Road World Championships 2021: Elite men’s road race start list
All the names taking part in the 2021 elite men's World Championships road race in Leuven, Belgium


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The UCI Road World Championships 2021 takes place in the Belgian region of Flanders with the men's road race taking place around the town of Leuven on Sunday, September 26.
The men's elite road race is the final event at the World Championships after a week of events. The route takes the riders over a tough 268.3kms with over 2500 metres of climbing throughout the day as they tackle eight laps around Leuven and two laps on the 'Flandrien circuit'.
This race is ideal for riders that excel in the Ardennes Classics, however, there is a possibility that a sprinter could be involved in the shakeup for the win. At least, judging by the riders selected, that is what the teams think.
Julian Alaphilippe is going to look to retain his title with the French team along with the on-form Florian Sénéchal, his Deceuninck - Quick-Step team-mate. Alaphilippe comes into the race after a solid third place at the Tour of Britain as well as solid rides in Belgian one-day races.
Wout van Aert (Belgium) is seen as the big favourite for the race on home roads and top form that saw him dominate the Tour of Britain where he won four of the eight stages as well as second in the World Championships time trial.
The Belgian team has plenty of options though if something goes wrong with Remco Evenepoel likely being the main focus. They also have Jasper Stuyvan, Tiesj Benoot and Yves Lampaert among others.
Italy have brought a shortlist of riders too with several on fine form coming into the race as another favourite likely leading the team is Italian and European champion, Sonny Colbrelli who recently won the Benelux Tour.
Alongside him are Matteo Trentin, Davide Ballerini, Giacomo Nizzolo, Gianni Moscon and others giving the team multiple options.
Mathieu van der Poel has been confirmed to be riding for the Netherlands after showing good form despite worries around his back injury that put doubts on him racing the Worlds and Paris-Roubaix.
Denmark comes with a hugely talented list of riders including former champion Mads Pedersen as well as on-form Michael Valgren and Magnus Cort with Kasper Asgreen, Søren Kragh Andersen, Mikkel Honoré and Andreas Kron to name a few on the list.
Slovakia's one-man show is looking like it could continue as Peter Sagan looks to be back to his top form yet again after winning the Tour of Slovakia for the first time on his debut appearance.
British hopes can not be counted out either as the team bring a very talented squad including Ethan Hayter, Mark Cavendish, Tom Pidcock, Jake Stewart and others racing.
Tour de France champion Tadej Pogačar is also expected to race for Slovenia as well as Caleb Ewan and Michael Matthews of Australia. Quinn Simmons could be an outside bet for the USA with Alejandro Valverde (Spain), Nils Politt (Germany) and Alexey Lutsenko (Kazakhstan) all danger men.
Here is the provisional start list for the 2021 elite men's road race...
France
ALAPHILIPPE Julian
MADOUAS Valentin
DÉMARE Arnaud
SÉNÉCHAL Florian
LAPORTE Christophe
COSNEFROY Benoît
TURGIS Anthony
CAVAGNA Rémi
RUSSO Clément
Denmark
PEDERSEN Mads
CORT Magnus
ASGREEN Kasper
VALGREN Michael
KRAGH ANDERSEN Søren
HONORÉ Mikkel
KRON Andreas
BJERG Mikkel
WÜRTZ SCHMIDT Mads
Slovenia
POGAČAR Tadej
TRATNIK Jan
MOHORIČ Matej
NOVAK Domen
ROGLIČ Primož
MEZGEC Luka
PER David
POLANC Jan
Italy
TRENTIN Matteo
BALLERINI Davide
NIZZOLO Giacomo
BAGIOLI Andrea
COLBRELLI Sonny
MOSCON Gianni
ULISSI Diego
DE MARCHI Alessandro
Belgium
VAN AERT Wout
EVENEPOEL Remco
STUYVEN Jasper
BENOOT Tiesj
LAMPAERT Yves
TEUNS Dylan
CAMPENAERTS Victor
DECLERCQ Tim
Netherlands
VAN DER POEL Mathieu
RIESEBEEK Oscar
MOLLEMA Bauke
TEUNISSEN Mike
LANGEVELD Sebastian
VAN BAARLE Dylan
EENKHOORN Pascal
VAN POPPEL Danny
Colombia
URAN Rigoberto
GAVIRIA Fernando
MOLANO Sebastian
HIGUITA Sergio
HODEG Alvaro
SOTO Nelson
HERNANDEZ Jose Tito
CHAVES Esteban
Germany
POLITT Nils
SCHACHMANN Max
DEGENKOLB John
STEIMLE Jannik
ARNDT Nikias
ACKERMANN Pascal
ZIMMERMANN Georg
Spain
RODRÍGUEZ Carlos
ARANBURU Alex
SERRANO Gonzalo
ERVITI Imanol
IZAGIRRE Gorka
ADRIÁ Roger
MAS Luis
GARCÍA CORTINA Iván
Australia
MATTHEWS Michael
EWAN Caleb
DURBRIDGE Luke
HAAS Nathan
SCHULTZ Nick
SWEENY Harry
STANNARD Robert
SCOTSON Miles
Great Britain
CAVENDISH Mark
HAYTER Ethan
PIDCOCK Tom
ROWE Luke
STEWART Jake
SWIFT Ben
SWIFT Connor
WRIGHT Fred
Norway
TILLER Rasmus
KRISTOFF Alexander
EIKING Odd Christian
LAENGEN Vegard Stake
BYSTRØM Sven Erik
HOELGAARD Markus
Romania
GROSU Eduard-Michael
Poland
KWIATKOWSKI Michał
BODNAR Maciej
ANIOŁKOWSKI Stanisław
GOŁAŚ Michał
OWSIAN Łukasz
BENEDETTI Cesare
New Zealand
SCULLY Tom
BAUER Jack
BROWN Connor
ARCHBOLD Shane
Ireland
MULLEN Ryan
TOWNSEND Rory
DUNBAR Eddie
Switzerland
BISSEGGER Stefan
HIRSCHI Marc
DILLIER Silvan
KÜNG Stefan
SCHÄR Michael
LIENHARD Fabien
Ecuador
PITA Cristian David
NOVOA Leonidas Sebastián
QUINTEROS Alexis Benjamin
HARO Wilson
GUAMÁ Byron
BURBANO Joel Levi
Portugal
ALMEIDA João
REIS Rafael
OLIVEIRA Rui
OLIVEIRA Nelson
CARVALHO Andre
Slovakia
SAGAN Peter
SAGAN Juraj
TYBOR Patrik
BASKA Erik
United States of America
SIMMONS Quinn
MCNULTY Brandon
JORGENSON Matteo
POWLESS Neilson
CRADDOCK Lawson
CARPENTER Robin
Austria
SCHÖNBERGER
HALLER Marco
GOGL Michael
GAMPER Patrick
Czech Republic
ČERNÝ Josef
ŠTYBAR Zdeněk
VAKOČ Petr
KUKRLE Michael
Kazakhstan
GIDICH Yevgeniy
NATAROV Yuriy
GRUZDEV Dmitriy
FOMINYKH Daniil
South Africa
JANSE VAN RENSBURG Reinardt
IMPEY Daryl
GIBBONS Ryan
JULIUS Jayde
Estonia
LAAS Martin
VAHTRA Norman
NISU Oskar
LAUK Karl Patrick
Luxembourg
GENIETS Kevin
KIRSCH Alex
Ukraine
PADUN Mark
BUDYAK Anatoliy
KONONENKO Mykhaylo
KULIK Andriy
PREVAR Oleksandr
Eritrea
KUDUS Merhawi
BERHANE Natnael
YEMANE Dawit
EYOB Metkel
Canada
HOULE Hugo
BOIVIN Guillaume
PERRY Ben
ZUKOWSKY Nickolas
DUSCHESNE Antoine
COTÉ Pier-André
Latvia
SKUJIŅŠ Toms
NEILANDS Krists
LIEPIŅŠ Emīls
PLUTO Mārtinš
Hungary
PEÁK Barnabás
Lithuania
ŠIŠKEVIČIUS Evaldas
Sweden
ERIKSSON Lucas
MAGNUSSON Kim
Greece
TZORTZAKIS Polychronis
Japan
ARASHIRO Yukiya
Panama
ARCHIBALD Franklin
Mexico
FRAYRE Eder
Albania
SEFA Yiber
Uruguay
FAGUNDEZ Eric Antonio
Venezuela
AULAR Orluis
Belarus
RIABUSHENKO Alexandr
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Hi, I'm one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!
I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.
It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.
After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories.
When not writing stories for the site, I don't really switch off my cycling side as I watch every race that is televised as well as being a rider myself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager. Maybe too regular.
My bike is a well used Specialized Tarmac SL4 when out on my local roads back in West Yorkshire as well as in northern Hampshire with the hills and mountains being my preferred terrain.
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