UCI World Championships - Men's Time Trial Preview

UCI World Championships - Men's Time Trial Preview
15:37, 19 Sep 2017

The Event

The Men’s Time Trial, the ultimate test against the clock for the specialists and their deserved time to shine. It has a surprisingly short history, having only been run since 1994. It has a rich history despite this, with Tony Martin, Fabian Cancellara and Michael Rogers the most successful winners of the event with 11 wins between them.

The Route

Tough. Only 31km but it’s a short lap (bottom left) and long lap (bottom right) combined before a finish up Mount Floyen, a 3.4km climb that will be agonisingly difficult – it averages 9.1%, tops out at 10.2%, and doesn’t go below 7.2%.

UCI_World_Championships Mens_TT

So sharp is the climb that the UCI has made a bike change zone available for riders who will want to change to a road bike beforehand - a change that will be estimated to take 20 seconds.

Before that there’s plenty of testing hills to challenge the riders as we’ve seen before, including the Birkelundsbakken, a sharp climb that averages 7.2% and tops out at 9%, lasting 1.4km. Much of the course is rolling too, and some sections are sharply technical.

The Winner

Will be as strong a climber as a roleur. We’ve seen plenty of this course now and it’s impossible to medal without climbing strongly, and the rolling terrain is far harder than given credit for. Pacing is particularly important – medallists have made significant ground in the middle sections, but it will be very important to save energy for the ride upto Mount Floyen.

The Contenders

This course is perfect for Tom Dumoulin, who took the Giro D’Italia – including a dominant win in the first time trial of the Italian Grand Tour – before a win in the Dutch National time trial Championships. He has focused on this for the second half of the year and looked in top form when Sunweb won the team event on Sunday.

Chris Froome hasn’t quite medalled at the worlds, but this rolling course really suits the Brit down to the ground and he’s clearly in fabulous form right now. The worry is how much of a toll a long season has taken on him, but he did dominate the Vuelta time trial and was sixth and third in the two time trials at the Tour de France, so it’s unlikely he’ll get better medal chances.

Rohan Dennis pulled out with sickness before the Vuelta’s time trial but he rode very well when BMC were a close second on Sundayand he’d previously beaten Stefan Kung comprehensively when taking the final stage of the Tour de Suisse.

Those three are seen as the overwhelming medal favourites but we’ve seen enough turn-ups to know that it won’t be that simple.

Primoz Roglic was brilliant when he took the final Tour de Romandie time trial, beating a near peak form Richie Porte, but his first Tour de France was a disappointment although he showed better form over a course that wouldn’t have suited when 12th in the Tour of Britain time trial in Clacton.

Maciej Bodnar so nearly took stage 11 of the Tour de France to Pau with a fine solo break over 23 kilometres, and then took the final time trial when he managed to beat Michal Kwiatkowski and Chris Froome, a stellar effort which he then backed up by finishing second to Stefan Kung in the BinckBank Tour’s time trial.

Vasil Kirykenka, Champion two years ago and runner-up last year, has been in stellar form this year and warmed up nicely with a third at the Tour of Britain’s time trial in Clacton. This course suits him perfectly, although the decision to forgo a bike change (reportedly) is an interesting one.

Tony Martin was dominant over the flat sands of Qatar last year, peaking at the perfect time, but this course is anathema to the 2016 route and the German has already complained a good deal about the course’s ending up to Mount Floyen in recent days. He hasn’t won a time trial since but has been in good form.

Victor Campenaerts took the European Time Trial Championship when he beat Bodnar but just two seconds with Ryan Mullen just four seconds behind.

This has been a really impressive season for Stefan Kung, who has improved a lot since finishing 17th last year. He can go well and this course shouldn’t trouble him a lot; Meanwhile, Gianni Moscon has been incredible all year and needs serious respect, having taken the Italian Championships. His time trial form is untested outside of that win and his team time trial effort on Sunday.

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