Nijmegen Worlds Road Race, 264.1 km
3629m of vertical gain
13.90km
191m of elevation gain
19 laps
Remember last year's Giro start? A prologue a thousand kilometer away from Italy, followed by two flat stages everyone is desperate to forget, including some local circuits without any purpose. And here's a taste of what could've been.
We're in Nijmegen, a town with some of the toughest hills the Netherlands has to offer, and we're far away from the lands of the AGR.
Start and finish will be at the same place, at the Oranjesingel, the same spot where Kittel was unlucky not to get time gains other than bonifications last year. However, this time around we'll be headed into the opposite direction, and instead of taking the bridge over the Waal, the riders will take a right turn into a false flat downhill toward the town of Beek-Ubbergen. After 4km, they'll take a right into the town. After a few twists and turns, the riders will face the hills that Nijmegen has to offer.
First up, after about 5.5km, is the van randwijckweg. Almost a full km long at a shade under 7% average. The fun is ended prematurely however, as instead of climbing all the way to Berg-en-Dal, the riders will take a right and descend the Nieuwe Holleweg, cutting the climb short just before the 10% section on the profile.
The Nieuwe Holleweg will need to at least get rid of the speedbumps, but I'm sure that'll happen, no biggie. Then, straight after the very quick descent, the riders will take a left turn onto the hardest climb in the Netherlands outside of Southern Limburg, the Oude Holleweg.
In this case, the riders don't do all of the hill, skipping the first ~100m and also skipping the last ~100m before once again, taking a right turn and taking a first false flat, then rapid and narrow descent to Ubbergen. Once there, instead of riding on and heading back to roads already taken, the riders will take a sharp left, and tackle the last hill of the course, the Beekmandalseweg
Riders will turn on it without any speed, and the first bit is very steep. This is the last hill where it's possible to make a selection. After this, the route takes us through a residential area back onto the main roads, over the Keizer Karelplein, back to the finish.
Keizer Karelplein, the riders come from the bottom right streeght onto the KKP and head onto the the street with the big trees.
Overall, the route is just about as hard as it can get in the Netherlands. No climbs are hard enough on their own to decide the race, but that is made up by using 3 climbs on a very short circuit, making the riders cresting almost 60 climbs in a single race.
The hilly section of the race is very narrow, and pretty technical, so chasing can almost only be done on the flat section of the parcours, which is only about 8km long. That will make the race hard to control, and getting back after getting dropped on one of the first two climbs is near impossible. Go hard on the hills, and it will be hard for those who get dropped to get back. This race will absolutely not be like the 2012 Valkenburg WCRR. Still, the route favours those who excell in the Amstel Gold Race, and the Ardennes, though the race will certainly not end in a 1km uphill sprint at the very end.
Overall, there's a decent amount of riders in it with a chance, though it will probably be too hard for the durable sprinters, and too explosive for the purest of climbers.