The routes for next year’s UCI Road World Championships in Ponferrada, Spain, have been unveiled by the race organisers.
Home rider, Joaquim Rodriguez, the world number one, who was narrowly edged out by Rui Costa in this year’s elite men’s race, will be among the riders out to strip the Portuguese race of his rainbow stripes on the rolling 254.8km route.
Incorporating 14 laps of an 18.2km circuit, with 4,284m of climbing and a maximum incline of 11 per cent, the route could favour a climber.
But organisers believe a few rouleurs, not least Slovakia’s Peter Sagan, may well be eyeing the race too, with a fast, fully asphalted climb to the Reservoir of Barcena.
The men’s race will take place on Sunday September 28, with the elite women’s race – won this year by all-conquering Dutchwoman Marianne Vos – taking place a day earlier.
Great Britain’s Lizze Armitstead told RCUK she will be targeting a better result in the race this year, which follows the same route as the men’s course, but takes in seven laps instead of 14.
Despite suggestions there could be an uphill time trial, organisers have also confirmed the routes for the races against the clock will be largely flat.
The men’s team time trial will take in a 57.1km circuit, which is largely flat, save for two steep climbs, while the women’s version tackles one climb towards the end of a 36.15km course.
Both Omega Pharma-Quickstep in the men’s team time trial, and Specialized-Lululemon in the women’s, will each be looking to seal a third consecutive victory.
The men’s elite time trial, which German Tony Martin has now won on three consecutive occasions, follows a largely flat 30km opening stage before climbing to the Reservoir of Barcena and following a fast, technical descent to the finish at the 47.1km mark.
The women’s race takes in just a solitary, steep climb towards the finish but at 29.5km the race will be the longest since its first edition in Sicily in 1994, which went 500m further.
The 2014 UCI Road World Championships will start on September 21, 2014 with the women’s team time trial, and will conclude with the elite men’s road race seven days later.
