Preview Cycling World Championships - Elite men 2023 | Those who want to see the rainbow must brave the rain!?

Glasgow, here we Glascome! The Scottish city, known for football clubs Celtic and Glasgow Rangers, will be the epicenter of global cycling interest for the next week and a half. In this article, IDLProCycling.com looks ahead to the main event: the men's road race!

Barely two weeks after the conclusion of the Tour de France, the next major event is already upon us: the Super World Championships cycling, which will be held in this form for the first time (and will be held in this form every four years in the coming years). Glasgow has the honor of hosting it, although reigning world champion Remco Evenepoel may not be too pleased about that: this means he will get to wear the winning jersey one month and a half less - unless of course, he wins again this year.

In 2022, the Belgian cyclist impressively outran his competitors in the Australian city of Wollongong. Two years earlier, Julian Alaphilippe had snatched the rainbow jersey in an indisputably dominant fashion. The year before that, in 2019, the World Championships took place in Great Britain, and we watched Mads Pedersen triumph in the midst of grueling conditions in Yorkshire.

Practical information Cycling World Championships elite men 2022

• Sunday, August 6, 2023
• Participants
  
• Classification: WC

In this article

• Most recent winners
• Parcours, weather and times
• Favorites
• TV information

Most recent winners Cycling World Championships elite men

2022 Remco Evenepoel
2021 Julian Alaphilippe
2020 Julian Alaphilippe
2019 Mads Pedersen
2018 Alejandro Valverde
2017 Peter Sagan
2016 Peter Sagan
2015 Peter Sagan
2014 Michal Kwiatkowski
2013 Rui Costa

Cycling World Championships elite men 2023: Course, weather and times

271 kilometers long, 3,570 altitude meters, 120 kilometers of approach from the starting city of Edinburgh, followed by ten rounds of 14.3 kilometers each, straight through the hilly and winding center of Glasgow - those numbers sum up the Cycling World Championships 2023 for the elite men. But... there's a whole lot more to this race than just those numbers, of course!

Dutch national coach Koos Moerenhout went to Scotland at the end of March to see the course with his own eyes. During his reconnaissance, he encountered a difficult route, in addition to an omen of a rainbow on a hill ridge, he told this website.

We will start in Edinburgh, the Scottish capital. From there we head west - probably against a strong head wind - towards Glasgow. "The second part of that approach is already a bit more difficult, but the challenge will probably mainly revolve around the loop itself," Moerenhout expects. With that, he mainly refers to a nasty stretch of false flat after about seventy kilometers, and the subsequent Crow Road, a hill of 3.8 kilometers with a gradient above five percent.

After about 120 kilometers we arrive in Glasgow, where ten more laps await. "The loop contains several steep climbs and it's actually very twisty," the national coach observed. "So it's tricky. Lots of ups and downs, turns and twists and 270 kilometers. I won't say that it will necessarily cause the pack to break up entirely, but it's definitely a track made for racing."

So what exactly does that look like? More like a cyclocross course, with no fewer than 42 (!) bends in it. Turning, twisting, accelerating and paying very close attention to what's happening around them: these will be the key factors for the riders on the fourteen-kilometer-long loop in Glasgow, which in this way resembles an average Flemish cyclocross race. "In terms of altitude meters, it's between Leuven and Wollongong, but it's a very explosive course," Moerenhout says, comparing the course to the final two World Championships.

The seven hills on the city course are not very long, with lengths varying between 150 and 500 meters, but they are certainly steep. Montrose Street in particular, which was already a decisive factor in the European Championships won by Matteo Trentin in 2013, lends itself to racing: this ultra-short climb of less than 200 meters at no less than 13 percent must be conquered in the penultimate kilometer and is also described by the organization as a crucial hill.

After the top of the hill, it is just under a kilometer and a half to the finish line at George Square, but there are still several tricky turns in that final stretch. Within the final 500 meters, they'll encounter two sharp corners before hitting a straight path for the last 400 meters in this street circuit. This promises to be thrilling, but it's certain to put the riders' endurance to a painful test!

Weather

Scotland is synonymous with rain. At the moment it's still a bit of a guess what the exact weather conditions will be during the race, but based on the latest information, the riders seem to be in luck - at least relatively speaking. With a temperature around 15 degrees Celsius, some rain is predicted throughout the day, but we won't be facing conditions like those in Yorkshire 2019 for the time being - except on Google's weather forecasts. But hey, those who want to see the rainbow must always brave the rain, right?

Last weather check: Monday, Aug. 1, 12:15 p.m.

Times
Start: 9.30 a.m. UK time
Finish: 4.00 p.m. UK time

Favorites Cycling World Championships elite men 2023

If you only have one more day to spend in front of your TV, watching cycling, for the remainder of the year, then let it be Sunday, August 6th. It's written in the stars that we're going to be witnessing a wonderful duel between the best cyclists in the world - even though we'll somewhat secretly miss riders such as Filippo Ganna, Matej Mohoric and Tom Pidcock. Certain grand tour riders such as Jonas Vingegaard and Primoz Roglic also will not participate.

Alright, let's quickly move on to those who will be there: we naturally start off, as always, with the Big Two - Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert. 'Poelie' and 'Aertie' have been battling for prizes in cyclocross for almost ten years and have also been doing so on the road for the last five years. To them, Glasgow offers the perfect course to exploit their cyclocross skills, as they already proved in 2018. At that time - when they were both not yet fully committed to road racing - they finished second and third behind Matteo Trentin at the European Championships in Scotland.

Another factor is the strength of the nation - and from that perspective, Belgium is particularly strong. The Belgians have Remco Evenepoel, who is the defending champion and has already proven with his victory in the Clasica San Sebastian that we will have to keep an eye on him this year as well. And then we haven't even mentioned Jasper Philipsen, winner of the green jersey in the Tour de France and presumably the fastest man on two wheels on this planet after a heavy race...

The Netherlands counters with Dylan van Baarle - and after six to seven hours of racing, his engine usually still runs a bit easier than the competition's. Olav Kooij can be considered the wildcard for the Dutch team. Besides, the Belgian midfield - featuring men such as Nathan Van Hooydonck, Jasper Stuyven, Tiesj Benoot and Yves Lampaert - is stronger on paper than that of the Netherlands, which includes Pascal Eenkhoorn and Daan Hoole. But, in the end, a World Championship is determined by who races best on those Scottish roads - and not by who comes out on top on (digital) paper.

Another country we should also keep a serious eye on is Denmark. They have Mads Pedersen, the winner of the previous World Championships that were held on British soil. In 2019, when he was still a relatively unknown rider, he overcame Van der Poel and Trentin, among others, in typical Scottish conditions in Yorkshire. Kasper Asgreen and Mattias Skjelmose also demonstrated their readiness in the Tour, while the Danes can also play a long strategic game with Magnus Cort, Mikkel Honoré, Mikkel Bjerg and Søren Kragh Andersen.

Contrary to the aforementioned riders, Tadej Pogacar will primarily have to rely on himself. The Slovenian will have to do without compatriots such as Roglic, Mohoric and Jan Tratnik, which means that the winner of the Tour of Flanders will be hoping that the other countries will turn this into a tough race. But then again, we're talking about Pogacar here - a man who always finds his way to the top.

The French legion, led by coach Thomas 'Titi' Voeckler, has been dominant at the World Championships for several years now. Julian Alaphilippe managed to strike in 2020 and 2021, but he is currently still looking for the best version of himself. Christophe Laporte, the Wollongong runner-up, seems to be their top pick when it comes to the team securing those high rankings. Van Baarle has already named his Jumbo-Visma companion as the top favorite for the global title fight.

The Italians, to the discontent of coach Daniele Bennati, are doing without track cyclists Ganna and Jonathan Milan, but are instead including the unpredictable 2018 European Champion Trentin and Alberto Bettiol. The EF Education-EasyPost rider raced the Giro and Tour primarily with this World Championship in mind, so we'd better take that into account. The Spaniards are countering with outsiders such as Alex Aranburu and Iván García Cortina, but how much should we really expect from them for the rainbow jersey?

Stefan Küng, always good in long races, is expected to pull something off during the Glasgow race, together with Mauro Schmid and Marc Hirschi. The Norwegians, bringing Alexander Kristoff and Rasmus Tiller, among others, will be hoping for plenty of rain, as will the stoic Irishman Ben Healy and German Nils Politt. True road warriors - that is how we would label these types of riders.

Michael Matthews, as a championship racer for Australia, has placed all his bets on this World Championship, even though Bling is not a fan of bad weather. His compatriot Kaden Groves, a sprinter, can deal with that rather excellently, as he proved this year under bizarrely bad conditions in the Volta Limburg Classic. Similar to the other Anglo-Saxon countries, being the United States (with Matteo Jorgenson, Neilson Powless, Magnus Sheffield and Quinn Simmons) and 'home country' Great Britain (with Fred Wright and Ben Turner, but no Pidcock), we wouldn't immediately label these guys as top favorites.

A World Championship wouldn't be a World Championship if we didn't see a surprise here and there. Jhonatan Narváez from Ecuador could easily ride the coattails of his compatriot Richard Carapaz's Olympic success. Colombian Santiago Buitrago is another raw character, just like Portuguese enigma João Almeida and African hope Biniam Girmay. And what about former world champions such as Michal Kwiatkowski (Poland) and Peter Sagan (Slovakia) from Central Europe - or Kazakh Alexey Lutsenko, who managed to stay with Evenepoel for a long time last year? Plenty of options, but the big question mark remains... How will they all fare after 270 kilometers of racing?

Favorites Cycling World Championships elite men 2023, according to IDLProCycling.com

Top favorites: Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) and Wout van Aert (Belgium)
Outsiders: Mads Pedersen (Denmark), Remco Evenepoel (Belgium), Tadej Pogacar (Slovenia) and Christophe Laporte (France)
Long shots: Jasper Philipsen (Belgium), Kasper Asgreen (Denmark), Alberto Bettiol (Italy), Dylan van Baarle, Olav Kooij (both Netherlands), Michael Matthews (Australia), Ben Healy (Ireland) and Stefan Küng (Switzerland)

TV Cycling World Championships elite men 2023

The Cycling World Championships have traditionally been covered by national channels and that will be no different in 2023. Sporza and the NOS will report on the race all day, while Eurosport will also make room on its main channel and online platforms. IDLProCycling.com will maintain a live blog throughout the day and we will be present in Scotland to give you all the info regarding this world championship!