UCI Road World Championships 2024 - Everything you need to know
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UCI Road World Championships 2024: Elite men's road race contenders
Situation
- Six-man breakaway - Tobias Foss (Norway) Silvan Dillier (Switzerland), Rui Oliveira (Portugal), Simon Geschke (Germany), Luc Wirtgen (Luxembourg), Piotr Pekala (Poland).
- They've been joined by a 10-man attack: Jay Vine (Australia), Stevie Williams (Great Britain), Pavel Sivakov (France), Laurens De Plus (Belgium), Jan Tratnik (Slovenia), Mattia Cattaneo (Italy), Magnus Cort (Norway) , Kevin Vermaerke (USA), Florian Lipowitz (Germany), Johannes Staune-Mittet (Norway).
- Race favourite Tadej Pogacar (Slovenia) has launched a long-range attack just over 100km out, and has also joined the head of the race.
- Two-time world champ Julian Alaphilippe (France) has crashed out.
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the elite men's road race at the Road World Championships in Zurich!
After a dramatic women's race yesterday, this time is the men's race - 273.9km, 7 laps of the hilly Zurich circuit, 4470 metres of elevation gain, national teams, no race radios, and a couple of big favourites but a huge array of credible candidates for the rainbow jersey. Worlds races don't always deliver, but they are more often than give us some of the most thrilling racing all year.
The riders are all pretty much ready to go. The roll-out is coming up in around 10 minutes time, at 10:30 local time, with the race proper kicking off 10 minutes after that. Six hours later, we'll have a world champion.
Here's the route. We start out at Winterthur, with an opening loop and a trek over towards Zurich where we should see an early breakaway take shape. We head onto the circuit mid-way through, dropping towards the finish line to embark on seven full laps. The key features of the circuit are the pair of climbs early on, with the short and wickedly steep Zurichbergstraase followed soon after by the longer and steadier grind up to Witikon. From there, it's a rolling plateau, a tricky descent, a little up-and-down kicker, and then a 6km run-in along the shores of Lake Zurich.
The circuit has hosted some great racing this week, and hopes are high it can deliver a classic here. It's been spoken about as a course for the hilly one-day specialists, with some 4,500 metres of elevation gain, but it's not an outright climbing affair, with plenty of room for manoeuvre on the rolling, twisting, roads and the tricky descents. It seems perfectly suited to open, tactical, and aggressive racing.
The riders are on the start line and they remove their helmets for a minute's silence in honour of Muriel Furrer, the Swiss rider who tragically lost her life after a crash in the junior women's road race earlier this week.
The riders are now on the move, making their way through the neutral zone. In contrast to yesterday's rain, it's dry, with some blue skies breaking through the clouds.
Who's going to win the rainbow jersey?
Tadej Pogacar (Slovenia) is the big favourite, having won the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France this year, as well as being a formidable force in one-day races of just about any nature. This is a difficult race to manage but if he's on song he could realistically take the race away from everyone else.
Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) is another rider who can reduce a race to his own terms, amassing a catalogue of solo exhibitions already in his young career. He won the 2022 world title in that fashion, and has history of his own in sight - having already done the road race - time trial double at the Olympics in the summer, he could do the 'double double' with victory here.
Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) is the outgoing world champion, who has won the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix in the rainbow jersey this year. He has not shone since, and this course is hillier than Glasgow 12 months ago, but he can't be counted out.
As well as those three big names, we have a huge array of candidates and plenty of nations with multiple cards to play.
We're underway in Zurich and the first attacks are flying.
This was the scene on the start line, with the Swiss compatriots of Muriel Furrer taking place on the front row for the tribute.
On the subject of Furrer's tragic death, I'd recommend this piece from Barry Ryan.
We've had a couple of forays off the front but no moves sticking as yet and now the pace has eased.
Poland are the most prominent nation in this early phase, constantly looking to spark or mark moves.
Four men off the front now, and it's Filip Maciejuk (Poland), Ivo Oliveira (Portugal), Emils Liepins (Latvia), and Riley Sheehan (USA).
That quartet is brought back and we now have a new three-man breakaway attempt, featuring Cory Williams (Belize), Markus Pajur (Estonia), and Amir Arsalan Ansari (Refugee Cycling Team).
We're heading uphill now on the opening climb of this opening loop and the peloton is close at hand, with more moves surely set to come here.
That trio is indeed swept up. Two more slip away but it's a pretty quiet start so far today.
Here's Ansari, in the red helmet, pictured on the start line earlier, along with his teammate from the Refugee Team, Ahmad Badreddin Wais, plus Rien Schuurhuis of Team Vatican City.
A new break with two riders: Andreas Leknessund (Norway) and Jonathan Caicedo (Ecuador).
Schuurhuis has just been dropped, as have a far few of the non-professional riders from the smaller cycling nations.
250km to go
A big 20-man group sneaks off the front of the peloton and the responses now come from behind. Caicdeo and Leknessund have been reabsorbed.
There were some strong riders in that big group but it has been brought to heel now and the race is all together after almost 30km.
Is this the strongest team in the race?
Belgium are always a formidable force at Worlds, and they are led by Evenepoel in the golden helmet. From left to right it's Quinten Hermans, Maxim Van Gils, Remco Evenepoel, Jasper Stuyven, Tiesj Benoot, Victor Campenaerts, Laurens De Plus, and Tim Wellens.
Belgium are one of 10 teams to have qualified the full complement of eight riders, the others being Great Britain, USA, Australia, France, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Slovenia, and the Netherlands, who actually have nine thanks to the free ticket for the outgoing world champ Mathieu van der Poel.
We have a new three-man breakaway featuring Silvan Dillier (Switzerland), Luc Wirtgen (Luxembourg), and Piotr Pekala (Poland).
Tobias Foss (Norway) and Rui Oliveira (Portugal) are making their way over to this break, and there's one more trio chasing as the peloton looks to be taking its foot completely off the gas.
The chasing trio are Simon Geschke (Germany), Markus Pajur (Estonia), and Roberto Carlos Gonzalez (Panama).
Anyone with Roberto Carlos in their name deserves our support.
Although when it comes to cyclists with footballers' names there is simply no topping the Belgian cyclo-cross journeyman Anton Ferdinande.
We're on a steep little climb, Kyburgstraase, the second of three on this opening loop, and the chasing trio use it to make their way across to form a breakaway of eight riders. With the peloton having eased off, this is our breakaway of the day, fully formed after just over 40km of racing.
Saying that, Pajur is already distanced on these steep slopes, although he's grinding away and will hope to rejoin on the descent.
Gonzalez is also distanced at the top of the climb.
The peloton comes over the top of the climb now led by representatives from France, Slovenia, and Great Britain.
Great Britain have an interesting team, led ostensibly by Tom Pidcock, a rider who can be hit and miss, but when he hits, he hits big. He says he's not at 100% but remains GB's highest-calibre rider.
To our right in this photo is Stevie Williams, who recently won the Tour of Britain and won La Fleche Wallonne in the Spring. He might just end up being their leading light. They also have the Yates twins, Adam and Simon, who have strong hilly one-day pedigree. Jake Stewart, Mark Donovan, and James Knox are set to do the domestique duties, while it'll be interesting to see how Oscar Onley goes - an up-and-coming youngster who was second behind Williams at the Tour of Britain.
Slovenia call a nature break in the bunch as the gap rises to three minutes.
Gonzalez and Pajur aren't getting back in - they're over a minute down after being dropped on that climb. That leaves six riders in our break: Dillier, Geschke, Foss, Wirtgen, R.Oliveira, Pekala.
Crash. A small spill sends Pello Bilbao - an outsider today - into a wire farmyard fence. He's in a bit of pain but back on his feet.
Pogacar is back from his toilet stop and two Slovenian teammates in their glaring green jerseys are setting the pace at the head of the peloton.
Here was Pogacar at the start. Such is the hype around him, it's easy to forget they also have Primoz Roglic, a former winner of Liege-Bastogne-Liege and five other hilly Classics. Jan Tratnik is their next strongest rider, while the rest of the squad is made up of Luka Mezgec, Domen Novak, Matevz Govekar, Matic Zumer, and Jaka Primozic.
Behind Slovenia sit two orange representatives of Van der Poel's Dutch squad, and two from Evenepoel's Belgium.
Abandon: Julian Alaphilippe
We're hearing the Frenchman, two times a world champion, has been caught up in a crash. He's out of the race and that's a huge blow for France.
Michael Woods (Canada) is eating out of a tupperware box, with a spoon, in the middle of a World Championship.
The gap hits 4:15 as we head uphill onto the climb that takes us onto the Zurich circuit.
A reminder of our six-man breakaway
Tobias Foss (Norway)
Silvan Dillier (Switzerland)
Rui Oliveira (Portugal)
Simon Geschke (Germany)
Luc Wirtgen (Luxembourg)
Piotr Pekala (Poland)
The Czech Republic squad have taken a prominent position on this climb - they have four riders led by Mathias Vacek, who had an eye-catching Vuelta.
The leaders head over the top of the climb and they are now on the main Zurich circuit, joining it atop the plateau that comes after the duo of key climbs. There's a rolling section now, followed by a descent, a steep up-and-down, and a 6km run alongside Lake Zurich, before we head through the finish line for the first of eight times.
200km to go
So as we head into the final 200, with 73.9 on the clock, we are on the Zurich circuit and we have a six-man breakaway with a lead of 5:15 over the peloton which is led by the Slovenia team of Tadej Pogacar and Primoz Roglic. Two riders are in between, having been dropped from the break, but are only heading backwards. In terms of the favourites, Julian Alaphilippe (France) has crashed out, while Pello Bilbao (Spain) has crashed but has been able to carry on. Otherwise, a quiet start to proceedings.
Here's a shot of the breakaway powering on.
And here's the peloton amid some stunning Swiss scenery.
188km to go
The six-man breakaway crosses the finish line for the first time. Here start the full seven laps of our Zurich circuit.
Leaving the centre of Zurich, the circuit soon hits its pair of climbs, the first being the short but wickedly steep Zurichbergstraase, followed soon after by the longer and steadier grind up to Witikon. Beyond the summit there's a rolling plateau, followed by the descent, kicker, and run-in we've just seen. It'll be a whittling-down process from here, with almost encouraged to drop out due to the lap-based nature of the race, and before too long we should see some nations making some early moves and looking to fire danger men up the road.
Loads of fans on the Zurichbergstraase today, with the sun shining to contrast with yesterday's downpour.
Here's our story on Alaphilippe's abandon:
Julian Alaphilippe abandons World Championships road race after early crash
The bunch hit the main climb and Slovenia have all eight of their riders in one line on the left-hand side of the road. Campenaerts leads a Belgian train alongside them and on the right it's the orange of the Netherlands.
Here was Mathieu van der Poel at the start. He's backed here by Bauke Mollema, Wilco Kelderman, Sam Oomen, Sjoerd Bax, Daan Hoole, Bart Lemmen, Oscar Riesebeek, and Frank van den Broek.
The gap stands steady at five minutes as we tick through what is a quiet opening lap of the Zurich circuit.
Belgium have taken over from Slovenia with their whole team now on the front as the bunch lines out through a series of bends. Campenaerts is doing the early work for the Belgians.
The increase in pace has seen the gap to the break come down to four minutes as we head onto the final part of this opening lap.
We've had a fair few abandons, most notably Mattias Skjelmose, a Danish dark horse and the stronger climber to former world champ Mads Pedersen's thoroughbred Classics credentials. Spaniard Mikel Landa has also exited the race.
Bike change for Dillier, who works his way back to the break alongside Geshcke with a minimum of fuss. The six leaders head into the final kilometre of the first lap of the Zurich course, but they're losing time due to Campenaert's pace-making behind.
161km to go
Foss leads the break across the line, their lead down to 3:40 with six laps remaining.
Pajur and Gonzalez have ridden remarkably since being dropped from the break 40km ago, but they are now caught by the peloton as they come through the finish line now, 3:21 behind the break.
One of the steeper ramps on the circuit.
And here's a look at a kicker that comes later on the lap.
Meanwhile, this is the start of the Zurichbergstraase climb, which is where most of the fans seem to have gathered.
Photodump complete, the bunch hit that Zurichbergstraase climb for the second time and it's Campenaerts still on the front, with the Slovenians still muscling alongside.
The leaders head onto the Witikon climb now, which is longer but steadier, measuring 2.6km at 5.3%.
Marc Hirschi (Switzerland) drops back to his team car - he has had a couple of problems in these early phases. He's happy to collect his own bottles despite being one of the favourites today. His 2020 exploits had felt like a long time ago but Hirschi has built quite the palmares of one-day success. Most of his wins have come in lower-level races but this summer he put together a run of five successive wins, including the Clasica San Sebastian and Bretagne Classic, both well over 200km.
150km to go
Three minutes is the gap between our six leaders and the peloton, which is still being led by Campenaerts.
It'll be interesting to see how the Belgian's play this. They are certainly not averse to firing dangerous shadow-favourites into speculative moves. No Wout van Aert here but Van Gils has had a strong season, while the likes of Wellens, Benoot, and Stuyven are not the kind of riders their rivals can just forget about.
The race remains quiet, in a breakaway-peloton format. The second lap of the Zurich is ticking by. When will we see the first attempts to open this race up?
Here's the USA team, who shouldn't be underestimated. Matteo Jorgenson second from the left has had a hell of a season and is a true all-rounder. The same is true of Neilson Powless, who's been left out of this shot but can do Classics and climbing. The US also have Magnus Sheffield third from left and Brandon McNulty third from the right. On the far right, sporting a hell of a mullet - handlebar mustache combo, is Quinn Simmons, who won junior Worlds five years ago, while the squad is rounded out by Riley Sheehan and Kevin Vermaerke.
The pace has eased in the peloton and the breakaway have taken their lead back out to 4:15 as they come into Zurich for the closing kilometres of the second lap.
132km to go
4 minutes is the gap between break and bunch as we head onto the third of the seven laps.
It looks a bit quicker, a bit more anxious here, as the third ascent of Zurichbergstraase looms. We've been treated to some fantastic early action at Worlds in recent years and by contrast this has been an extremely calm race so far. We're only just past the half-way mark in fairness, but is it about to get going?
Yes! There it is - our first attack on the Zurich laps. Pablo Castrillo from Spain - a breakout starsof the Vuelta and subject of a fair bit of transfer speculation this summer - hits out on Zurichbergstraase.
Castrillo only takes a small gap over the top as Slovenia react quickly and take the bunch onto the Witikon climb.
The peloton has split! Castrillo's attack and Slovenia's reaction has cut the bunch in two, aided by the severity of those gradients on Zurichbergstraase. It should stitch back together on this steadier climb but who'll be the next riders to try something?
Great Britain answer the call, sending Mark Donovan off the front.
Donovan looks over his shoulder and sees no one else is coming with him, so he stops his effort. And as he does so Jay Vine attacks for Australia.
Pavel Sivakov for France tracks him and now Stevie Williams marks him, so some bigger names coming through now.
These accelerations see a sizeable group go clear with some strong names in there.
The gap yawns out and plenty of big nations are represented, but no Dutchmen. More riders now look to ping out of the bunch.
Belgium have placed Laurens de Plus in here, Slovenia have Jan Tratnik - those are the two nations who'd done all the work in the peloton so far, so they'll take a back seat back there now and force other nations to take command.
Vine attacks the group again but soon slots back in. They already have half a minute over the main bunch. USA, Italy, Norway, Denmark, Germany also have riders here.
The full composition of this attack
Jay Vine (Australia)
Stevie Williams (Great Britain)
Pavel Sivakov (France)
Laurens De Plus (Belgium)
Jan Tratnik (Slovenia)
Mattia Cattaneo (Italy)
Magnus Cort (Norway)
Kevin Vermaerke (USA)
Florian Lipowitz (Germany)
Johannes Staune-Mittet (Norway)
120km to go
This is a strong move. Vine is hardly a Classics specialist but was flying in last week's time trial until his crash. We've mentioned Williams' success this year, while Tratnik is a Classics winner, Sivakov a high-class rider, Cort a prolific winner, and in fact there's quality throughout the group. They're being given some wiggle room here, as the gap yawns out to 90 seconds.
The important thing here is which nations have missed out, as they're the ones who will have to do the work in the peloton to mount a chase. Van der Poel's Dutchmen are the obvious absentees, while Spain are the only other major nation not represented.
This dangerous attack closes to within a minute of the six-man break as we head downhill back towards the shores of Lake Zurich. They now have 2:30 on the bunch!
The Dutch aren't blinking. In fact, it's Britain and Belgium on the front, but they both have men up the road and are doing nothing more than turning the pedals over.
Three minutes now for this move, who are closing in on the breakaway.
This was the Castrillo attack that effectively opened up this race, even if the Spaniard is not in the eventual move that went clear.
The leading six come into the final kilometre and if they looked around they'd see this elite 10-man selection coming up to them.
108km to go
Three laps done, four to go, and our six-man breakaway is about to expand to 16 as this interesting move of big-ish names crosses the line 10 seconds down. The peloton is just over three minutes further back.
The pace has picked up as the peloton crosses the line, but that's not due to any big chase but rather a jostle for position as we head towards the Zurichbergstraase climb once again.
Merger up front as the 10-man attack joins forces with the six-man break on Zurichbergstraase, who'll try and hang on over these climbs and bag a ticket to the latter phases of this race.
A reminder that this is the steeper of the two main climbs, measuring 800 metres at 7.1% but with double-digit pitches. It's followed soon after by the Witikon climb which is 2.6km at 5.3%.
Slovenia take back control and up the pace as the peloton approach the climb now.
Domen Novak leads the way for the Slovenians, with Pogacar poised a couple of wheels back. Roglic is a little further down the group.
No splits in the bunch over Zuirichbergstraase but the pace has seen the gap to the break drop to 2:15.
Attack! Kasper Asgreen (Denmark) hits out on the flat section between the two climbs. A Dutch rider jumps on board.
It's Wilco Kelderman for the Dutch but they're brought back by the Slovenians.
New attack now from Quinn Simmons (USA).
Pogacar attacks!
The big favourite makes his move on the fourth ascent of Witikon with just over 100km to go! Wow.
Simmons is there with him, along with Andrea Bagioli (Italy).
Simmons can't handle the pace and Bagioli can't either now! Pogacar is alone chasing down the front of the race. Wow.
97km to go
Pogacar is riding 50 seconds behind the front of the race.
Slovenia have dropped Tratnik back from the break in order to pace Pogacar. Great racing so far from the Slovenians, although it helps when you have someone as strong as Pogacar - who else would be able to get away alone here?
Despite having a rider in the lead group, the onus now falls on Belgium who hit the front of the peloton once more.
20 seconds is the gap to the front as Tratnik makes his way back towards his former companions, this time with the best rider in the world in tow. 'I've brought a mate', he'll say, and no one will be pleased to see him.
Pogacar offers Tratnik a turn as the swoop down a gentle descent. 12 seconds is the gap. Behind them the peloton is just under a minute in arrears.
This was the attack. He didn't have company for long.
91km to go
Pogacar, propelled by Tratnik, makes contact with the head of the race. That makes 17 riders with a lead of a minute over the peloton.
Belgium are riding hard here. They're aware of the threat but they also have the numbers to be able to try and keep Pogacar under some degree of control, with Evenepoel not having to put his nose in the wind at all.
Pogacar has darted off the front of this break. No joke. More a case of pushing on than attacking but there's no containing this man.
Pogacar has a gap almost by accident and as he looks around he almost thinks about smashing on before he sits up, takes some food on, and allows Tratnik through once more.
Campenaerts, who did most of the early work for Belgium, is still there, exchanging turns with Hermans at the head of the peloton.
