2021 World Championships

[find_bruce]

Less than a week till the worlds in Flanders & things are looking interesting

The weekend was a surprise with the dutch women winning "only" 1 silver & 1 gold in the Euro champs to van Dijk, with Vollering & van Vleuten missing out on tactics. Van der Breggen will be a nice addition to the squad.

In the mens TT, with Roglic & Dumoulin, the favourites would have to be Dennis, Kung & Ganna.

Mens road looks pretty wide open

[MichaelB]

Less than a week till the worlds in Flanders & things are looking interesting

The weekend was a surprise with the dutch women winning "only" 1 silver & 1 gold in the Euro champs to van Dijk, with Vollering & van Vleuten missing out on tactics. Van der Breggen will be a nice addition to the squad.

In the mens TT, with Roglic & Dumoulin, the favourites would have to be Dennis, Kung & Ganna.

Mens road looks pretty wide open

Apparently Roglic is out of the TT and Pogacar in

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/roglic ... ime-trial/

[find_bruce]

Sorry meant to say "Roglic & Dumoulin out"

[MichaelB]

Sorry meant to say "Roglic & Dumoulin out"

[Warnesy]

Good I’m having withdrawals after the Vuelta. Should be a very interesting road race.

[fat and old]

I'm really looking forward to this and Roubaix. Thank god for the post Tour world, I'd almost lost interest during Le Tour.

Edit....and it'll be good to see the stripes on anyone other than a Frenchie.

[MichaelB]

Can anyone say lumpy ....



That's the Men's course

All other race info here

https://www.flanders2021.com/en

[find_bruce]

Only about 1/2 the climbing of last year at imola, but lots of short & sharp. Should be an interesting race

[MichaelB]

Only about 1/2 the climbing of last year at imola, but lots of short & sharp. Should be an interesting race

Made for WvA with his current form, but JA is in the mix too. Might be a bit hard to control ?

Hopefully will be a great race !

Found a pdf online of the different hill profiles of the all the climbs, but can't seem to find the link again - have the downloaded pdf, but can't find it on the UCI website despite it being from the UCI.

The Frankfurt Eschborn race is on this Sunday night and shown on SBS too.

UCI Road World Championships
Sunday, September 19
UCI Road World Championships Belgium Men's Elite Individual Time Trial + Award Ceremony
22:10 - 01:25 (AEST)
Live streaming to SBS On Demand

Monday, September 20
UCI Road World Championships Belgium Men's Under 23 Individual Time Trial + Award Ceremony
18:30 - 21:10 (AEST)
Live streaming to SBS On Demand

UCI Road World Championships Belgium Women's Individual Time Trial + Award Ceremony
22:30 - 01:00 (AEST)
Live streaming to SBS On Demand

Tuesday September 21
UCI Road World Championships Belgium Women's Junior Individual Time Trial + Award Ceremony
18:25 - 20:40 (AEST)
Live streaming to SBS On Demand

UCI Road World Championships Belgium Men's Junior Individual Time Trial + Award Ceremony
22:50 - 01:25 (AEST)
Live streaming to SBS On Demand

Wednesday September 22
UCI Road World Championships Belgium Mixed Team Time Trial + Award Ceremony
22:15 - 01:05 (AEST)
Live streaming to SBS On Demand

Friday September 24
UCI Road World Championships Belgium Men's Junior Road Race + Award Ceremony
16:10 - 19:35 (AEST)
Live streaming to SBS On Demand

UCI Road World Championships Belgium Men's U23 Road Race + Award Ceremony
21:15 - 02:00 (AEST)
Live streaming to SBS On Demand

Saturday September 25
UCI Road World Championships Belgium Women's Junior Road Race + Award Ceremony
16:00 - 18:35 (AEST)
Live streaming to SBS On Demand

UCI Road World Championships Belgium Women's Elite Road Race + Award Ceremony
20:10 - 01:00 (AEST)
Live streaming to SBS On Demand before SBS VICELAND LIVE starts at 21:30

Sunday September 26
UCI Road World Championships Belgium Men's Elite Road Race + Award Ceremony
18:15 - 01:20 (AEST)
Live streaming to SBS On Demand before SBS VICELAND LIVE at 21:30

[find_bruce]

CyclingNews reports that Australia won't be fielding any riders in the mens ITT - neither Dennis nor Durbridge. Anyone know if this is right & if so, why?

[edit:] & it's correct - no Australian in the mens ITT, no explanation from cycling Australia

[MichaelB]

And Ganna takes Mens ITT, with WvA 2nd and Remco in 3rd - der Panzerwagen takes a fine 6th in his final ITT outing before retiring (a mixed Relay will be his last actual race).

https://www.cyclingnews.com/races/uci-r ... l/results/


On a much sadder note, Chris Anker Sorensen passed as a result of a vehicl e collision whilst riding nearby (seemingly as part of a role at the WC)
https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/chris- ... pionships/

[stevenaaus]

CyclingNews reports that Australia won't be fielding any riders in the mens ITT - neither Dennis nor Durbridge. Anyone know if this is right & if so, why?

Yeah, no Rohan. Last i'd heard from the media was he was "no comment" about competing. Just speculating , but he's pretty cluey aout his form and chances, and doesn't just go along to make up the numbers.

I'm looking forward to seeing the road race, but disappointed they have cobbled sections, Why tf make elite road riders suffer like that. Those liking cobbles have plenty of chances through the year. Seems to me just a bit of abuse of home-ground rights.

[ironhanglider]

CyclingNews reports that Australia won't be fielding any riders in the mens ITT - neither Dennis nor Durbridge. Anyone know if this is right & if so, why?

Yeah, no Rohan. Last i'd heard from the media was he was "no comment" about competing. Just speculating , but he's pretty cluey aout his form and chances, and doesn't just go along to make up the numbers.

I'm looking forward to seeing the road race, but disappointed they have cobbled sections, Why tf make elite road riders suffer like that. Those liking cobbles have plenty of chances through the year. Seems to me just a bit of abuse of home-ground rights.

What home-ground advantage is going to be pulled out for 2022? Magpies?

Cheers,

Cameron

[stevenaaus]

Laugh.
And dodging cement trucks on roundabouts, pedestrians on the wrong side of mixed-use cycleways, and kilometers of pinch-flatting potholed roads.

[find_bruce]

Nice ride by Luke Plapp to take silver in the u23 ITT

Nice idea Cameron, looking forward to reading about the training program so they only swoop foreigners

[ironhanglider]

Nice ride by Luke Plapp to take silver in the u23 ITT

Nice idea Cameron, looking forward to reading about the training program so they only swoop foreigners

Perhaps sending out groups of riders with Aussie kit that feed the birds and treat them well, followed by groups with other team kits that wave their arms around and behave aggressively. Maybe we could target specific teams for bad treatment...

Great ride by Luke. My son feels a connection with him because he held Luke for the start of a Christmas handicap, so was thrilled to see him do so well. It was nice to watch at a reasonable time too.

Cheers,

Cameron

[stevenaaus]

So many super racers lining up for tonights race. Pidcock, Hayter, Evenepole, van der Poel, Colbrelli, that frenchie who cant sprint straight, even the Cav.

Hopefully Wout can bring it home... deserves the jersey, but it'd be amazing if Caleb could somehow jag it.

[find_bruce]

It's not often that the favourite wins. Speaking of which the dutch women were rightly favourites & had the strongest team but weren't able to bring home the gold. The Australians worked hard & Rachel Neylan gave it her all but came up short.

I'm a big fan of Caleb's, but I think the course is too tough for him - undoubtedly deliberately designed to sap the legs of sprinters & promote a small elite group at the end. Bling has to be a chance if things roll his way

[Sharkey]

I loved the finish of the Junior Womens race. 2 riders had been in a break away together for more than 20kms and they had a minute over the peloton with 1km to go. Instead of cat and mousing they just rode beside each other until starting to sprint.

https://www.eurosport.com/cycling/world ... ideo.shtml

The winner was Zoe Bakstedt who's father, Magnus, was commentating for Eurosport. I didn't hear him at all for the last km guessing he was to emotional to contribute anything meaningful to the commentary. A clip of him in the commentary booth confirms this.

https://www.eurosport.com/cycling/world ... ideo.shtml

[fat and old]

[timbo]

A great ride by Julian Alaphilippe. A well deserved winner.
Only one Aussie finisher in Michael Matthews. That is surely a worry.
A brilliant atmosphere at Leuven. It will be hard to replicate for Wollongong, but it will be fun trying.

[march83]

Only one Aussie finisher in Michael Matthews. That is surely a worry.

World championships are almost always run on courses that can be, and are raced in a way that is, ultra-selective and we haven't recently produced any Aussie riders suited for those super hard races, or riders that would select the worlds as their target race for the year at the expense of others.

Our recent classics winners and place-getters have been out of left field (Hayman), or from select bunch sprints (recently Ewan and Matthews, in the past Goss). Of the retired riders, Evans was a generational talent who won on a course suited to him. Similarly, Gerrans may have had what was required to win on very tough parcours but it never actually came together for him (he did get second though I believe?).

This year, Matthews was obviously our only real chance, but coming off the TdF and Vuelta a few weeks ago probably made it impossible for him. Going forwards, Matthews may have to sacrifice his stage or green ambitions in the grand tours, though the fact that he struggled at both the TdF and Vuelta for points, and that he hasn't actually won a race in a few years might mean his best is behind him.

I do wonder what sort of course will be presented for Wollongong, but I don't expect the organisers to put something out that is favourable to the Aussies - maybe something designed for a select sprint that Caleb could win, but with all the beautiful climbs in the area it would surprise me if they do anything other than a lumpy and long course favouring the lighter classics men and climbers.

[Warnesy]

Race looked like it had pace on for a long time and looked pretty tough. Was good to watch and a great attack to take the victory. Will be good to see what course is up for 2022. Hopefully we are able to go and watch.

[find_bruce]

Was there any strong rider available who wasn't selected? Not that I noticed

It was always likely to be a very hard race and the French tactic of trying to drop van Aert was no surprise. Matthews was already isolated when the critical split happened with 58km to go, but he finished among some pretty good company with a bunch of classics & grand tour winners.

To put it in perspective, almost 2/3rds of the starters didn't finish. It's didn't seem to me to be the result of any tactical shortcomings, but the riders we had just weren't capable of being there when it counted.

You now get the pleasure of complaining about your favourite frenchie for another year

[fat and old]

You now get the pleasure of complaining about your favourite frenchie for another year

Did The Boo retire?

And no jokes about Alla's repeated "nuclear" attacks?