The UCI Road World Championships begin Sunday with a doubleheader of elite individual time trial competitions. The elite men take the course at 14:45 local time, following the race for the first rainbow jersey of the week decided by elite women, who start at 11:51 local time in Switzerland.
The elite men's course is 46.1km from Zurich-Oerlikon, rather than the women's start in Gossau, and back to Zürich. Once down the ramp, the 59 riders in the field will pass Dübendorf and Lake Greifensee before heading to Monchaltorf to join the same route as the women's elite time trial.
The course takes in an elevation gain of 413 metres as it begins on the historic open race track in Zurich-Oerlikon and works its way over the foothills of the Pfannenstiel and along the shores of Lake Zürich for the finish line at Sechseläutenplatz in the nation's largest city.
All the climbing comes in the middle section of the route, once Lake Greifen is in the rearview mirror and the first time check is passed at Maur, 12.5km completed. Passing through Mönchaltorf, the course then connects with the same roads as used by the elite women, and the climbing and technical descending begin.
The first uphill winds through Oetwil am See for 2.6km with a gradient averaging 4.5%. Shortly afterwards is a smaller rise of 1.4km that leads to a steep 1km descent, with pitches of 10-12%.
That technical drop leads to a right-hand turn for the fast, flat section on the eastern shore of Lake Zurich for the final 12km to the finish line.
There are a total of three intermediate time checks on the course. After the first one at Maur, the second split times are taken at the crest of the Oetwil am See climb with just under 21km to ride. The final check is located along the flat road beside Lake Zurich after passing Herrliberg with 9.4km to go.
Racing begins when Charles Kagimu of Uganda rolls down the start ramp at 14:52:00 to begin a procession of 59 riders all separated by 1:30.
All eyes will be on the final group on the course, completed when defending Worlds champion and reigning Olympic time trial champion Remco Evenepoel of Belgium takes the course at 16:34:00.
Last year's top finishers from Sterling are present in the final five positions, USA's Brandon McNulty, who was fourth last year, (16:29:30), then third-placed Josh Tarling of Britain starting at 16:20:00 and runner-up Filippo Ganna of Italy at 16:32:30. Just before Ganna, Primož Roglič of Slovenia takes the course (16:31:00).
The first of the Swiss riders will be Stefan Bissegger at 16:02:30, while Stefan Küng, who won the silver medal in the European Championships, starts the clock at 16:26:30, just five riders to follow him.
Other notable contenders in the final wave of 20 riders include European ITT champion Edoardo Affini of Italy (16:07:00), Belgian Victor Campenaerts (16:08:30) and 2022 ITT world champion Tobias Foss of Norway (16:11:30).
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