After four days of time trials, the road races of the UCI Road and Para-cycling Road World Championships in Zurich, Switzerland, will get under way in the second half of next week. We have already previewed the para-cycling and now concentrate on the Elite, Under-23 and Junior road races.
From Uster and Winterthur to Zurich
Many roads lead to glory on the shores of Lake Zurich, with different twists and turns for the five courses designed through the city and the neighbouring forests.
Junior riders (Women and Men) will go first in the road races, on Thursday 26 September. Both events will start from Uster, with an initial loop around the Greifensee before they head to the 26.9km city circuit that will make the decision around Zürich, with punchy ascents and rare respites.
The Women Junior road race will cover 73.6km, with an elevation of 972 metres. With three laps on the final circuit, the Men Junior road race will cover 127.2km, with 1,913m of elevation.
On Friday, the Men Under 23 event will use the same roads, with a longer initial phase, going twice through the start, before a beefed-up finale consisting four laps on the city circuit (total: 173.6km, 2,483m of elevation)
The Women Elite contenders, on Saturday 28 September, will ride around the Greifensee and then tackle four laps around Zürich. The 2,384m of elevation across 154.1km promises demanding battles over some four hours of racing. The medals for the Women Under 23 podium will also be awarded on that occasion.
On Sunday, the start of the Men Elite road race is set in Winterthur, with an initial loop before the field takes on a hilly transition towards Zürich, where they will face seven laps on the city circuit. The distance is 273.9km, with 4,470m of elevation.
Eyeing Van der Poel’s rainbow jersey
Such courses are set to favour explosive riders with strong climbing abilities to survive the elevation throughout the race.
Reigning Men Elite UCI World Champion Mathieu Van der Poel (NED) attacked again and again in the recent road race of the UEC European Championships but “I didn’t have super legs”, he said after some intense training towards the defence of his title.
Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel and Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar are among Van der Poel’s identified rivals in the chase for the rainbow jersey. The Belgian star already made history this summer, with two gold medals in the road events of the Olympic Games while his Slovenian counterpart is having a supremely dominant season and dreams of adding the UCI World Champion title to his Rosa and Jaune conquests in the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France.
Recent events of the UCI WorldTour also highlighted the strength of riders such as Primož Roglič (SLO), Michael Matthews (AUS), Marc Hirschi (SUI)…
Kopecky in great shape, but her rivals too!
In the UCI Women’s WorldTour, the recent Tour de Romandie Féminin showed again the versatility of Lotte Kopecky’s talents. The Belgian reigning Women Elite UCI Road World Champion has both the power and the climbing skills to tame the Zürich course.
But there are countless talents gearing up to take her rainbow jersey, starting with her close rival Demi Vollering (NED), winner of 15 races in 2024, but frustrated by the smallest margin in the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. Living in Switzerland, the Dutch star is more than determined to take a “home” victory.
The opposition will come from other nations – Italy’s Elisa Longo Borghini, Poland’s Kasia Niewiadoma, the USA’s Kirsten Faulkner, France’s Juliette Labous and Évita Muzic – as well as from the Dutch ranks, with an impressive line-up featuring Marianne Vos, Puck Pieterse, Shirin van Anrooij, Pauliena Rooijakkers, Riejanne Markus and Mischa Bredewold.
The Netherlands could also shine in the youth events, but French rising stars showed their skills throughout the season, dominating the 2024 UCI Nations’ Cup in the Men Junior and Men Under 23 ranks, while Team GB ruled the Women Junior category, led by Cat Ferguson.
Photo credits:@photosforyou/Pixabay