Rode the city route yesterday. The distance between the top of Scott Street and the bottom of Montrose is pretty far with no real climbing. I don’t think Scott will be decisive unless it’s down to a very small bunch. It’s not long enough to get a big gap and there’s lots of time to bring someone back, but it might be steep enough for someone to get a gap over 1 or 2 other riders and then keep it. Montrose is short and no matter how many videos people post of MVDP getting followed up it by a 17 year old Spanish kid, I also don’t think it’ll be enough to get a final gap on, even after 270+ km.
The entrance to Kelvingrove is going to be interesting. One of the fastest points of the course coming down Gibson Street, hard braking into an over 90 degree turn pinch point and then an old tarmac walking path climb with lots of stones and some funny cambers. If someone can get a gap on Great George street, I think they have a chance to pull out a bigger gap over a group by taking that section on their own. They’ll still have to deal with the flatter sections before Montrose where they could get dragged back, but for a rider who can TT but can’t sprint, I can see it being tempting. There’s the much shallower ramps of St Vincent and Uni Ave before that, but it’ll take a huge effort to get away there I reckon.
While I think it’ll be a reduced bunch sprint, the circuit is definitely technical enough to slow a chase, especially if someone less favoured goes and the Dutch and Belgians are just looking at each other playing chicken. Hopefully it’s a really interesting race!
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