UCI Road World Championships 2016: Preview

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The men's road race podium of Michael Matthews (Australia), Peter Sagan (Slovakia) and Ramunas Navardauskas (Lithuania). It was the first time all three had made the podium in the elite race(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

Doha, Qatar will stage the 2016 UCI Road World Championships, October 9-16, and Cyclingnews will have complete coverage with race news, start lists, previews, start times, rider interviews, features, photography and race reports.

The team trials lift the curtain on the UCI’s crown jewel event, with the women’s elite trade teams competing over a 40km flat course on the opening Sunday of the championships. The men’s teams follow suit later in the afternoon, and although the field will be depleted due to a dispute with the UCI over finances, the very best in team trialling are expected to bring their A-games to a discipline designed to please title sponsors more than racing fans.

The crosswinds will not affect the race length, but if they pick up then they have the potential to massively alter the race. A number of teams, specifically the Dutch and Belgians, are skilled at riding in such conditions and are likely to look at exploiting any opportunity that arises during any of the road races. With the men’s race coming last in the week, it’s conceivable that a pattern will be set from the earlier races, but riders from weaker teams or not as experienced at racing in such conditions will need to be attentive. The added distance in the desert will only play into the hands of the teams looking to break up the race.

Like the Copenhagen Worlds from 2011, the startlist reads like a whose-whom of leading sprinters. Mark Cavendish (Great Britain), Marcel Kittel and Andre Greipel (Germany), Nacer Bouhanni, and Arnaud Demare (France), Edvald Boasson Hagen and Alexander Kristoff (Norway) and defending champion Peter Sagan (Slovakia) will all line up as part of a sprinters’ glitterati, but as with Copenhagen five years ago, even a bunch sprint at the Worlds can be a difficult task to predict.

Firstly, there’s the distance. Unlike a bunch sprint at the Tour de France, where stages might average out an even 200 kilometres, the Worlds extends for another 57.5 kilometres of racing. Those extra kilometres, and the added 70-90 minutes they take to complete, will stretch out an already tired field with the vast majority of sprinters suffering. This will lead to a sprint between the remaining fastmen with just enough in the tank, and some of the diesels who can generate the needed Watts to stay in contention. It’s why a rider like Fabian Cancellara was a whisker away from a podium place in Copenhagen and why he came close to winning Milan-San more than once in his career.