Road World Championships 2018: Simon Yates faces open field but women’s race is ‘Dutch against Dutch’
The men’s road race on Sunday follows the women’s event on Saturday, and while the battle for the men’s rainbow jersey is about as open as it gets, the women’s edition carries a distinctly orange hue
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A week of entertainment on the roads of Innsbruck and controversy off it will culminate in UCI Cycling World Championship’s headline acts. The men’s road race on Sunday follows the women’s event on Saturday, and while the battle for the men’s rainbow jersey is about as open as it gets, the women’s edition carries a distinctly orange hue.
Annemiek van Vleuten led a Dutch one-two-three in Tuesday’s time trial and is the favourite for the road race, facing stiffest competition from her own teammates like Anna van der Breggen, so often in Van Vleuten’s shadow, and the defending champion Chantal Blaak.
“It is not so much the Dutch against the world as the Dutch against the Dutch,” fellow Netherlands teammate Kirsten Wild tells The Independent. “Annemiek and Anna are pretty close [in performance levels] to each other.”
Muscling on to the podium will be difficult enough for the rest, with Australia’s Tour Down Under winner Amanda Spratt among of those who might put up a fight.
“They also have rivals like Polish rider Katarzyna Niewiadome whose in really good shape, and [Ashleigh] Moolman-Pasio the South African girl, who is always a good climber for this kind of course,” says Wild. “But my dark horse is Lucinda Brand (also Dutch). She finished sixth in the time trial and if she’s smart she can let Annemiek and Anna fight each other.”
The men’s field is more open, primarily because the course takes in the infamous ‘Hell Climb’, essentially just a narrow country lane but a brutal one, which reaches a ridiculous 28 per cent gradient, making this one of the most gruelling world championship courses in recent memory.
It is likely to scupper the hopes of reigning champion Peter Sagan and the other power riders and suit climbers like Spain’s Alejandro Valverde, Colombia’s Rigoberto Uran, Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali should arrive in shape, and the slight favourite: France’s Julian Alaphilippe, the Tour de France’s king of the mountains and winner of last month’s Tour of Britain.
Yet there are few in better form than Britain’s newly crown Vuelta champion Simon Yates. He and his brother Adam are suited to this kind of long and hilly course than anyone in the field and in the absence of Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas, Simon will lead the British charge into one of the most intriguing world championship road race in years.
Kirsten Wild was speaking from The Cycle Show, taking place at Birmingham's NEC Arena from 28th-30th September 2018. For tickets and more information about this year’s Show, visit https://www.cycleshow.
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