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2016 Doha UCI road world championships preview: road races

A sprinters' feast in the desert

October 6, 2016
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In the first part of Canadian Cycling Magazine’s preview of the 2016 UCI Road World Championships in Doha, Qatar, we looked at the time trials, which start Sunday.

Canada’s 25-rider squad had been getting ready at a training camp in Israel in preparation for the week of competition.

The status of road races, slated to begin next Thursday, is up in the air, as high temperatures might call for enacting the extreme weather protocol. The men’s race, planned for 257.5-km, may be reduced to 106-km. All the other races–each taking in laps of the Pearl–could be shortened as well. Whatever happens, the routes for all the contests will be flat.

Up first on Thursday are the U23 men, the guinea pigs of the Pearl’s circuit. Canada sends a quintet to contest 10-laps of 15.2-km, or 166-km: Alec Cowan, David Drouin, Sean Mackinnon, Nicolas Masbourian and Benjamin Perry, who won the King of the Mountains of last year’s Tour of Alberta. Reigning champ Kévin Ledanois (France) is too old to defend his title.


On Friday, October 14, the Junior men and women see action, with the women rolling four laps of the Pearl’s 15.2-km circuit and the men eight laps. Canada sends a quartet of men to the race: two Ontarians, Matthew Staples and Nickolas Zukowsky, and two from Quebec, Charles-Étienne Chrétien and Thierry Kirouac-Marcassa. Last year’s champion was Austrian Felix Gall.

The Junior women are Erin Attwell of Victoria, BC; Laurie Jussaume from Contrecoeur, QC; Devaney Collier of Edmonton, AB and the remarkable Maggie Coles-Lyster of Maple Ridge, BC. Seventeen-year-old Coles-Lyster will be racing her third world championships of the year, after the Cyclocross Worlds in Belgium and the Under-17 track World Championships in Switzerland. American Chloe Dygert is the reigning champion.

Saturday the 15th is the women’s Elite road race, 134.1-km that takes in 7-laps of the Pearl after a short introduction. Canada’s sextet are Sara Bergen, Karol-Ann Canuel, Annie Foreman-Mackey, Alison Jackson, WorldTour runner-up Leah Kirchmann and Joelle Numainville. The latter two have the best chance on this course.

Can Lizzie Deignan (née Armitstead) repeat?
Can Lizzie Deignan (née Armitstead) repeat?

Lizzie Armistead (Great Britain), now Lizzie Deignan, is back to defend her title, but it might not be the best course for her. She’ll have competition from the Dutch trio of Chantal Blaak, Ellen van Dijk and Kristin Wild, Belgian Jolien D’Hoore and Aussie Chloe Hosking. This is also a dandy parcours for American Coryn Rivera.

The next day come the elite men. If the course stays the same, they’ll head north for what might be a long, blustery day on the desert highways before their own 7-laps of the Pearl. Canada’s Ryan Anderson, Guillaume Boivin, Adam de Vos, Antoine Duchesne, Hugo Houle and Ryan Roth comprise a cracking line-up, with perhaps Anderson the best sprinter in the sextet.


There are several countries that have decisions to make on the road: Germany, Italy, France, Australia, Belgium and Great Britain all have more than one capable sprinter. Belgium and Great Britain will try to take advantage of winds to create splits in their favour. But the favourites are the irrepressible champion Peter Sagan, German duo Andre Greipel and Marcel Kittel, Brit Mark Cavendish, fiery Frenchman Nacer Bouhanni, Aussies Caleb Ewan and Michael Matthews, Norwegian Alexander Kristoff and Colombian Fernando Gaviria.