2013 time trial world champion Tony Martin (Germany) (Image credit: AFP)
French time trial champion Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) en route to an 18th place result in the Dauphiné TT stage(Image credit: Sirotti)
Marco Pinotti (BMC) celebrates his sixth career title(Image credit: Fotoreporter Sirotti)
The Chrono des Nations will bring down the curtain on the European road racing season on Sunday with time trial world champion Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) as the favourite to take a third consecutive victory.
The German will face competition from teammate and French time trial national champion Sylvain Chavanel, in his last race for Omega Pharma-Quick Step before he joins IAM Cycling in 2014.
Italian time trial champion Marco Pinotti will bow out from professional cycling at the event, fittingly ending his career in a time trial and wearing his red, white and green Italian national champion's jersey.
World champion Ellen Van Dijk is the favourite for the women's race, with her Specialized–lululemon teammate Carmen Small of the United States expected to ride. Full start lists will be revealed on Thursday.
Other riders for the elite men's race include the following: Cameron Wurf (Cannondale), Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM), Gustav Larsson (IAM Cycling), Jérémy Roy (FDJ), Johan Le Bon (FDJ), Bryan Coquard (Europcar), Bryan Nauleau (Europcar), Angelo Tulik (Europcar), Olivier Kaisen (Lotto-Belisol), Edvaldas Siskevicius (Sojasun) and Romain Lemarchand (Cofidis).
This year is the 32nd edition of the time trial and the organisers have designed a new course that includes the Le Mont des Alouettes climb that hosted the finish of the opening stage of the 2011 Tour de France won by Philippe Gilbert.
The 57km elite men's course also passes the Le Puy-du-Fou theme park, with a total of 200 riders competing in the junior, women and under 23 categories. Eddy Merckx will be a special guest at the event and the dinner held before the race on Saturday.
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Stephen is one of the most experienced members of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. Before becoming Editor-at-large, he was Head of News at Cyclingnews. He has previously worked for Shift Active Media, Reuters and Cycling Weekly. He is a member of the Board of the Association Internationale des Journalistes du Cyclisme (AIJC).
