Aside from Quinn Simmons' sensational solo victory, the most impressive sight of the junior men's road race at the 2019 World Championships was Colombia's Germán Darío Gómez, who was on foot with tears in his eyes after getting stuck with a mechanical problem.

The 18-year-old was in the lead peloton when his tubular tire came off the rim with just under 80km to go. Somehow he managed to avoid crashing, but his hopes were soon in tatters as he waited, and waited, and waited for a mechanical assist.

Several cars passed, but none of them belonged to his team car or Shimano's neutral service team. Eventually, Gomez broke down in tears, looked desperate, and began to walk the course with his bike in one hand and his wheels and tires in the other.

"At that moment I was hopeless and helpless. I was frustrated and sad. I was in a group of potential winners and could have stayed there. [When I started walking, I didn't think anything of it. I must have had maximum adrenaline and thought that if I walked a few meters, it would be a few meters shorter to get back to where I was."

Eventually, Gomez received assistance from the team car nearly four minutes after he stopped. At that point, however, the lead of the race had left him, and he finished in sixty-second place.

A combination of factors prevented the team car from saving him immediately. Not only was Colombia sharing a car with Chile and Uruguay, but they were also 21st out of 25 cars in the draw to determine the order of the formation. Moreover, the race had just exploded.

After the Kidstone climb, the peloton split in two, with several groups of riders in between, including some Uruguayans. The UCI commissaires therefore prevented vehicles from overtaking riders to move from one group to another.

However, the Colombian team criticized the UCI for not providing neutral service.

"The Shimano car should have been there at that moment," said Colombia's Carlos Mario Jaramillo.

"The UCI said there were four neutral service cars and four bikes in the group, but not a single bike passed by him, I think the UCI made a mistake."

Jorge Mauricio Vargas, president of the Colombian Cycling Federation, immediately wrote to the UCI asking for an explanation as to why none of the eight Shimano vehicles were in range. The UCI then received a letter from Pascal Sins, whose title is "UCI America Tour Continental Advisor."

"To clarify the facts, I would like to clarify the following," she wrote. "During the previous 25 km, the racers were going down Kidstone's Bank at a very fast pace. The road at that point of the course and around km 30 is very narrow, and given the danger of overtaking motor vehicles, it would put the safety of the entire peloton at risk."

"The commissaires therefore decided not to let vehicles pass from one group to another, whether team vehicles or neutral service cars. When the situation improved, they let the cars pass one by one.

"It is unfortunate what happened to the rider from your country, but the race conditions dictated it. Fate had arranged for that rider to get a flat tire at the worst possible moment of the race."

Veteran Belgian pro Iljo Keisse said, "The first car behind the jury should be a neutral service car that can help everyone. How is it possible that just because a rider didn't get wheels, that rider's championship is over?"

The team's first car should be a neutral service car that can help everyone.

Gomez was smiling by the time he arrived at Harrogate and unexpectedly became the center of media attention. One Colombian television reporter told him, rather bluntly, " At the beginning of the day nobody knew who you were, but now everybody knows the name Germán Darío Gómez."

"Thank you. Ever since I was called up to represent my country at the World Championships, all I could think about was doing my best for my country." During the race, I was trying to give 100% of what I had as an athlete representing Colombia."

"That's what I was trying to do today, well, these things happen in races and they can happen to anyone."