By Dave Campbell — From September 21 through 27, Zurich, Switzerland will host the World Road Cycling Championships. It is the first time Switzerland has hosted the event since 2008 and the circuit, held in the foothills of the Alps will be very demanding. The women will race nearly 96 miles and climb over 8000 feet…a very serious test. The men will race 170 miles and climb nearly 15,000 feet…similar to a mountain stage in the Tour de France! These are not long and gradual climbs, however, but rather favor punchy riders. The first climb on the finishing circuit, the Zurichbergstrasse, averages 8% for 1.1 km and peaks at 15%! Just prior to entering the circuit the riders will climb the Kyburg, a 1.2 km beast that averages 12% and peaks at 16! Let’s test some of your knowledge of the Worlds as we eagerly anticipate a great battle at the end of a long, difficult, and extremely exciting year of bicycle racing.
Photo by Julia Engel, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Q1. Can you name the last time a rider won the Professional Men’s Road Race World title, and it was his FIRST win as a professional in an open road race?
Q2. Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel was spectacularly successful at the Olympics, winning both the Time Trial and Road Race, a feat that had never been accomplished before. He will now try to win the same events at the World Championships in Switzerland. Has any rider ever won a road or time trial Olympic title AND a road or time trial World title in the same year?
Q3. When is the last time a rider, man or woman, won both the World Road and Time Trial Championship in the same year?
Q4. Many see the road course as made for Slovenian Tadej Pogačar, already a winner of this year’s Tour and Giro. When was the last time a rider won the Tour de France and the World Road title in the same year? An easy bonus for astute cycling fans: Has any male rider ever won the Giro, the Tour, and the Worlds all in the one season?
Q5. American Chloe Dygert, fresh off an Olympic Bronze (TT), and Gold (Team Pursuit) has a great chance of defending her time trial world title won last year in Glasgow and previously in 2019. If so, she could claim her third World TT title. What is the record for most World time trial titles?
Click through to the next page for answers.
