The end of the racing season is near and the UCI Road World Championships are underway, with the week-long slate of races running from September 21-29.
After last year's 'mega Worlds' in Glasgow, Scotland, this season the races take place in Zürich, Switzerland featuring challenging hilly courses throughout the week.
The biggest stars of the men's and women's pelotons will be heading to Switzerland for the Worlds, including reigning road race champions Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) and Lotte Kopecky (Belgium).
Pre-race favourite Remco Evenepoel, winner of the individual time trial world title last weekend, completed a 200km, six-hour training ride around Zurich on Wednesday and European time trial champion Lotte Kopecky was the guest of honour at the UCI junior conference, as the World Championships transitioned from time trials to road racing.
Filippo Ganna ended his UCI Road World Championships with a third in the Mixed Relay time trial as part of the Italian team, while in stark contrast, Michael Mathews tested his form and studied the road race circuit as part of the winning Australia mixed relay team. Elisa Longo Borghini and Gaia Realini also got a taste of the 27km Zurich circuit and now know they face a demanding race on Saturday.
The Belgian team surprisingly did not field a team in the Mixed Relay, apparently due to costs, allowing Evenepoel to complete his long ride and Kopecky to share her experiences of being a world champion.
Next up in the 2024 UCI Road World Championships
Belgium's Lotte Kopecky will be hoping to hold onto the rainbow jersey she won in Glasgow last year (Image credit: Getty Images)
The first of five road race events begin on Thursday, with the junior women's and men's road races. The men's under-23 road race is on Friday, the elite women's 154.1km race is on Saturday and the elite men's 273.9km race is on Sunday.
Rain is expected all day on Thursday, with colder but drier weather forecast for the weekend.
Most riders, including Tadej Pogačar, Demi Vollering and Julian Alaphilippe are expected to arrive in Zurich on Thursday so they can see the road race circuit during official training on Friday morning.
Kopecky trained intensively one last time on Tuesday and began her taper for Saturday. She told the hundreds of young riders present at the junior conference about her own experiences as a rider, her pride at being a world champion and how she is not afraid to reach out to a mental coach in a moment of difficulty. She included herself in the list of favourites for Saturday's road race.
"I saw the course this week. I like it, that's the most important thing. I'm one of the favourites, but there are many riders who are eligible for the world title. At least ten: Vollering, Lippert, Longo Borghini, Niewiadoma..." she told Het Laatste Nieuws.
Evenepoel visited a local chocolate museum on Tuesday but burned over 5,000 calories during his six-hour 201km ride on Wednesday.
In 1996, when Johan Museeuw won the world title in Lugano, Switzerland, he famously completed a 270km final training ride with Laurent Jalabert to Sankt Moritz and back. Evenepoel joked on Strava that snow stopped him climbing up to Sankt Moritz but still trained hard, climbing 2664 metres of altitude in six hours and eight minutes and 43 seconds in the saddle, at an average speed of 32.9km/h.
Victor Campenaerts, Laurens De Plus and Belgian national coach Sven Vanthourenhout trained with Evenepoel. The remaining riders in the eight-rider Belgian men's team will arrive in Zurich on Thursday. They are Quinten Hermans, Tiesj Benoot, Maxim Van Gils, Jasper Stuyven and Tim Wellens.
Evenepoel and Kopecky will speak about their hopes for the world championships early on Friday morning before their training ride. They follow Pogačar, who will speak on Thursday evening and precede Mathieu van der Poel, Vollering and the Dutch road race team, who will speak on Friday evening.
By then, there will be no more time for training or interviews. The 2024 world title will be decided during an intense weekend of racing.
The World Championships are in full swing, read on to find out how to watch the action ahead.
Road World Championships live in the USA
Follow Cyclingnews on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for alerts on important stories and action during the UCI Road World Championships.
FloBikes will air the UCI Road World Championships in full in the USA. An annual subscription will set you back $150/year.
Road World Championships live in Canada
In Canada, the UCI Road World Championships will also be streamed on Flobikes with a subscription costing $29.99/month or $150/year.
Road World Championships live in the UK
In the UK, cycling fans will be able to catch all the action at the Road Worlds live on Discovery+.
A 'standard' subscription to Discovery+, which includes Eurosport's cycling coverage, will set you back £6.99 per month for the standard plan. The package includes year-round cycling streams as well as other live sports, including snooker, tennis, motorsports, and more.
A premium subscription, which includes all that plus TNT Sports (Premier League, Champions League and Europa League football plus rugby, wrestling, UFC, and MotoGP), costs £30.99 per month.
Road World Championships live in Australia
In Australia, national broadcaster SBS will carry live coverage of the Road Worlds on TV and streaming online.
Road World Championships on any streams
If you are outside your home region and need to access your live streaming services to watch the action, you may find your access to be geo-restricted.
In this case, a VPN service will come in handy, allowing your computer to pretend it's home and let you log into your streaming accounts to catch all of the racing action.
Our colleagues at TechRadarthoroughly tested several VPN services and came up with a few great recommendations below.
1. NordVPN - get the world's favorite VPN We've put all the major VPNs through their paces and we rate NordVPN as the best for streaming Netflix as our top pick, thanks to its speed, ease of use and strong security features. It's also compatible with just about any streaming device out there, including Amazon Fire TV Stick, Apple TV, Xbox and PlayStation, as well as Android and Apple mobiles.
There are a couple other very good options that are safe, reliable and offer good bandwidth for streaming sports. Check out two other top options below - ExpressVPN and the best budget option, Surfshark.
2. Try ExpressVPN risk-free for 30 days ExpressVPN offers a 30-day money back guarantee with its VPN service. You can use it to watch on your mobile, tablet, laptop, TV, games console and more. There's 24/7 customer support and three months free when you sign-up.
Currently topping our charts as the fastest VPN around, Surfshark keeps giving us reasons to recommend it. It's a high-value, low-cost option that's easy to use, full of features, and excellent at unblocking restricted content.
With servers in over 100 countries, you can stream your favorite shows from almost anywhere. Best of all, Surfshark costs as little as $2.30 per month, and it comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee to try it out.
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Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, joining in 2017 as a freelance contributor and later being hired full-time. Before joining the team, they had written for numerous major publications in the cycling world, including CyclingWeekly and Rouleur.
Dani has reported from the world's top races, including the Tour de France, Road World Championships, and the spring Classics. They have interviewed many of the sport's biggest stars, including Mathieu van der Poel, Demi Vollering, and Remco Evenepoel. Their favourite races are the Giro d'Italia, Strade Bianche and Paris-Roubaix.
