It is a big week of cycling running through to October 16th, as there will be a lot of British interest out in Doha for the UCI Road World Championships 2016. It wasn’t a country-event though to start things off with, as the weekend saw team events for riders to get their teeth into, so the British riders were be scattered across the Championships in their respective teams. The event started on Sunday, October 9th with a win for Lizzie Deignan as her Dutch based team Boels-Dolmans crushed the final in the women’s team time trial. Ciara Horne took a bronze with her team Cervelo Bigla, while Team Sky, which featured Brits Geraint Thomas and Ben Swift just missed out on a medal, coming home fourth in the men’s team time trial.
Starting from Monday, the UCI Road World Championships 2016 shift to international mode for the riders and away from their pro-teams. Tuesday will really see the start of this with the Women’s elite individual time trial going off, followed by the men’s edition on Wednesday. Then it is a big eye towards the weekend where we will have the two road races running, the Women’s on Saturday and the Men’s on Sunday. Featuring in these races will be Lizze Deignan (formerly Armitstead) who is defending her title in the road race, while Mark Cavendish the 2011 World Champion, will be hoping to make a splash in the Men’s edition. These are brutal races through the Qatari desert.
So a big week of top class cycling action and here is the list of dates and time:
Monday, 10 October
Men’s under-23 individual time trial
Tuesday, 11 October
Women’s elite individual time trial
Wednesday, 12 October
Men’s elite individual time trial
Thursday, 13 October
Men’s under-23 road race
Saturday, 15 October
Women’s elite road race
Sunday, 16 October
Men’s elite road race
Women’s Time Trial Outright Odds
Ellen van Dijk 5/4, Anna Van Der Breggen 4/1, Katrin Garfoot 5/1, Olga Zabelinskaya 13/2, Annemiek Van Vleuten 8/1
Women’s Time Trial Outright Preview
The Time Trial is tough, unlike the Road Race, you can’t bank on teammates to have a rest behind in their slipstream, so it’s all on the individual riders. The course, which is just under 30k will take in two loops of the Pearl Qatar, the artificial island on the east coast of the country. Because of the intense heat here, it makes the betting on this one pretty wide open, because it is going to be a great leveller. Already in the team time trial Anouska Koster crashed because of heat stroke. This is endurance at its highest degree.
Running as favourite is Anna ver der Breggen who is having a pretty decent time of this this season. She was third at the Olympic time trial this year and just a month ago landed the silver at the European time trial championships. She came home second last year in the Women’s Time Trial at the World Championships as well, but just by a couple of second from winner Linda Villumsen. The Dutch rider Van der Breggen is clearly going to take some backing here.
Former World Champion, Ellen van Dijk was expected to be amongst the medals at Rio but she crashed after a gust of wind blew her into the gutter. She bounced back brilliant though at the European road championships to win the Individual Time Trial against Van der Breggen a month ago. She may perhaps be more suited to the flatter course than Van der Breggen who is good on the climbs.
Australia’s Katrin Garfoot won the dress rehearsal for the World Championships at the Chrono Champenois but only rolled home 9th in Rio at the Olympic Games, which was perhaps below her usual par, so will she be back up in the running in Qatar. Rio silver medalist Olga Zabelinskaya has been here for the last couple of years because of her doping ban and could be well in the picture here. She was third at the European Individual Time Trial championships and looks in very solid form. Annemiek van Vleuten’s big moment at Rio was unfortunately, the sight of her taking a huge rash. She missed last year’s World Championships Time Trial because of a recovery from another crash and would be the best outsider shot to get amongst the medals.
Men’s Time Time Trial outright odds
Rohan Dennis 13/8, Tony Martin 15/8, Vasil Kiryienka 5/1, Tom Dumoulin 15/2, Jonathan Castroviejo 16/1, Marcin Bialoblocki 16/1, 25/1 bar
Men’s Time Time Trial Preview
Well the UCI Road World Championships are running later in the year this season because of the Olympic Games. Also taken into consideration was the heat of the venue, which is still a huge challenge for the riders, even later in the year. The men’s 40k Time Trial will also go to the artificial island of the Qatar Pearl and it is a pretty good course because there are a lot of tight runs, especially around the Lusail Sports Complex where they start off at. In total there are eleven 90 degree bends to get around as well as three u-turns.
Great Britain have gone with Alex Dowsett and Steve Cummings for the time trial and neither are likely to make a huge impact in the running here. Cummings though, who finished 14th in last year’s event will be carrying some form after winning the Tour Of Britain back in September, but he crashed at the Giro della Toscana recently and may not be fully recovered. Dowsett probably has a better chance of making the medals but this is going to be a high quality race. Tom Dumoulin, who won the Olympic silver Medal for the Netherlands in Rio, took wins at the Giro d’Italia, the Dutch National Championships and at the Tour de France.
So he is clearly going to be one of the front runners to catch here but pressure will be coming in from German great Tony Martin. He has won the rainbow jersey before, actually winning it three back to back season in 2011, 2012 and 2013, such is the force of the man. He didn’t go well in either Rio or the 2016 Tour de France in the time trails strangely, but he did land success in the Tour of Britain at the start of September to show something of a return to form. You also have European champion Jonathan Castroviejo in there as well, who finished fourth in Rio, while Vasil Kiryienka had a good year last year, but was a team player who sacrificed individual chance of success in time trials for support for Chris Froome in this year’s Tour de France. Decent threat though.
It is Australia’s Rohan Dennis though who goes as the outright favourite. He was well on course for a medal at Rio in the Time Trial before he has some mechanical issue which set him back. He won’t be far away from medals if he doesn’t happen to get in there and as he has shown this season with wins in the Tour of California and Encoc Tour, he’s a serious contender.
Mens World Championship Road Race Outright Odds
Peter Sagan 5/1, Andre Greipel 5/1, Mark Cavendish 11/2, Marcel Kittel 5/1, Fernando Gaviria 13/2, Alexander Kristoff 14/1, Nacer Bouhanni 14/1, Tom Boonen 14/1, 33/1 bar
Mens World Championship Road Road 2016
This is the race for the Rainbow Jersey and for many, the highlight of the UCI Road World Championships. This is a course where sprinters will come into their own and that should bring Mark Cavendish into play. The last time that the UCI Road World Championships had their Road Race on a track that was for sprinters was 2011 when Cavendish took the title ahead of Matt Goss (Australia) and Andre Greipel (Germany).
So while Cavendish, one of the most respected cylcistss in the world, and with a good season behind him including a silver on the track at Rio, is expected to be in contention, he suffered an illness recently, which may cast some doubts over him, particularly in the heat of the desert which has already been taking its toll on rider. However, the Manx Missile did earn sixth place at Paris-Tours and he won four stages at the Tour de France this season as well, but the question will be about his health.
Peter Sagan goes as favourites for the race, but unlike like Cavendish, he isn’t a natural sprinter and isn’t in as powerful of a team as other contenders. Regardless of that, the Slovakian has had an astounding 2016 season and he goes back to the UCI Road World Championships as the reigning champion after successfully pulling off a late attack for the rainbow jersey last year. Because of the course, Andre Greipel will be in the mix as well, as he was a medalist back in 2011, the last flat Worlds.
The course is gruelling and with extra 50k to go as opposed to the average distance of a Tour de France stage, it will still be a massive test of endure and then a shoot out of the best sprinters left standing after that. That is why a strong team is so important here. More of the world’s top sprinters are Marcel Kittel, Nacer Bouhanni (a likely strong dark horse here), and Arnaud Demare (former U23 World Champion), Edvald Boasson Hagen and Alexander Kristoff .
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