Road race World Championships down under
The UCI Road World Championships will be held over the course of five days in Geelong, Australia, from 29 September to 3 October, the first time the competition has left European soil in seven years. The
World Road Race Champion titles will be contested from 1-3 October, in three classifications.
The 159km first road race, on 1 October, is for the Under-23 men’s title. While the three races different in length, the final circuit remains the same, and that is where the titles will be decided.
"One must remember though that we do 80 flat kilometres from Melbourne to Geelong, thus the real part of the day are the final five laps, and thus 10 climbs,” said Sorensen, describing the course. “The
first 100 kilometres of the World Championships are not normally very difficult though - you just ride over the hills.”
The Elite women’s competition, on 2 October, is more or less between four favourites. Carla Ryan is the local favourite, on form from her stage win in the Tour de l'Ardèche with the Cervelo Test Team.
Three of her Cervelo teammates will be supporting her biggest rivals, Judith Arndt and Ina-Yoko Teutenberg of the German Team. This pair of HTC-Columbia riders has been having a phenomenal season and can be expected to at the head of the race with Ryan and
Dutch favourite Marianne Vos, all realistic for the win.
The 262.7km Elite men’s road race, on October 3, is the main event of the World Championships, with the difficult climbs leaving the pure sprinters out of the game and the 50/50 chance of a bunch sprint finish
leaving the pure climbers out. Classics specialist Phillipe Gilbert has been named as the overall favourite.
"Certainly Gilbert and [Filippo] Pozzato [are favourites] in terms of the strongest teams with the best captains - I think going into the race they're the guys to beat,” said defending champion Cadel Evans.
“I think we're pretty well placed with a good variety of riders and plenty of experience on the team plus plenty of guys who have raced the Worlds before. They've given their all and plenty of effort for the team in the past.”
Evans is the Australian favourite for the race and will be trying to defend his title from last year’s World Championships. Gilbert’s chances might suffer from the recent injury of his lieutenant, Björn
Leukemans, who crashed in training and may not recover in time for Wednesday’s race, opening things up for a little more of an even playing field.
The competing riders have been training all over Geelong, giving headaches to the locals.
"If they are detected they will be booked, it doesn't matter if they are the world champion, the law is the law and they've got to comply with it," said traffic Sergeant Shane Coles. "We're going to have
a huge influx of bikes in the next week or so and for all my members on the highway patrol no one is having a day off so we are going to have a massive presence in the area."
Race organiser Michael Palmer has taken the complaint with respectful humour, explaining to a local reporter that the riders are being encouraged to respect the traffic laws while commenting that at least
three cyclists had run red lights in front of him during the interview.
"There was one dangerous situation when we forgot that Australians drive on the left side of the road,” said Danish cyclist Chris Anker Sorensen. “So far, no one has been run down, so we are still a full
team."
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