Simon Clarke secures deserved top-10 Aussie Simon Clarke finished a brutal world championships road race in Italy claiming a prized top 10 place. AUSTRALIAN Simon Clarke has ridden out of his skin to secure a top-10 finish in one of the most gruelling road cycling world championships in years. Clarke crossed the line seventh, just 34 seconds behind winner Rui Costa of Portugal who covered the 272km route in seven hours and 25 minutes in Florence. The Spanish pair of Joaquin Rodriguez and Alejandro Valverde had the numbers to take out the title but, in the end, had to settle for silver and bronze respectively. Clarke, 27, was the only Australian to finish the rain-hit race which featured countless crashes that took out many favourites including 2009 world champion Cadel Evans at the halfway mark. Australian's other main hope, Richie Porte, came down before the peloton even hit Florence and was subsequently distanced on the first of 10 laps of a punishing 16.6km circuit around the Tuscan capital. "Conditions were just unbelievable," Clarke said. We couldn't have had worse luck. Richie crashed on the way to Florence and then there was that massive stack after the second climb (on the second lap). The guy was coming past me and hit the barriers and I knew I had Cadel, Michael Matthews and (David) Tanner on my wheel and I thought 'That was it'. Then I got the information later that I was the only one left. Clarke said when he realised he was flying the flag solo, he decided "I just really wanted to go well for Australia and make up for the bad luck." The Victorian, who rides professionally for Australian outfit Orica-GreenEdge, won the climbing classification at the 2012 Vuelta a Espana. Evans, who was taken to hospital with a calf injury, tweeted as the race neared its end: "Overheard in the radiology unit: 'If all the riders are here, who's in the race?." The former Tour de France winner then added: "I'm ok." Teammate Cameron Meyer tweeted on Sunday: "I have never seen so many crashes in my life. Unbelievable conditions. Not a good day for the Aussies with 6 of us crashing.