than Astarloa.   Unfortunately for Longo, she was starting to get caught as she entered the last descent.   Had she built up just a little more room between her and her pursuers, Longo would have hit gold yet again.

?I knew the peloton was only 10 seconds behind us and the wind was in our faces,? the slight, balding Astarloa said.   ?[But] I felt capable of attacking on that hill? .

Astarloa's time for the 260.4 km race was six hours, 30 minutes and nineteen seconds.

Conditions for the race were near perfect.   The weather forecast had called for rain and a few drops fell as the riders pushed off at the start of the race at 9 a.m.   But gradually the clouds cleared and by the latter stages of the race
Hamilton was once again bathed in mid-summer sunshine.   Similar weather blessed the World championships throughout the week.

Hamilton race organizers said an estimated 104,000 spectators line the race route Sunday and that the total estimated attendance for the six days of racing was 230,000.

Other facts and figures:

• 1,225 athletes from 57 countries participated

• in excess of 900 media covered the event from 33 countries

• over 2,500 volunteers assisted at the event in areas such as security, course marshalling, media centre, a cultural festival that ran during the week

• roads which were scheduled to open within an hour of each race were actually opened on average within 38.2 minutes of the end of each race.