The World Championships is a perhaps unique event in the men’s calendar for how it attracts such a wide range of the peloton’s top stars to vie for victory, and this year’s edition is set to be no exception.
There are some high-profile absentees, including Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard, Primož Roglič as he recovers from injury, Mads Pedersen after he decided to focus on finishing Vuelta a España and Caleb Ewan, who, despite being the home nation’s star rider, was not selected due to lack of form.
However, this is still arguably the most illustrious meet of the season. Every big classic this season has been absent of at least one big star for one reason or another, with Mathieu van der Poel not lining up to defend his Strade Bianche title due to lack of form, Wout Van Aert missing out on the Tour of Flanders with a Covid positive, Tadej Pogačar opting to skip Liège–Bastogne–Liège for personal reasons, and injury affecting almost the entirety of Julian Alaphilippe’s season. Thankfully, this time all four are present, and will be joined by a whole host of other big name hopefuls.
WOUT VAN AERT – BELGIUM
It seems inevitable that Wout van Aert will play another protagonist role at the Worlds. Since 2020, he’s been on a remarkable run of finishing in the top-eight in all eight of the monuments he has ridden in, making it to the podium five times during those occasions. However, in all that time, he’s won just one monument (the 2020 Milan-San Remo), while also registering a total of one Olympic and three Worlds silver medals without yet adding a gold to his palmares.
His difficulty in upgrading from runner-up finishes to victories resurfaced just recently at the GP de Montréal, when he lost out to Tadej Pogačar in a sprint finish you’d normally expect him to win, but that result did at least confirm his good form going into the Worlds. With a peerlessly strong Belgian team to support him (assuming him and Vuelta winner Remco Evenepoel have reconciled after their spat last year), he has a great chance to at last deliver the big one-day win his extraordinary season has merited.
TADEJ POGAĈAR – SLOVENIA
Victory at the GP de Montréal and an impressive sixth-place in the Worlds time trial against the specialists confirms that Tadej Pogačar is fit and filing again, which will strike fear into the other victory hopefuls. His defeat to Jonas Vingegaard at the Tour de France diluted the mystique of invisibility…