On Sunday, the 2024 UCI world championships kick off in Zurich with the elite men’s and women’s individual time trial, where top riders will compete for the rainbow jersey. The challenging route features quite a bit of climbing as well.
The course
The men’s route is divided into three sections: the first 20.5 kilometres are completely flat, favouring time-trial specialists. The middle section introduces two key climbs, including a 2.4 km ascent at 4.9 per cent, followed by technical descents and a final ramp. The last 12 kilometres are a flat, straight-line sprint along the lakeside, with riders pushing full gas to the finish in the centre of Zurich for a total of 49 km. The women will race a slightly shorter route of 29.9 km.
The favourites
On the men’s side, the number one favourite is double world and Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel. He also won the time trial in Glasgow in 2023 and is the man to beat. However, look for Swiss TT specialist Stefan Küng, British prodigy Josh Tarling, or Vuelta a España winner Primož Roglič to spoil the parade. Canada has Tour de France hero Derek Gee and national TT champ Pier-André Côté racing.
For the women, Belgian Lotte Kopecky and American ace Chloe Dygert are huge favourites—but don’t forget Grace Brown, who took a big win at the Olympics in the time trial. Canada is sending triathlon ace Paula Findlay and national road champion Olivia Baril.
The time trials will continue after the weekend. On Monday, the junior and under-23 men will race the time trial. Ineos – Grenadiers rider Michael Leonard will race the under-23 event, along with national champion Jonas Walton. For the juniors, Adam Smith and Mikael Guilbault will race against the clock.
The other categories follow
Racing continues on Tuesday with the junior women’s TT. There is no under-23 time trial—this changes in 2025 in Rwanda. Canada is sending Sidney Swierenga and Alexandra Volstad.
Canadian Cycling Magazine will report on each race, so be sure to check our site, as well as Instagram and X account for the latest.
You can watch the races on FloBikes.com
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