World Championships Live - Pogacar, Evenepoel, Van der Poel battle in elite men's road race

We've had a fair few abandons, most notably Mattias Skjelmose, a Danish dark horse and the stronger climber to former world champ Mads Pedersen's thoroughbred Classics credentials. Spaniard Mikel Landa has also exited the race.

The increase in pace has seen the gap to the break come down to four minutes as we head onto the final part of this opening lap.

Belgium have taken over from Slovenia with their whole team now on the front as the bunch lines out through a series of bends. Campenaerts is doing the early work for the Belgians.

The gap stands steady at five minutes as we tick through what is a quiet opening lap of the Zurich circuit. 

Here was Mathieu van der Poel at the start. He's backed here by Bauke Mollema, Wilco Kelderman, Sam Oomen, Sjoerd Bax, Daan Hoole, Bart Lemmen, Oscar Riesebeek, and Frank van den Broek.

The bunch hit the main climb and Slovenia have all eight of their riders in one line on the left-hand side of the road. Campenaerts leads a Belgian train alongside them and on the right it's the orange of the Netherlands.

Here's our story on Alaphilippe's abandon:

Julian Alaphilippe abandons World Championships road race after early crash

Loads of fans on the Zurichbergstraase today, with the sun shining to contrast with yesterday's downpour.

Leaving the centre of Zurich, the circuit soon hits its pair of climbs, the first being the short but wickedly steep Zurichbergstraase, followed soon after by the longer and steadier grind up to Witikon. Beyond the summit there's a rolling plateau, followed by the descent, kicker, and run-in we've just seen. It'll be a whittling-down process from here, with almost encouraged to drop out due to the lap-based nature of the race, and before too long we should see some nations making some early moves and looking to fire danger men up the road. 

188km to go

The six-man breakaway crosses the finish line for the first time. Here start the full seven laps of our Zurich circuit. 

And here's the peloton amid some stunning Swiss scenery.

Here's a shot of the breakaway powering on.

200km to go

So as we head into the final 200, with 73.9 on the clock, we are on the Zurich circuit and we have a six-man breakaway with a lead of 5:15 over the peloton which is led by the Slovenia team of Tadej Pogacar and Primoz Roglic. Two riders are in between, having been dropped from the break, but are only heading backwards. In terms of the favourites, Julian Alaphilippe (France) has crashed out, while Pello Bilbao (Spain) has crashed but has been able to carry on. Otherwise, a quiet start to proceedings. 

The leaders head over the top of the climb and they are now on the main Zurich circuit, joining it atop the plateau that comes after the duo of key climbs. There's a rolling section now, followed by a descent, a steep up-and-down, and a 6km run alongside Lake Zurich, before we head through the finish line for the first of eight times.

The Czech Republic squad have taken a prominent position on this climb - they have four riders led by Mathias Vacek, who had an eye-catching Vuelta.

A reminder of our six-man breakaway

Tobias Foss (Norway)

Silvan Dillier (Switzerland)

Rui Oliveira (Portugal)

Simon Geschke (Germany)

Luc Wirtgen (Luxembourg)

Piotr Pekala (Poland)

The gap hits 4:15 as we head uphill onto the climb that takes us onto the Zurich circuit.

Michael Woods (Canada) is eating out of a tupperware box, with a spoon, in the middle of a World Championship. 

We're hearing the Frenchman, two times a world champion, has been caught up in a crash. He's out of the race and that's a huge blow for France.

Abandon: Julian Alaphilippe

Behind Slovenia sit two orange representatives of Van der Poel's Dutch squad, and two from Evenepoel's Belgium. 

Here was Pogacar at the start. Such is the hype around him, it's easy to forget they also have Primoz Roglic, a former winner of Liege-Bastogne-Liege and five other hilly Classics. Jan Tratnik is their next strongest rider, while the rest of the squad is made up of Luka Mezgec, Domen Novak, Matevz Govekar, Matic Zumer, and Jaka Primozic. 

Pogacar is back from his toilet stop and two Slovenian teammates in their glaring green jerseys are setting the pace at the head of the peloton.

Crash. A small spill sends Pello Bilbao - an outsider today - into a wire farmyard fence. He's in a bit of pain but back on his feet. 

Gonzalez and Pajur aren't getting back in - they're over a minute down after being dropped on that climb. That leaves six riders in our break: Dillier, Geschke, Foss, Wirtgen, R.Oliveira, Pekala. 

Slovenia call a nature break in the bunch as the gap rises to three minutes.

Great Britain have an interesting team, led ostensibly by Tom Pidcock, a rider who can be hit and miss, but when he hits, he hits big. He says he's not at 100% but remains GB's highest-calibre rider. 

To our right in this photo is Stevie Williams, who recently won the Tour of Britain and won La Fleche Wallonne in the Spring. He might just end up being their leading light. They also have the Yates twins, Adam and Simon, who have strong hilly one-day pedigree. Jake Stewart, Mark Donovan, and James Knox are set to do the domestique duties, while it'll be interesting to see how Oscar Onley goes - an up-and-coming youngster who was second behind Williams at the Tour of Britain. 

The peloton comes over the top of the climb now led by representatives from France, Slovenia, and Great Britain. 

Gonzalez is also distanced at the top of the climb.

Saying that, Pajur is already distanced on these steep slopes, although he's grinding away and will hope to rejoin on the descent.

We're on a steep little climb, Kyburgstraase, the second of three on this opening loop, and the chasing trio use it to make their way across to form a breakaway of eight riders. With the peloton having eased off, this is our breakaway of the day, fully formed after just over 40km of racing.

Although when it comes to cyclists with footballers' names there is simply no topping  the Belgian cyclo-cross journeyman Anton Ferdinande. 

Anyone with Roberto Carlos in their name deserves our support. 

The chasing trio are Simon Geschke (Germany), Markus Pajur (Estonia), and Roberto Carlos Gonzalez (Panama).

Tobias Foss (Norway) and Rui Oliveira (Portugal) are making their way over to this break, and there's one more trio chasing as the peloton looks to be taking its foot completely off the gas. 

We have a new three-man breakaway featuring Silvan Dillier (Switzerland), Luc Wirtgen (Luxembourg), and Piotr Pekala (Poland).

Belgium are one of 10 teams to have qualified the full complement of eight riders, the others being Great Britain, USA, Australia, France, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Slovenia, and the Netherlands, who actually have nine thanks to the free ticket for the outgoing world champ Mathieu van der Poel. 

Is this the strongest team in the race?

Belgium are always a formidable force at Worlds, and they are led by Evenepoel in the golden helmet. From left to right it's Quinten Hermans, Maxim Van Gils, Remco Evenepoel, Jasper Stuyven, Tiesj Benoot, Victor Campenaerts, Laurens De Plus, and Tim Wellens.

There were some strong riders in that big group but it has been brought to heel now and the race is all together after almost 30km.

250km to go

A big 20-man group sneaks off the front of the peloton and the responses now come from behind. Caicdeo and Leknessund have been reabsorbed.

Schuurhuis has just been dropped, as have a far few of the non-professional riders from the smaller cycling nations. 

A new break with two riders: Andreas Leknessund (Norway) and Jonathan Caicedo (Ecuador).

Here's Ansari, in the red helmet, pictured on the start line earlier, along with his teammate from the Refugee Team, Ahmad Badreddin Wais, plus Rien Schuurhuis of Team Vatican City.

That trio is indeed swept up. Two more slip away but it's a pretty quiet start so far today.

We're heading uphill now on the opening climb of this opening loop and the peloton is close at hand, with more moves surely set to come here.

That quartet is brought back and we now have a new three-man breakaway attempt, featuring Cory Williams (Belize), Markus Pajur (Estonia), and Amir Arsalan Ansari (Refugee Cycling Team).

Four men off the front now, and it's Filip Maciejuk (Poland), Ivo Oliveira (Portugal), Emils Liepins (Latvia), and Riley Sheehan (USA). 

Poland are the most prominent nation in this early phase, constantly looking to spark or mark moves. 

We've had a couple of forays off the front but no moves sticking as yet and now the pace has eased.

On the subject of Furrer's tragic death, I'd recommend this piece from Barry Ryan.

Key questions left unanswered by UCI and David Lappartient after Muriel Furrer's death at Zurich Worlds

This was the scene on the start line, with the Swiss compatriots of Muriel Furrer taking place on the front row for the tribute.

We're underway in Zurich and the first attacks are flying.

Who's going to win the rainbow jersey? 

Tadej Pogacar (Slovenia) is the big favourite, having won the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France this year, as well as being a formidable force in one-day races of just about any nature. This is a difficult race to manage but if he's on song he could realistically take the race away from everyone else. 

Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) is another rider who can reduce a race to his own terms, amassing a catalogue of solo exhibitions already in his young career. He won the 2022 world title in that fashion, and has history of his own in sight - having already done the road race - time trial double at the Olympics in the summer, he could do the 'double double' with victory here. 

Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) is the outgoing world champion, who has won the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix in the rainbow jersey this year. He has not shone since, and this course is hillier than Glasgow 12 months ago, but he can't be counted out. 

As well as those three big names, we have a huge array of candidates and plenty of nations with multiple cards to play.

The riders are now on the move, making their way through the neutral zone. In contrast to yesterday's rain, it's dry, with some blue skies breaking through the clouds. 

The riders are on the start line and they remove their helmets for a minute's silence in honour of Muriel Furrer, the Swiss rider who tragically lost her life after a crash in the junior women's road race earlier this week. 

The circuit has hosted some great racing this week, and hopes are high it can deliver a classic here. It's been spoken about as a course for the hilly one-day specialists, with some 4,500 metres of elevation gain, but it's not an outright climbing affair, with plenty of room for manoeuvre on the rolling, twisting, roads and the tricky descents. It seems perfectly suited to open, tactical, and aggressive racing. 

Here's the route. We start out at Winterthur, with an opening loop and a trek over towards Zurich where we should see an early breakaway take shape. We head onto the circuit mid-way through, dropping towards the finish line to embark on seven full laps. The key features of the circuit are the pair of climbs early on, with the short and wickedly steep Zurichbergstraase followed soon after by the longer and steadier grind up to Witikon. From there, it's a rolling plateau, a tricky descent, a little up-and-down kicker, and then a 6km run-in along the shores of Lake Zurich. 

The riders are all pretty much ready to go. The roll-out is coming up in around 10 minutes time, at 10:30 local time, with the race proper kicking off 10 minutes after that. Six hours later, we'll have a world champion. 

After a dramatic women's race yesterday, this time is the men's race - 273.9km, 7 laps of the hilly Zurich circuit, 4470 metres of elevation gain, national teams, no race radios, and a couple of big favourites but a huge array of credible candidates for the rainbow jersey. Worlds races don't always deliver, but they are more often than give us some of the most thrilling racing all year. 

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the elite men's road race at the Road World Championships in Zurich!