Worlds 2012: Big weekend for Bettini and Jalabert

For two former powerhouses of the sport the need for success at the World Championships is getting desperate. Daniel Friebe looks at the pressure facing the directeur sportifs of the French and Italian road race teams for Cycling News HD…

There was a time when the World Championship road race wasn’t really the World Championships at all. It was a three-way shoot-‘em-up between Belgium, Italy and France, with other nations playing the role of walk-on cannon fodder. The first staging was in Nürenberg in 1927. Not until after the War did the troika release their stranglehold, with Switzerland and Ferdi Kübler the beneficiary.

Cycling News HD
The full version of this article appears in issue 21 of our digital magazine Cycling News HD, and is just one example of what you can find inside. The issue also offers extensive coverage of the opening days of the World Championships, as well as detailed previews of the upcoming men’s and women’s road races, with interactive route maps and riders to watch.