Road World Championships 2021: Elite men’s road race start list

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