The rain swept through and amped up the degree of difficulty on the technical city circuit in a crash heavy U23 men's road race on Saturday and judging by the forecast there is also potential for the wet weather to play a part in Sunday's Road World Championships finale, with thundery showers in the forecast for the day of the women's elite/U23 race.
"A bright day with sunny spells and showers, the showers becoming heavy and perhaps thundery at times," said the Sunday forecast for Strathclyde – the region Glasgow is in – from the Met office. "The southwesterly breeze eases this afternoon with showers becoming slow moving, perhaps giving some locally prolonged downpours."
The 154km women's elite/U23 race with 2,229m of vertical ascent sets out from Balloch, Loch Lomond at 12:00 local time and while through that first hour the forecast is predicting an 80% chance of heavy rain in Glasgow, the start point further to the north may spare the field the worst of it. The wet weather is forecast to roll through later in Balloch.
Riders are expected to enter the 14.3km city circuit after about an hour-and-a-half-of-racing, to start the 6 laps of the corner heavy Glasgow loop. The race is likely to cross the final line in George Square by around 16:00.
According to the national meteorological service there is a 60 percent chance of light rain in that hour block when the race is scheduled to enter the city circuit, though odds switch toward no rain for the next two hours. If that eventuates it would lead to a dry final half of the race, however, that's only if the thundery showers forecast from after 16:00 do actually hold off till the end.
Even if the race misses the thundery showers, it seems likely that there will be at least some portion of the race that sees either rain or, at the least, wet roads. The potential consequences of this were made clear both in the U23 men's race – where French race winner Axel Laurance said "with the rain it was so hard, every corner was really nervous" – and in the men's elite race where Mathieu van der Poel slipped on a wet corner while riding solo to victory.
"Rain would affect the race fiercely," said Dutch rider Demi Vollering in a statement released by her SD Worx trade team in the days before the race. "It is a street circuit full of white lines and with an uneven road surface. So some riders will enter the corners with a little bit more trepidation."
"When it's cold, you also go through your carbohydrate supply faster," added Vollering, however the Tour de France Femmes winner certainly didn't sound as if she was perplexed by the prospect of wet roads. "Normally, I always do well in the rain. I train outside a lot. A bit of rain doesn't put me off."
