The road races at the UCI Road World Championships 2024 in Zürich mark the end of the events in Switzerland, with the men's elite road race bringing down the curtain on Sunday 29 September.
Both are over seriously hilly, but not mountainous, courses that finish in the centre of Zürich, the biggest city in Switzerland, with Mathieu van der Poel of the Netherlands and Lotte Kopecky of Belgium looking to defend their titles.
The junior men's and women's and under-23 men race towards the end of this week too, with these all being on shorter versions of the elite women's course.
The 2024 Worlds is the first to combine the Road Worlds and the Para-cycling Worlds in the same event, with the para-cycling road races happening throughout the week.
Women's elite road race
154.1km, Saturday 28 September, 12:45pm GMT
While the men’s race is the longest in a generation, the women’s elite race takes place over 154.1km, a fairly typical distance, with 2,400m of elevation. It begins in Uster, the third-largest town in the canton of Zürich, with a 25km lap of the Greifensee before it too joins that circuit around Zürich itself.
Before joining the same Zürich city circuit as the men, the women will take on the climb of Binz, 1.5km at 9.3%. There then follows four laps of that loop around Zürich. There are two significant climbs on the circuit: the Zürichbergstrasse, an average of 8% over 1.1km, with a maximum of 15%, and then the Witikon, 2.3km at 5.7% with a max of 9%, so there will be many weary legs.
There are technical sections throughout, including a lengthy 3km descent through the forest to the south. Despite less distance and elevation to the men, it seems like the perfect course for a solo breakaway or a small group sprint.
Men's elite road race
273.9km, Sunday 29 September, 10:30am GMT
Back in its usual headline slot on the final Sunday of the World Championships, the elite men’s road race at the Zürich event is the longest in 36 years, since Ronse in Belgium played host to the race for the rainbow bands in 1988. At 273.9km long, with 4,470m of climbing, this will be a seriously tough race, the hilliest since Innsbruck in 2018, which was won by Alejandro Valverde.
The race does not begin in Zürich itself, but in the wider Canton, in the city of Winterthur, the sixth-biggest city in Switzerland, and home of Albert Büchi, third at the 1931 Worlds. Consisting of two main parts, the race uses a loop out of Winterthur, over the Buch am Irchel, 4.8km at 4.2%, and taking on the Kyburg – 1.3km at 10.1% – and then the Suessblatz – 1.7km at 8.5% – before heading into the main circuit, around the city of Zürich, which will be tackled seven times in all. From 85.9km to the finish, the peloton will be heading round the Zürich circuit, which is 26.9km each time round, with 501m of elevation. It’s not flat, with the Zürichbergstrasse and the Wikiton tackled seven times each.
The seven loops will show off Switzerland’s largest city, the heart of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, and close to the Glarner Alps, and will certainly require a large dose of Protestant work ethic. By the time the race finishes in the Sechseläutenplatz, Zürich’s largest square, many will have fallen by the wayside. It is a route which screams Tadej Pogačar or Remco Evenepoel, the two most recent winners of Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
Junior and U23 road races
The women’s junior road race is a miniature version of the women’s elite race, with one lap of the Greifensee from Uster leading into one lap of the City Circuit, with its climbs of the Zürichbergstrasse and the Wikiton. It will mean 73.6km with 972m of elevation across the race. It was won by Cat Ferguson of GB.
The men’s race is the same route, just with more laps of the City Circuit - three instead of one - meaning 127.2km with 1,913m of climbing, won by Lorenzo Finn of Italy. The under-23 men do exactly the same but with one more lap, bringing the distance to 173.6km and the climbing to 2,483m, so it becomes even more of a course for climbers rather than puncheurs. The under-23 women’s races, TT and RR, occur at the same time as the elite versions.
Para-cycling road races
Para-cycling athletes get their own loop on their respective road races, the Lakeside Circuit, a 6.2km lap of south Zürich which, you’ve guessed it, runs alongside Lake Zürich. Most of the events still take in at least one lap of the City Circuit, so riders will have to take in the Zürichbergstrasse and the Witikon, but then all events settle into the Lakeside Circuit. This loop contains the Kreuzstrasse, a small punchy climb at the start of each time round.
The men’s B is 103.2km long, with two laps of the City Circuit and eight laps of Lakeside; the women’s B is 84.7km long with two laps of City, and five of Lakeside; the men’s H1-2 and women’s H1-5 is 38km long, made up of six laps of Lakeside; the men’s C4-5 is 90.9km long, with one lap of City and six of Lakeside; the men’s C3 is 71.6km long with one lap of City and three of Lakeside; the men’s C1 and C2 is 10 laps of Lakeside; the men’s and women’s T1-2 is five laps of Lakeside; the men’s H3 is one City lap and five Lakeside; the women’s C1-3 is nine of Lakeside; the women’s C4-5 is one of City and seven of Lakeside; and finally, the men’s H4 and H5 is one lap of the City Circuit and five laps of Lakeside.
