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The 2024 UCI Road World Championships were hosted in Zurich, Switzerland and provided some unique racing. The showcase events were the Elite Men’s and Women’s Road Race along with the Elite Men’s and Women’s Time Trial.
The Elite Men’s Road Race consisted of 274km of racing, on a brutal course that involved a substantial amount of climbing. The Elite Women race was on the same course, only a shorter distance, 154km.
Similarly, the Elite Men’s and Women’s Time Trials were competed on largely the same course, with the Men’s slightly longer.
Here is a recap of how the races unfolded.
Elite Men’s Road Race
It was inevitable. Tadej Pogačar won the 2024 UCI Elite Men’s World Road Race and with that claimed the coveted rainbow jersey. In doing so, he became only the third rider in history to win the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and World Championships in the same year. His victory completed the ‘Triple Crown’ putting him alongside Eddy Merckx and Stephen Roche.
Pogačar writes his own scripts. I don’t think even he included a solo attack, with 100km remaining, when he sat down to write this. But as the race progressed, he tore up the original script and wrote a new one. His strategy involved attacking from such a distance, bridging a gap to the leading group, before riding away on his own adventure. In a post-race interview, he later admitted that “I don’t know what I was thinking.”
As the race came to a conclusion Pogačar’s lead remained constant at 1 minute. It was looking as he would win with ease but with 20km to go, he began to tire and missed a crucial bottle at the final feed station. This gave the chasing riders hope and they began chipping away at his lead, bringing it down to 38 seconds.
The chase group included star names such as defending world champion Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) and Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel (Belgium). For a moment it looked like there was a chance for the gap to be wiped out, but with 9km remaining, Pogačar managed to turn the tables again and increased his lead to 48 seconds. On the descent from the final climb he was able to recover and it wasn’t long before he passed under the flamme rouge flag, indicating 1km to the finish. Here he took victory in a time of 6:27:30, becoming Slovenia’s first world champion.
Behind him, the final few kilometers saw the battle for the remaining places for the podium play out. Inspired by his recent second place in La Vuelta a España, Ben O’Connor (Australia) attacked, catching the group unaware and built a small gap to come in an unlikely second 34 seconds behind Pogačar. Mathieu van der Poel contested the sprint with the final few riders to take third position. It was a breathtaking victory and well deserved after a dominant season by Pogačar.
Elite Women’s Road Race
In the Elite Women’s event, Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) took victory in a race that was contested in wet and slippery conditions. She outsprinted a select group of champions that included Demi Vollering (Netherlands), Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy), Chloé Dygert (USA) and Liane Lippert (Germany).
In winning, Kopecky became the first rider since Marianne Vos (2012-2013) to defend the rainbow jersey.Of that select group, Chloé Dygert took second and Elisa Longo Borghini third, all in a time of 4hrs 05min 26secs.
It was a race that ebbed and flowed and with 23km remaining, veteran Dutch rider, Marianne Vos was leading the race in a group consisting of Justine Ghekiere (Belgium), Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Australia) and Riejann Markus (Netherlands).
As the road kicked-up, the shake out began. Vollering, Lippert and Longo Borghini bridged the gap, whilst Markus dropped way.
With 13 km’s remaining, the front group had grown to nine, however, the group didn’t stay together for long. Vollering accelerated on the climb and distanced her two teammates along with Ghekiere.
The final 3km saw Roseman-Gannon and Dygert chasing Kopecky, Vollering, Lippert and Longo Borghini. As they reached the flamme rouge, all six riders were in contention for the victory.
Roseman-Gannon’s tried her luck with a long-range attack but was shut down by Vollering and in the sprint, it was Kopecky who had the power to take the victory.
Time trial results
A week earlier, and in a repeat of the Olympic Time Trial only months before, Remco Evenepoel beat Filippo Ganna (Italy) to claim his second consecutive world time trial title.
He raced the 46.1km course in a time of 53:01. He set the fastest times in each sector, securing another gold medal and defending his rainbow jersey. Filippo Ganna took the silver medal, finishing in second place by only 6 seconds and fellow Italian, Edoardo Affini finished third, 54 seconds off the pace.
Agonisingly for Britain’s Josh Tarling, it was another fourth place, mirroring the result achieved at the Olympic Games.
What makes Evenepoel’s victory more impressive is that it was ridden without a power meter. This was due to a chain incident just before he set off, which in the rush to get resolved, saw him start the race without his power meter. Evenepoel referred to this as a “blind time trail.” He went on to say that “Not knowing how I was doing in the power, was quite a difficult one,” noting that “it was a real mental test and I had to stay calm from the start.”
Like Evenepoel, Grace Brown (Australia) also added to her Olympic Time Trial gold medal by winning the Elite Women’s world time trial title on the 29.9km course, in a time of 39:16.
In doing so she became the first Australian woman to win the world time trial title. She also became the first ever cyclist to win the Olympic and world time trial titles in the same year (later matched by Evenepoel).
Defending champion, Chloe Dygert could only manage third, 56 seconds behind Brown. Demi Vollering took second, 16 seconds behind Brown.
The victory was not a foregone conclusion for Brown, who was trailing Vollering after the second checkpoint by 9 seconds. She was able to make up the difference on the flatter part of the course, along the lake, crossing the finish line 16 seconds faster than Vollering.
In a postrace interview Brown recounted that towards the finish “I kept telling myself I can be a world champion and that gave me the strength to push all the way to the end.”
Despite Brown’s victory, she won’t change her mind about her plan to retire at the end of the season, commenting “I’m still finishing up at the end of the season. I just feel really, really lucky to have my end of my career like this.”
Tragedy
Regrettably, the UCI Road and Para-cycling Road World Championships was not without incident.
The 18-year-old Swiss rider, Muriel Furrer, sadly died after sustaining a head injury following a crash in the Women’s Junior road race.
To commemorate the passing of Muriel Furrer, UCI and Para-Cycling Road World Championships Zurich 2024 (LOC) cancelled the City Race planned for Sunday, 29 September 2024. In its place a guided Memorial Ride in memory of Muriel Furrer was organised with participation being free of charge. In addition, a central place of mourning is to be set up at the Wasserkirche in Zurich.
Summing up
Despite memorable performances from riders such as Pogačar and Evenepoel, Brown and Kopecky, the tragic death of Muriel Furrer has overshadowed these events. . It is accepted that cycling is not without risk but let’s hope that additional measures, whatever they may be, can be implemented to make events for all riders safer in future
