved to be the smartest in a final group of four on the undulating circuit around Florence, Italy.

Despite the presence of Spanish duo Rodriguez and Valverde and that of home crowd favourite Vincenzo Nibali (Italy), Rui Costa remained cool and wisely waited until the last kilometre to make his move.

Bridging a gap to Spain’s Joaquím Rodríguez, who had launched a solo attack on the final ascent of the day, the Portuguese managed to make contact with approximately 500 metres to go and subsequently he won the sprint.

16 seconds later, Valverde took his 5th medal at a world championship race by easily seeing off Vincenzo Nibali who had spent huge amounts of energy reserves earlier on following a crash.

Almost as soon as the flag dropped, NetApp-Endura teammates Bartosz Huzarski of Poland and Jan Barta of the Czech Republic, Matthias Brändle of Austria, Yonder Godoy of Venezuela, and Rafaâ Chtioui of Tunisia broke clear in a predictable, early breakaway attempt and they were allowed to get away.

Great Britain was setting the early pace at the front of the bunch, with 2011 champion Mark Cavendish and Luke Rowe doing the lion’s share of the work but allowing the quintet to open their lead.

A series of big names, including former Olympic champion Samuel Sánchez of Spain, Polish champion Michal Kwiatkowski, Americans Tejay van Garderen, Taylor Phinney and Vuelta a España winner Chris Horner, Irishmen Matt Brammeier and Nicolas Roche, Great Britain’s time trial silver medallist Bradley Wiggins and Dane Matti Breschel, dropped out at an early stage of the race, but a majority of the favourites for the rainbow jersey were still present, however. The weather was beginning to make its presence felt at this stage as torrential showers turned the newly laid tarmac into a slippery slope, and former Tour de France winner Alberto Contador was one of the casualties. He was able to get back in the bunch, however, despite a crash.

Eventually the rain stopped and the sun began to come out. The roads were still very wet, however, with the new tarmac and an abundance of white lines still very slippery and traitorous.

Disaster befell the Italian team as a crash brought down a string of riders, including Luca Paolini and team leader Vincenzo Nibali. Nibali eventually remounted, but the peloton was a long way ahead by that time.

Nibali would eventually find his way back to the front of the 39-strong peloton but he had used a lot of energy to get there. At the closing stage of the race, he would pay dearly for his efforts.

Jan Polanc of Slovenia tried to attack under the flamme rouge, but was just a few metres clear as he crossed the line with just 16.5km to go. There were still 45 riders left in the front group as it headed towards Fiesole for the last time.

Spain’s Jonathan Castroviejo took the lead towards the climb, with the Italians and Kazakhs lurking in his shadows. Visconti then took over again, with Scarponi on his wheel, as the group took on the gentler lower slopes. Denmark’s Chris Anker Sørensen then pushed his way up to the front, with teammate Jakob Fuglsang on his wheel, and lifted the pace even higher, going all out to help his compatriot.

An ominous presence could be seen in fifth or sixth position in the shape of Slovakia’s Peter Sagan.

Perhaps realising this Scarponi accelerated from fifth wheel and obliged the rest to follow him. Spain’s Joaquím Rodríguez was the first to reply, with Carlos Betancur of Colombia on his wheel. Nibali swiftly made it across to the group, along with Portugal’s Rui Costa, Colombia’s Rigoberto Urán, Norway’s Lars Petter Nordhaug and Rodríguez’ teammate Alejandro Valverde

Nibali launched an assault close to the summit, and was joined by Rodríguez. The two of them were five seconds ahead of the rest of the group as they crested the top, with the rest of the favourites scattered all over the circuit in their wake.

On the fast descent, Urán’s front wheel slid off the road as he, Valverde and Costa were closing in on the two leaders and the Colombian crashed spectacularly onto the lush bank. The Olympic silver medallist was unhurt, but his race was effectively a thing of the past.

Rodríguez had moved away up ahead, as Valverde and Costa made it up to Nibali, and was a few seconds clear on the run in to Via Saliati. Valverde was sat behind Nibali, with his compatriot up the road, with Costa calmly behind the two of them.

Nibali was compelled to lead the chase all the way up the short, steep climb, but was still four seconds behind over the top. The Italian continued all the way down the descent, and managed to catch the Spanish rider with less than four kilometres to go, and directly hit the front instead of easing up a bit.

After sitting in for a moment, Rodríguez attacked again, with Nibali forced to chase again, while Costa was still calmly watching the events from the back of the four-man line.

Rodríguez was still dangling off the front of the group as they entered the final two kilometres as Nibali sat up and looked to the others. Costa then counterattacked and began to fight his way across the gap to the Spanish rider.

Under the flamme rouge the Spanish rider was still a few metres clear, but the Portuguese rider was gradually closing. Catching him with just 500 metres left the two riders began to freewheel as they looked to one another.

Finally, with 150 metres to go Costa opened up his sprint, but Rodríguez refused to be budged. As the line approached the Spaniard pulled alongside Costa, but the Portuguese rider had more left in the tank and squeezed ahead to succeed Philippe Gilbert as owner of the rainbow jersey.

In the dash for the bronze medal, Valverde easily managed to out-sprint an exhausted Nibali 16 seconds later, to complete an all-Iberian podium that spells close-but-no-cigar for Spain’s hopes.

Top ten:
1. Rui Costa (Portugal)
2. Joaquím Rodríguez (Spain)
3. Alejandro Valverde (Spain) 16”
4. Vincenzo Nibali (Italy)
5. Andriy Grivko (Ukraine)
6. Peter Sagan (Slovakia)
7. Simon Clarke (Australia)
8. Maxim Iglinskiy (Kazakhstan)
9. Philippe Gilbert (Belgium)
10. Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland)