2024 World Championships RR Race Preview
The details of this year's 2024 World Championships RR are falling into place. Find the latest route profiles and maps below, followed by our strategic preview of the race.
The road to Zurich promises to be one of the most demanding and unpredictable in recent World Championship memory. The parcours visiting the Swiss city and its surrounding countryside has been designed to punish any team that loses concentration even for a moment, with the final circuits in Zurich itself featuring enough climbing and technical complexity to shred a peloton long before the finish line comes into view.
The course is long and brutal. Riders will face well over four thousand metres of elevation gain across a route that winds through the Swiss countryside before arriving in the city for multiple laps of a circuit that includes the punishing Witikon climb. That ascent, though not exceptionally long, is steep enough to cause repeated damage when tackled lap after lap, and its position in the final kilometres means it will be central to the decisive moments of the race.
Tadej Pogacar arrives as the overwhelming favourite. The Slovenian has enjoyed perhaps the greatest season any rider has ever produced, winning the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia in the same year while also claiming multiple Monument victories. His climbing, his time trialling, his tactical intelligence and his sheer physical dominance make him extraordinarily difficult to beat. Slovenia will build their race entirely around him, and given what he has shown this year, that is a perfectly rational approach.
Remco Evenepoel is the defending champion and will be desperate to prove that his rainbow jersey belongs on his shoulders for another year. The Belgian has had a complicated season relative to his own high standards but remains a rider of exceptional quality, particularly on the kind of technical and punchy terrain that Zurich offers. Belgium have the numbers and the motivation to make this race hard from early on, and Evenepoel will be hoping to exploit any weakness in the Slovenian camp.
Mathieu van der Poel will also be a central figure. The Dutchman is electric over short, steep climbs and possesses the kind of explosive power that makes him genuinely dangerous on a circuit like this. He may not be able to match Pogacar over a sustained mountain effort, but if the race fragments and comes down to repeated accelerations, Van der Poel becomes one of the most dangerous riders in the world. The Netherlands have strong support around him and will look to keep the race chaotic.
Denmark, with Jonas Vingegaard potentially in attendance depending on his recovery from injury, could also be a factor, though the Dane's participation and condition remain uncertain. If he is present and close to his best, the dynamic between him and Pogacar could add another fascinating layer to an already complex tactical picture.
France, Italy and Spain all bring capable squads and riders who can climb at the highest level. A well-timed attack from an unexpected source is never impossible in a race this long and this hard, and there will be riders throughout the peloton who fancy their chances if the favourites neutralise one another.
The weather in late September in Zurich can be unpredictable. A wet road on the Witikon descent would add a further element of danger and potentially reshape the race in ways that no directeur sportif can fully plan for.
What seems almost certain is that the final will be decided by a small group of exceptional climbers on the last ascent or two of Witikon. Whether anyone can actually follow Pogacar when he decides to go remains the central question. On current form, the honest answer is that it seems very unlikely, but bike racing has a habit of producing answers that defy all reasonable expectation, and that is precisely why we watch.
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