World Championships 2023: Men's Road Race (August 6)

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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!
The hill were Julian made his gap in Leuven is easier than this steeper (and even longer?) Montrose.
Been living there for 10 years and never thought anyone could get a gap there. But if the race beforehand is hard and you’re better at that moment, you can get away after 270km.
 
The hill were Julian made his gap in Leuven is easier than this steeper (and even longer?) Montrose.
Been living there for 10 years and never thought anyone could get a gap there. But if the race beforehand is hard and you’re better at that moment, you can get away after 270km.
Yeah, I guess anything is possible and in a race like this attacks can be dictate more by how others are feeling/responding than planning ahead. It's close enough to the finish that iof you bury yourself trying to get a gap and can't you might mess up your sprint unless everyone else is feeling it just as bad, so riders might not want to risk it. It's also got a pretty quick entrancem especially in a smaller group, which is going to help people keep the speed up. I didn't watch Leuven, so I'm afraid I don't know how comparable it is.
 
The hill were Julian made his gap in Leuven is easier than this steeper (and even longer?) Montrose.
Been living there for 10 years and never thought anyone could get a gap there. But if the race beforehand is hard and you’re better at that moment, you can get away after 270km.
That result wouldn't have been possible if France hadn't drilled it up every hill though. There were other factors like that made the race hard like Italy burning their team early chasing something and Remco driving the break, but it still took a team of climbers/puncheurs that was 100% dedicated to the plan. I don't see an obvious candidate to try something similar here.
 
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Yeah, I guess anything is possible and in a race like this attacks can be dictate more by how others are feeling/responding than planning ahead. It's close enough to the finish that iof you bury yourself trying to get a gap and can't you might mess up your sprint unless everyone else is feeling it just as bad, so riders might not want to risk it. It's also got a pretty quick entrancem especially in a smaller group, which is going to help people keep the speed up. I didn't watch Leuven, so I'm afraid I don't know how comparable it is.
It was 1.5km from the finish. 180m at 6,5%. Never above 10%. The easiest hill of the day. But also the last one.
 
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Having watched the juniors race, I believe tomorrow will come down to just the strongest 6-8 riders on the last circuit, whether one is out in front or it becomes a sprint in that group, depends on the composition of the group, any country with multible riders in the group will have the upper hand.

I also think the fireworks start as soon as we hit the curcuit, as the chance of being caught in a group dropped is huge, all it takes is one rider making a mistake in a corner - so I see Belgium and Denmark dropping the hammer as soon as we hit the circuit, to eliminate a lot of the potential anomalies.

If it rains (which luckily seems increasingly unlikely) it will be pure mayhem.
 
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What division is this? I'm from Virginia, maybe I'll find him for a ride.

I didn't know there were upper age divisions in the UCI championships.

Gran Fondo series:

Age categories and schedule/results: