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2014 UCI road world championships preview

September 19, 2014
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Sunday marks the start of a week of competition at the 2014 UCI road world championships in Ponferrada, Spain with the trade team time trials. It wraps up a week later with the men’s elite road race. In all, riders from all over the world face 12 different contests. Canadian athletes will be in 10 of the races.

The time trial courses are northwest of the city, while the 18.2-km road circuit runs counter-clockwise to the northeast of Ponferrada. The junior women will be the first to navigate the 18.2-km on Friday, Sept. 26, with the under-23 men following later that afternoon.

The road circuit of the 2014 UCI Road World Championships
The road circuit of the 2014 UCI road world championships

The trade teams doing battle on Sunday tackle a rolling course with a little hill close to the finish line. Omega Pharma-QuickStep, the reigning two-time champion, has chrono beast Tony Martin (Germany) at its core, but will face stiff competition from Orica-GreenEdge, winner of the Giro d’Italia team time trial. Canadian Svein Tuft is part of the Orica gang. Other teams in the mix will be BMC, Movistar and Sky.

Like Omega Pharma, Specialized-lululemon chase their third consecutive title in the women’s TTT since the contest went to a trade team format. Though lineups haven’t been confirmed yet, Canadian Karol-Ann Canuel might be in the Specialized sextet trying to stave off Marianne Vos’s Dutch-core Rabobank-Liv squad. The Australian-heavy Orica-AIS can’t be discounted.

The women’s individual time trial route is 29.5 km in length and doesn’t include the looped tail of the men’s course that has the two climbs of the road course. Kiwi Linda Villumsen, who recently made the jump from Wiggle-Honda to UnitedHealthcare, has been on the podium in the past five seasons, but hopes to usurp title-holder Ellen van Dijk (The Netherlands) and keep American Evelyn Stevens at bay.

The men’s chrono has an overwhelming favourite in Tony Martin, who won’t have Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland) as one of his main rivals, as Spartacus is preserving himself for the road race. However, the runner-up from last season, Bradley Wiggins (Great Britain), is out for glory, as is rising powerhouse Tom Dumoulin (The Netherlands), still smarting from losing the Tour of Alberta on the final stage. Adriano Malori (Italy) and American Tejay van Garderen are factors as well.

The road course features the long, gradual climb of the Confederacion (4 km) and the short, steep ascent of the Mirador (2 km) on each lap. The Mirador comes just 4 km from the line, but down a tricky descent. The winners of the five scheduled road races might be someone strong enough and crafty enough to get away on the Mirador and stay away.

Who can challenge Vos on the women’s seven laps? She is dominant in women’s cycling, but this year she didn’t win the UCI women’s World Cup, having started her 2014 road season with the fourth event. Swedish dynamo Emma Johansson, last year’s runner-up, will have Vos in her sights. Lizzie Armistead (Great Britain) won the World Cup. Vos’s Worlds competition tends to come from Italy, so the three-time world road champion will be wary of Bronzini, Borghini and Ratto.

The hot hand in men’s cycling belongs to Australia’s Simon Gerrans, who won both of last weeks’s WorldTour GP Cyclistes. Ponferrada is his kind of course, and he’ll bring a strong Aussie team to back him. The Belgians have Tom Boonen, Sep Vanmarcke and Philippe Gilbert to stop Gerrans. Alejandro Valverde of Spain has had a fantastic season, even though he’s been kept off the top step of Grand Tours. He’ll be looking to make up for last year’s shambolic lack of marking that put Rui Costa on the top step and teammate Joaquim Rodriguez in tears in Florence. Can Alexander Kristoff (Norway) be the spoiler? Or can Vincenzo Nibali (Italy) get over his crash-marred ending of the Florence race?

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