UCI Road World Championships 2024 - road race contenders

The road races at the UCI Road World Championships 2024 in Zürich are upon us, with the elite women's and men's the final road events at this year's Worlds. The races against the clock are scheduled for the last weekend with the women's race occurring on the Saturday, 28 September, followed by the men's on the Sunday, 29 September.

Both are over seriously hilly courses that finish in the centre of Zürich, the biggest city in Switzerland, with the men's the longest race in a generation. Both resemble Liège-Bastogne-Liège in their profile and distance, and both will surely be decided on the Zürich city course.

Favourites include defending champions Lotte Kopecky of Belgium and Mathieu van der Poel of the Netherlands, although such is the route that Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia) and Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) are the ones to watch in the men's race. The women's should be more open, where Demi Vollering (Netherlands) and Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy) will be in the conversation.

The 2024 Worlds is the first to combine the Road Worlds and the Para-cycling Worlds in the same event, with the para-cycling road races happening throughout the week; there are lots of riders to watch in those events too.

Women to watch

Lotte Kopecky (Belgium)

Since winning last year’s Worlds road race in Glasgow, Lotte Kopecky has honoured the rainbow jersey in style, discovering new-found skills as a climber to make the podium at the Giro d’Italia, yet losing none of her edge in the classics; triumphing at Paris-Roubaix and Strade Bianche. She’ll be a marked woman, and her Belgian team face a challenge to protect her from attacks, but she’ll be desperate to make amends for her Paris 2024 campaign that yielded only a bronze medal from the road race, and none from the track events.

Demi Vollering (Netherlands)

Following her crash-induced defeat at the Tour de France Femmes by an agonising four seconds, Demi Vollering will be itching to bounce back. Though she’s cleaned up in all the stage races that preceded the Tour this year, the Dutchwoman hasn’t won a Classic since April 2023, and has fallen short of the supreme standards she set during her annus mirabilis last season. A big win is due: will it come in the form of a first World title?

Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy)

The highlight of what has been the best season in Elisa Longo Borghini’s career came in July, when she won the Giro d’Italia Women title on her thirteenth attempt. Now, for what will be her thirteenth Worlds road race, might she also win the rainbow jersey that has also always eluded her? Much will depend on how she’s recovered from the crash that forced her out of the Tour de France Femmes in August.

Marianne Vos (Netherlands)

Everyone knows by now that you can never underestimate the great Marianne Vos - even at the age of 37. Yet she still keeps finding ways to go under the radar and snatch major victories. She won classics in spring, including Amstel Gold, the green jersey at the Tour de France Femmes, and was only denied Olympic gold in Paris by a late Kristen Faulkner attack. Riding in the powerful Dutch line-up, she’ll have the advantage of working with, rather than against, many of her usual trade team rivals.

Others to watch

Many of the recent biggest races have been won by outsider favourites, so who’s to say the same won’t happen in Zurich? Kristen Faulkner showed at the Olympics how the elite riders can be overcome by slipping clear for gold with a late, smartly-timed attack, although she will surely be more closely marked now she is the Olympic champion. The form Grace Brown showed to win the corresponding time trial in Paris at a canter suggests she too can’t be allowed any leeway, in what will be her last time representing Australia before retiring. She has already won one race this week, the elite time trial, and has nothing to lose.

Kasia Niewadoma is the other in-form underdog following her thrilling triumph over Demi Vollering at the Tour de France, and whether or not she is exhausted from those efforts, or bolstered with new-found confidence from at last landing a major win, will determine if she’s in the mix for the Worlds title.

Among those hoping for a quieter, less selective race are Lorena Wiebes and Elisa Balsamo, who would be among the favourites in a sprint, but there are plenty who will try to deny them — chief among them Elise Chabbey, who will want to give her home Swiss fans something to cheer about by animating the race.

Men to watch

Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia)

Can the incomparable Tadej Pogačar complete what has already been one of the all-time great seasons, and follow Eddy Merckx and Stephen Roche to become only the third man in history to achieve the ‘Triple Crown’ of winning the Giro, Tour and Worlds road race in one season? The Worlds is a trickier race for him, given the superior strength of his rivals’ teams. He missed the Olympics to recover after the Tour and has 21 wins under his belt this season. If he’s still on that form he is nigh-on unbeatable.

Remco Evenepoel (Belgium)

Having been crowned Olympic champion in both the road race and time trial in Paris last month, Remco Evenepoel now has his sights set on adding the road race world title he first won two years ago in Wollongong. The Belgian chose the Tour of Britain as his final warm-up race where he admitted to spending a lot of his time ‘mostly eating’ after his Olympic wins. Including a midnight kebab with his wife. Everyone will be on the look out for the long range attack. Whether or not they can follow is the question. Already has a rainbow jersey at these Worlds.

Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands)

Mathieu van der Poel’s form might have dipped since his incredible, history-making spring campaign, with a quiet Tour de France followed by a failure to be in the mix for gold at the Olympic road race. But do not underestimate him — after all, a similarly subdued run preceded his crushing victory at the Worlds in Glasgow last year, when even a crash in the final stages didn’t stop him winning by over a minute and a half.

Matteo Jorgenson (USA)

The American has only raced 44 days this year, but what he lacks in volume, he makes up for in consistency. He won Paris Nice and finished second at the Dauphine, and throughout both races was barely out of the top ten each day. Eighth on GC at the Tour was a breakthrough Grand Tour performance, while ninth in Paris showed he has the nous to be in the right place at the right time and follow the right moves without race radios or multiple teammates around him.

Though lacking an individual on the same level as Pogačar or Evenepoel, collectively the French team have both the depth and tactical acumen to challenge for victory. Julian Alaphilippe capitalised on this to win both the 2020 and 2021 Worlds, while Valentin Madouas and Christope Laporte are in great form having combined to win silver and bronze respectively at the Paris Olympics.

Just as the French rose to the occasion on home roads in Paris, the Swiss looked poised for a strong showing in Zurich. Marc Hirschi at last resembled the man who burst onto the scene four years ago while winning the Clasica San Sebastian last month, while Stefan Küng can always be depended upon to be up towards the front in major one-day races.

As for Britain, they’re once again to be spearheaded by Tom Pidcock. While the Yorkshireman can blow hot and cold in the biggest races, on his best day he’s one of the few men capable of challenging the top favourites.

It’s been five years since the Worlds wasn’t won by a solo winner, and seven years since the last large group sprint, but the course in Zurich isn’t hard enough to rule one out altogether this year. Mads Pedersen and Michael Matthews would likely come into play in such circumstances, as well as provide a chance for Biniam Girmay to continue his history-making season by becoming the first ever African world road race medalist.

U23 and junior riders to watch

JOSEPH BLACKMORE

This year’s star of under-23 race scene has been Britain’s Joe Blackmore, who last month added the overall win at the Tour de l'Avenir to the Liège-Bastogne-Liège classic he won in the spring. His results saw him move from the Israel-Premier Tech development team to the WorldTour squad mid-season. His results at senior level this year suggest he’s probably already outgrown this level, but as a marked man, any result will be hard fought.

PABLO TORRES

The Spaniard caused a sensation at the Tour de l’Avenir last month when he rode away from the field to win the final stage atop the Colle delle Finestre by nearly four minutes. Second on GC here matched his second place at the baby Giro and this in his first season out of the junior ranks. A member of the UAE Emirates Gen Z development team, Torres is a classy climber which will help on the Zurich parcours, although his one-day pedigree is a little lacking.

ALBERT WITHEN PHILIPSEN

There’s been a great deal of hype around Albert Philipsen since last year, when at the age of just 16, he became the youngest ever winner of the junior road race world title. To add to his junior world title in mountain biking. The results prompted a scramble for his signature, won by Lidl-Trek who have secured his services through to 2028. Having just turned 18 at the start of September, he remains eligible to defend his junior title on the road.

KIM CADZOW

Once again the women’s U23 race will take place within the senior race, meaning the title of world champion will be assigned to whichever rider of that age category finishes highest. As one of the most exciting talents of the 2024 season, Kim Cadzow is one to watch. Her ability as a one-day racer was demonstrated in her sixth-place finish at Liège-Bastogne-Liège in April, while eighth at the Tour de Suisse proves she can climb too. Seventh in the Olympic TT reinforced her overall credentials.

CAT FERGUSON

Ferguson’s 2024 Palmares has shades of Remco Evenepoel’s last year as a junior. Every single race has a 1, 2, or 3 listed against it. Be it a one-day event, stages in stages races, general classifications or points and mountains classifications. She has recently added junior track world titles to her name too. She made her WorldTour debut for Movistar just last week and is the most exciting young rider to come out of the UK in years.

Para-cyclists to watch

Look out for British T2 trike racer Felix Barrow, who claimed road race bronze and the last World Cup in Italy in May. He will be fighting with Dennis Connors from the USA, who claimed silver in Paris. Britain took no trikes or handcycles to the Games, so this is where Barrow needs to make his mark.

Similarly, our H4 handcyclists will be out in force, in the form of Callum Russell and Alex Brooke-Turner, both of whom have been consistent top-10 finishers in one of the biggest road classifications where athletes use their arms to pedal. Paralympic H4 champion Jetze Plat from the Netherlands is absent, giving them a good shot at fending off dangerous Austrian Thomas Frühwirth and teammates.

C2 Matthew Robertson should shine here too; he kept up with stronger C3 competitors in the mixed classification event in Paris, including Jaco van Gass, Ben Watson and even winner of the Paralympic gold Fin Graham. C3 Watson, who lost his double Paralympic title in Paris, will be especially hungry to perform here.

Britain’s C4 Archie Atkinson, newcomer and proud track pursuit silver medallist, crashed in his Paris road race and will want to show off his road prowess. British C5 William Bjergfelt, an endurance specialist not selected for the Games, was last year’s road race world champion so he is one to watch as he battles with Ukrainian Yehor Dementyev and Dutchman Martin van de Pol.