The re-arranged Road World Championships are just around the corner and British Cycling has released a young team that will take to the start line in the road race and individual time trial at Imola, Italy.
Switzerland was originally down to host the Worlds but had to cancel due to Swiss regulations regarding coronavirus. The UCI were then forced to find a new venue in a very small amount of time and Imola was the new venue chosen.
The course takes in two hellishly steep and punchy climbs in the road race with both the men and women racing the same circuit but over different distances. The elite men will race over 258.2km with the elite women's course 143km in distance.
The time trial course is relatively flat and is the same 31.7km route for both men and women.
Tom Pidcock has been chosen to lead a young Great Britain team after recently taking the overall win at the U23 Giro d'Italia and putting in a strong performance at the European Championships where he had a late attack. The UCI altered its rules to allow under-23 riders to compete in elite competitions at the 2020 Worlds with no U23 races planned.
Luke Rowe is the elder statesman in the team, meaning he will be the road captain, making sure all the riders are in the right place at the right time.
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Matt Holmes was replaced by Ethan Haytor after Holmes came down with a "non-Covid related illness."
Pidcock and Rowe will be joined by James Shaw, James Knox, Hugh Carthy, and Ethan Haytor.
In the individual time trial it will be Geraint Thomas and Alex Dowsett who will ride, with both showing good form on and off the TT bike at Tirreno-Adriatico and the Euros.
Geraint Thomas at the 2020 Tirreno-Adriatico (Photo : Yuzuru SUNADA)
(Image credit: Yuzuru SUNADA)
British Cycling performance director Stephen Park said on the team selection: “We have consistently seen some fantastic results from British riders at the major road races over recent months, and I’m confident that success will translate across to the UCI Road World Championships.
“Geraint is in good form, as proven by his second-place finish on the general classification at the Tirreno-Adriatico, and we have been working closely with Alex and his coaches over recent months to support his time trial ambitions, so I’m confident we will see some good results in that event.
“As we always do, we’ve seen Luke Rowe play a solid role as team captain during the Tour de France this year, and it’s been brilliant to see Hugh Carthy up there for his team on the mountain stages. I’m also pleased to see Tom Pidcock selected for the elite men’s race, having won this year’s Giro d’Italia Under 23. He’s a great talent, and a highlight this year was watching him finish in second place in the elite cyclo-cross World Championships, so I’m looking forward to seeing him take on the elite men’s field out on the road."
There was some suggestion that one, if not both, Yates brothers would be riding. But both Adam and Simon are not riding with Adam resting after the Tour de France and Simon preparing for another go at the Giro d'Italia off the back of his Tirreno-Adriatico win.
Park continued: “The way the race calendar is this year means we are missing some of our Grand Tour specialists in the road race as they prepare for the forthcoming Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España, but regardless of that I believe we have a strong men’s team for both the road race and the time trial events and I know we will make the fans proud.”
Great Britain Cycling Team men's squad for Road World Championships 2020
Elite Men's Road Race
PIDCOCK Tom
KNOX James
SHAW James
CARTHY Hugh
ROWE Luke
HAYTOR Ethan
Elite Men's Individual Time Trial
THOMAS Geraint
DOWSETT Alex
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