2014 Worlds
rick_chasey
Posts: 73,371
From http://velonews.competitor.com/2013/12/ ... ted_311183
The Spanish world championships next fall will not be nearly as difficult as first expected when Ponferrada, a small city of 80,000 inhabitants, was first awarded the event two years ago.
Tucked in a lush valley surrounded by steep, rugged mountains, Ponferrada was expected by many to deliver up a true climber’s course ideal for its stable of mountain goats, including Alberto Contador, Joaquim Rodríguez, and Alejandro Valverde.
But after a first glimpse at the championships’ website on Friday, it seems the courses for the road race and the time trial do not break any new ground.
Both courses fit neatly within the formula of world championship competition over the past several editions, with a mostly flat time trial course for the time trial, and a hilly, but not overly challenging circuit course for the road races.
Instead of tackling the steep climbs ringing Ponferrada that harbor some of Europe’s last wild brown bears, the road race circuit stays well within tradition.
The 18.2km circuit features two climbs each lap, with 306 vertical meters each lap. Neither is terribly long or steep — the first climb is about 4km long with 200 vertical meters, the second 3km with another 100 vertical meters.
That adds up during the 254.8km distance, but hardly will present a chance for the peloton’s pure climbing specialists.
Still, after months of delays and even doubts about its validity, the organizers of the 2014 world championships are getting their act together.
Despite missing out on the traditional presentation for the next year’s world championships, which typically coincides with the current worlds, in this case Tuscany, the Ponferrada worlds look to be on track.
Last month, with the support of the Spanish cycling federation, former MARCA cycling journalist Josu Garai took the reins of the organizing committee.
On Friday, the race organization unveiled its website, and provided the first detailed look at how the road and time trial courses will look for the weeklong event September 21-28.
Road race
The 254.8km elite men’s course features 14 laps on the 18.2km circuit, which loops out to a dam and short climb at Bárcena, setting up a duel between attackers and the strong teams.
The course is not nearly as difficult as initially expected when Ponferrada was awarded the worlds.
Time trial
Rumors that a climbing time trial would be on the menu were shot down when UCI officials visited Ponferrada last month, insisting that the time trial end on the same finishing straight as the road races.
The time trial course follows part of the road race circuit, with the opening 30km flat. The course includes a climb to the Bárcena dam, which will provide a challenge for the pure specialists late in the race. At 47.1km for the elite men, the route includes 458 meters of climbing, with one ramp as steep as 10 percent.
Team time trial
The team time trial course is largely flat, with a short but steep climb at the Villafranca de El Bierzo castle. The 57.1km TTT course opens the competition just a week after the conclusion of the Vuelta a España in nearby Galicia.
Given the Vuelta start lists are being decided, is always worth looking at who's going for training, and who's going for the Vuelta....
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Comments
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Despite the first write up I would say over 4,200m of climbing is pretty challenging. Did they really expect some kind of mountain circuit? In terms of distance and climbing it's very similar to L-B-L.0
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If it was tomorrow Valverde would be unchallenged... end of September different story...left the forum March 20230
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GVA suggesting he's up for it.0
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cancellara yet again said he is aiming for the RR, hard to imagine he will go his whole career without ever winning it, sounds like it could be a course for him0
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Boonen fancied it after a recce0
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iainf72 wrote:FJS wrote:Boonen fancied it after a recce
Really? The course must be a lot easier than the original proposed circuit.
But then, it's the worlds, it'll be brutal regardless.0 -
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Chavanel will finally get his day0
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Hmm - climbing = 306m per lap, descending = 324m per lap, so they finish each lap 18m lower than where they started it.
How do they manage that - start up a tower and finish in a tunnel, or what?0 -
The official "song".
http://www.mundialciclismoponferrada.co ... -KsCONdWSo
(this forum has never had enough music on it)0 -
So, who with a shout at the win on a parcours like this is not doing the Vuelta (suggesting not overly bothered)
Costa
Kristoff
Nibali
Kwiatkowski
Terpstra
Van Avermaet
Gerrans
Chavanel
Vanmarcke
Thomas
Meersman
Slagter
Boom
Langeveld
Roelandts
Albasini
Visconti0 -
Riding the Vuelta isn't essential for people targeting the Worlds (who isn't), and there's a few decent races around the same time. Rui Costa didn't ride it last year, although riders who look good in the final week of the Vuelta usually do pretty well.0
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Milton50 wrote:Riding the Vuelta isn't essential for people targeting the Worlds (who isn't), and there's a few decent races around the same time. Rui Costa didn't ride it last year, although riders who look good in the final week of the Vuelta usually do pretty well.0
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Milton50 wrote:Riding the Vuelta isn't essential for people targeting the Worlds (who isn't), and there's a few decent races around the same time. Rui Costa didn't ride it last year, although riders who look good in the final week of the Vuelta usually do pretty well.
He broke an otherwise fairly good rule that if you don't ride the Vuelta you don't win the Worlds.0 -
Where does Cav rank on this chart, given that he rode the Vuelta but got his form from the Tour of Britain?
The TOB is touting itself as a Worlds prep race, with stages over 200km on lumpy terrain0 -
Men’s elite road race (eight will ride)
Steve Cummings
Alex Dowsett
Andy Fenn
Chris Froome
Peter Kennaugh
David Millar
Luke Rowe
Ian Stannard
Ben Swift
Geraint Thomas
Scott Thwaites
Bradley Wiggins
Adam Yates
Simon Yates
Men’s elite time trial (two will ride)
Steve Cummings
Alex Dowsett
Geraint Thomas
Bradley Wiggins
Women’s elite road race (six will ride)
Lizzie Armitstead
Alice Barnes
Hannah Barnes
Anna Christian
Lucy Coldwell
Lucy Garner
Nikki Harris
Annie Last
Sharon Laws
Read more at http://velonews.competitor.com/2014/09/ ... 3TO0J2x.99“New York has the haircuts, London has the trousers, but Belfast has the reason!0 -
French pre-selection
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TailWindHome wrote:Men’s elite road race (eight will ride)Twitter: @RichN950
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I think you're wrong Rich, GB have only qualified 8 riders.0
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andyp wrote:I think you're wrong Rich, GB have only qualified 8 riders.
(Page 13) http://www.uci.ch/mm/Document/News/News ... nglish.pdfTwitter: @RichN950 -
Team Skippy pre-selection:
Nine from
Simon Clarke, Luke Durbridge, Simon Gerrans, Matthew Hayman, Michael Hepburn, Michael Matthews, Cameron Meyer, Rohan Dennis, Cadel Evans, Nathan Earle, Richie Porte, Jay McCarthy, Rory Sutherland, Zakkari Dempster, Nathan Haas, Adam Hansen, Heinrich Haussler, David Tanner.0 -
No Cav then. Having not seen anything of him since his comeback from injury, I don't really know if this is controversial. Bit surprised though.
I'm not sure what Andy Fenn has done this year, whilst I thought Steve Cummings was injured.0 -
Roberto di Velo wrote:No Cav then. Having not seen anything of him since his comeback from injury, I don't really know if this is controversial. Bit surprised though.
I'm not sure what Andy Fenn has done this year, whilst I thought Steve Cummings was injured.
I doubt Cavendish being left out is controversial. It's probably him who made the choice. There's no way they'd just leave him off the long list.Twitter: @RichN950 -
RichN95 wrote:TailWindHome wrote:Men’s elite road race (eight will ride)
I just cut and paste from the article.“New York has the haircuts, London has the trousers, but Belfast has the reason!0 -
RichN95 wrote:andyp wrote:I think you're wrong Rich, GB have only qualified 8 riders.
(Page 13) http://www.uci.ch/mm/Document/News/News ... nglish.pdf
We do this every year.
By rights GB qualify 9 riders, as they are ranked in the top 14 nations in the World Tour, but we can only enter the number of riders who've scored WT points, which this season is 8.0 -
andyp wrote:RichN95 wrote:andyp wrote:I think you're wrong Rich, GB have only qualified 8 riders.
(Page 13) http://www.uci.ch/mm/Document/News/News ... nglish.pdf
We do this every year.
By rights GB qualify 9 riders, as they are ranked in the top 14 nations in the World Tour, but we can only enter the number of riders who've scored WT points, which this season is 8.
Here's the rules in full:
The 10 first nations in UCI WorldTour classification by nation on 15 August 2014: each nation may enter 14 riders, with 9 to start.
However, a nation with fewer than 9 riders classified in the individual UCI WorldTour ranking on 15 August 2014 shall start with the number of riders that are classified.
A nation with 6 or less riders classified in the individual UCI WorldTour ranking can never the less start 6 riders.
The nations that have fewer than 9 riders classified in the individual UCI WorldTour can complete their remaining athlete quota, by adding the places it would have received through their respective continental circuit – the UCI Africa Tour, UCI America Tour, UCI Asia Tour, UCI Europe Tour and the UCI Oceania Tour – but must not, however, exceed the athlete quota of 14 riders with 9 to start obtained in the UCI WorldTour classification by nation.Twitter: @RichN950 -
Mark Cavendish @MarkCavendish 5m
For clarification, I requested NOT to be considered for this years World Champs, With the current GB riders, there's better guys for the jobTwitter: @RichN950