After the opening handbike mixed relay on Saturday, the UCI Road and Para-cycling Road World Championships will continue Sunday with the individual time trials (ITT) for Women Elite (also crowning the Women Under 23 winner) and Men Elite. The Men Under 23 and Junior ITTs will follow on Monday, and the Women Junior on Tuesday before the team time trial mixed relay on Wednesday 25 September.
High-end action is on the programme!
Five courses on lake shores
The several events will explore different courses for specialists of the effort against the clock, all with stunning views taking in the emblematic lakes and the nearby forests and mountains.
Women will be the first to ride on Sunday, starting from Gossau, just south of the lake Greifensee. They will head to Sechseläutenplatz, the largest square in Zürich, with a 29.9km course featuring 327 metres of elevation. The first half is slightly more rolling while the second is pan flat on the shores of Lake Zurich. Men Under 23 will tackle the exact same route on Monday.
The Men Elite ITT starts from Oerlikon, home to the velodrome built in 1912. The riders head to Gossau, before taking on the same course as the women. In the final individual events, the Men Junior (24.9km, 40m of elevation) and the Women Junior (18.8km, 36m of elevation) will ride back and forth alongside Lake Zurich, from and to Sechseläutenplatz.
The team time trial mixed relay offers a different exploration, with a city circuit to be covered twice (one lap for the three men, and the second for the three women) for a total of 53.7km (948m of elevation).
Brown and Evenepoel, the UCI Worlds after the Games?
Swiss power dominated the team time trial mixed relay in 2022 and 2023 and they will be ambitious again at home. Their line-up will necessarily be adjusted in the absence of Marlen Reusser. “Unfortunately, I won't be able to be there due to my post Covid syndrome,” the powerhouse recently said on her social media. “Nevertheless, I will be keeping my fingers crossed for everyone.”
The time trials shall offer exhilarating battles, in line with the recent Olympic Games and UEC Road European Championships. Will Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel and Australia’s Grace Brown double up on their Olympic triumphs? They both were in a league of their own in the Parisian setting on wet roads.
The USA’s Chloé Dygert notably crashed during the Paris 2024 ITT and will be determined to chase a third UCI World title in specialty, after 2019 and 2023. But Belgium’s Lotte Kopecky, the defending road race UCI World Champion, showed her TT abilities with a dominant performance in the recent European Championships.
The Men Elite ITT of the Euros showed Italian class, with Edoardo Affini powering to the gold medal and Mattia Cattaneo claiming bronze. Silver medallist Stefan Küng (SUI) heads to Zurich with the confidence from an impressive victory in the final ITT of La Vuelta Ciclista a España 24.
Stars in the making already showing form
Young talent will also be on display. In the Men Under 23 event, two-time silver medallist Alec Segaert (BEL) is a hot favourite to take gold after his recent triumph in the UEC Road European Championships.
Last year, Germany’s Antonia Niedermaier took a thrilling win in the Women Under 23 ITT, 8’’ ahead of France’s Cédrine Kerbaol. The latter is no longer part of the class, the former is… but she just got beaten by Finland’s Anniina Ahtosalo (4th in last year’s UCI Worlds) at the Euros.
In the Women Junior ranks, exciting talents such as Great Britain’s Cat Ferguson, France’s Célia Gery and Spain’s Paula Ostiz have shown that their versatile abilities are very well suited to the ITT. Among the Men Junior, the likes of Michiel Mouris (NED), Pavel Šumpík (CZE), Albert Witten Philipsen (DEN) and Jasper Schoofs (BEL) have established themselves as talents to watch out for.