Top 10 conclusions from the road World Championships: Part 2

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The Velocio-SRAM team during the race(Image credit: Fotoreporter Sirotti)

A week of world-class road racing, only let down by poor television coverage

The 16km road race circuit was not packed with climbs; with some nations expecting or hoping for an easy race decided by a big group sprint finish. However the three climbs of Libby Hill, 23rd Street and Governors Street all came in the final five kilometres of the circuit, with little time to recover between them. Each climb was also different with the cobbles of Libby Hill stringing out the riders before the steep cobbled ramp up 23rd Street. A fast descent followed by Governors Street offered a final test of strength and fitness before the long finishing straight.

An emotional Kristy Scrymgeour told Cyclingnews following her team's victory that, "This is a relief in some ways. It's always been building up to this moment and we've put a lot of energy into this as it's finishing our season and we know that it was going to be even harder than before because we came off the last World Cup in second place and it was so tight going back and forth the whole time."

The result comes on top of Valverde’s two silver and four bronze medals in past editions and, while the rainbow jersey continues to elude him, he has cemented himself as the nearly man of the World Championships. With the exception of two low placings in 2007 and 2008, and the two-year absence during his drugs ban in 2010 and 2011, Valverde has no fewer than nine top-10 finishes to his name since his debut in 2003.

Sunday’s fifth was his lowest finish since his return from the ban, and reflects a remarkable wider level of consistency at the top of the sport from the man who is showing no sign of fading despite his 35 years of age. He has topped the WorldTour rankings for two straight years now but that holds precious little significance compared to the prestige of the rainbow bands. Will he ever get to wear them?

In the elite men's race, Alex Howes was 12th and the top placed American, and his teammates factored into every breakaway during the 260km race. The elite women were equally as aggressive in their race with riders Coryn Rivera and Evelyn Stevens involved in breakaways, while Megan Guarnier went on to secure a bronze medal behind new world champion Lizzie Armitstead and silver medallist Anna Van der Breggen.

Now that the dust has started to settle on the Richmond World Championships we can start thinking about Qatar in 2016. Anybody who attended the World Championships in Richmond or even watched them on the television would have been left with no doubt of the support the riders and racing had from the fans. People lined the streets, particularly the climbs, and provided a party like atmosphere to proceedings. The course also gave us some thrilling racing throughout the week.

Going on the nature of the country’s profile, we can expect a pretty flat course that will lend its self to the power men and women in the time trial and the sprinters in the road race. As we’ve seen in the Tour of Qatar, it doesn’t mean that it will be a simple, straightforward affair. Cross winds will likely be a big factor in all of the events and could cause some interesting conundrums when it comes to the time trials.