Rogers hoping to be on song

Less than 24 hours from his title defence, defending champion Michael Rogers understands it all must come together for him on the day if he's to pull off what would be a historic fourth consecutive time trial world title.

"The world's is a very different kind of race from any other time trial," Rogers told AFP. "You can get guys who aren't in form two weeks before it making the podium, and guys who two weeks ago were in great shape just falling out of contention."

"I've been doing the time trial for years and it's still really hard. I've gone over the course about 15 times," he said of the 50.83 kilometre-long parcours. "This kind of course is tough, but to be honest I wouldn't mind it being a bit tougher, more hilly.

"In saying that, the first third of the course is going to be quite hard. And from what I can gather the weather might be a factor on Thursday, especially the wind conditions. But my plan is to go out as fast as I can from the start. You've got to go out there fast and at the end just try to hold on."