The 2024 UCI Road World Championships in Zurich will conclude on Sunday with the race for the elite men’s road title, and if the challenging course and the past several battles for the rainbow jersey are any indication, we should be in for a good show.
Tadej Pogačar, Remco Evenepoel, and defending champion Mathieu van der Poel are just a few of the big names on the star-studded start list for a race that could go any number of ways on a lumpy circuit sure to spur attacks. Here’s what you need to know about the elite men’s road race in Zurich.
How to Watch
Race start: 04:00 EST / 09:00 BST / 10:00 CET / 18:00 AEST
Expected finish: 11:30 EST / 16:30 BST / 17:30 CET / 01:30 (Monday) AEST
Streaming: Eurosport/Discovery+ 🇪🇺🇬🇧, SBS🇦🇺, FloBikes🇨🇦🇺🇸
The route
As you might expect from a World Championships road race in Switzerland, the course has some climbs in it and = a total of 4,470 meters of elevation gain over the 273.9 km journey. That said, it’s a hilly affair rather than a mountainous one.
Riders will spend a little over an hour on up-and-down roads after leaving the start in Winterthur before they drop into a circuit in Zurich. They will do seven laps of that circuit and its climbing challenges, which include the very short but steep Zürichbergstrasse and the longer Witikon, as well as some shorter rollers after they hit the top of the Witikon.
The final few kilometers of each lap – and of the finale itself – are a downhill run into a brief flat stretch that then rises slightly towards the finish. A reduced sprint on that sort of terrain does not seem entirely out of the question, though given the riders set to contest the world title on Sunday, it seems pretty likely that we’ll see big attacks getting clear long before the final kilometer …
A big three?
The race should give us an exciting opportunity to see three of the sport’s top one-day stars butting heads in a way that we have rarely had a chance to enjoy – though the biggest question going into the race is whether it will be a three-way battle at all, or if the heavy pre-race favorite will run away with it.
In short: Will either Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) or Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) really be able to stick with Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia) on Sunday?
The course certainly suits the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia champ and Pogačar showed at the GP Montréal that he is in flying form, putting in a solo move from 24 km out on a climb not all that unlike the Witikon. His Slovenian squad isn’t quite UAE Team Emirates, but he will have Domen Novak for support regardless of whether Primož Roglič (also an outside contender for the win) feels like being a good teammate on the day. The question that everyone in the peloton will be waiting to see answered is when Pogačar will put in his inevitable attack. Will he wait until the final lap or will he try something from further out?
In any case, Evenepoel and Van der Poel have also authored some brilliant victories via long-range strikes this year, and the Worlds route is not so hard as to make Pogačar the only potential winner of this race.
Evenepoel, with his huge engine, is a clear second favorite, and we have not actually seen him go head-to-head with Pogačar that often in the one-day races where both of them thrive. His path to victory is similar to Pogačar’s in that it relies on him making a big solo move, and with the form he has shown all summer, he could very well beat Pogačar to the punch with a big dig in the final laps, or follow Pogačar’s move and then counter with one of his own. Evenepoel also has a solid Belgian squad around him; Maxim Van Gils is a very strong second card to play.
Van der Poel was so dominant in the spring that he is an obvious contender to defend his world title, but it must be said that this route could be a bit too hilly for the winner of Paris-Roubaix to hang with climbers like Pogačar and Evenepoel. One is reminded of this year’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège, where Van der Poel came in off the back of his exceptional cobbled campaign but was unable to match Pogačar’s big move when it came.
Still, nobody in the world can put the power down for just a few minutes the way that Van der Poel can, and he could tip the scales in his favor if he can just hold the wheel on the climbs and then rely on his sprint or a late solo bid as things flatten out.
The best of the rest
Marc Hirschi (Switzerland) has not looked this good as a rainbow jersey contender since his breakthrough 2020 campaign, where he rode to a bronze medal at Worlds. This time, he is on home turf. His run of one-day success over the past month and a half was a sight to behold, though he was only decent at the Tour de Luxembourg. Like Pogačar and Evenepoel, he will be looking for his moment to put in an uphill surge, and he will have at least a little bit less of the peloton’s attention – though still plenty of it – if he tries something. Will Pogačar’s Slovenian teammates be able to chase him down if he goes from afar? Will Belgium or the Netherlands do the work knowing they might just be helping Pogačar? Hirschi has a real chance here.
Matteo Jorgenson headlines a surprisingly deep American team, and it’s hard to know just how to rate his chances. The course would seem to suit him well, and if he is bringing the sort of form he took to Paris-Nice and Dwars door Vlaanderen, he might even be able to hang with the favorites. We haven’t seen that form over his past few racing appearances but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t timed a peak perfectly. We’ll see on Sunday; Neilson Powless gives the United States a legitimate second option as well.
Tom Pidcock would be a bigger favorite on this very friendly course if he his past few weeks had gone more favorably. At least on the road, he has been relatively quiet in the results department since the spring, and he suffered a concussion at the Tour of Britain. Given that, it would hardly be surprising to see him out of contention entirely, but nor would it be a big surprise if he is in the mix for the win. Stephen Williams will be a solid dark horse for the British team. He has the punch to try something on these climbs.
The Julian Alaphilippe of a few years ago might have been the top favorite on this very favorable course, and he did look good at San Sebastián and the GP Montréal. France has an outside shot. So too does Ireland courtesy of Ben Healy, who has found wins hard to come by this season but will nevertheless like the route. Denmark has Mattias Skjelmose as a potential attacker with Mads Pedersen in the mix as well, probably hoping to hold on over the climbs. The same could be said of Michael Matthews (Australia), who is fresh off a victory at the GP Québec.
Latvia’s Toms Skujiņš, Spain’s Pello Bilbao and Juan Ayuso, and Canada’s Mike Woods are other riders to watch on Sunday.
The Escape Collective star ratings
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: Tadej Pogačar
⭐⭐⭐⭐: Remco Evenepoel
⭐⭐⭐: Mathieu van der Poel
⭐⭐: Marc Hirschi, Matteo Jorgenson, Primož Roglič, Tom Pidcock, Stephen Williams, Julian Alaphilippe, Ben Healy
⭐: Mattias Skjelmose, Mads Pedersen, Michael Matthews, Toms Skujiņš, Pello Bilbao, Juan Ayuso, Mike Woods
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