After attacking with around 6 km (3.7 mi) remaining, Poland's Michał Kwiatkowski held off the rest of the field to become his country's first world road race champion.

[2] Kwiatkowski held on by a second to beat Australia's Simon Gerrans, while Spain's Alejandro Valverde finished in third place for the third successive world championships.

Results from January to the middle of August counted towards the qualification criteria on both the 2014 UCI World Tour and the UCI Continental Circuits across the world, with the rankings being determined upon the release of the numerous tour rankings on 15 August 2014.

[6] The first 4 km (2.5 mi) were flat, after which the climb to Alto de Montearenas started, with an average gradient of 8%.

[citation needed] The Alto de Compostilla was a short climb of 1.1 km (0.68 mi), at an average gradient is 6.5% with some of the steepest parts at 11%.