Despite the fatigue of winning the Vuelta a España, Primož Roglič will ride the team time trial mixed relay, the elite men’s individual time trial and the elite men’s road race at the UCI Road World Championships in Yorkshire as Slovenian cycling aims to continue its hugely successful 2019 season.
Roglič was confirmed in the eight-rider elite men’s team on Tuesday, with Tadej Pogačar and Matej Mohorič also leaders in a strong squad. Completing the team are Jan Tratnik, Luka Pibernik, Grega Bole, Jan Polanc and David Per. Luka Mezgec is absent after crashing out of the Vuelta and fracturing his hip.
Several leading nations have opted to save their best time trialist for the individual time trials and so snub the new mixed relay event. However, Slovenia has selected Roglič, Pogačar and Tratnik for the men’s trio. Eugenia Bujak, Urša Pintar and Urška Bravec are the women’s trio.
The team time trial mixed relay will be held for the first time at the World Championship level as the UCI attempt to breathe new life into a discipline that has struggled to find its place in the Worlds.
The unusual format was announced last year after a dispute about the trade team TTT and trialed earlier this year at the European Championships.
The men and women still race separately, but in the same team [nation] in the same race, with three men completing a lap of the course before ‘tagging in’ three women.
The route for the first Worlds mixed relay is based on the 14km Harrogate circuit used in the road races, with each nation sending their men’s trio off for one lap before the women do the second lap. At the European Championships, the Netherlands were convincing winners.
Roglič is expected to travel to Yorkshire late this week to prepare for his three races at the World Championships. With Chris Froome, Tom Dumoulin and other time trial specialists absent, and Rohan Dennis' disrupted season, Roglič knows he has a real chance of a taking the world title.
He won a silver medal in the 2017 time trial World Championships in Bergen, Norway. Tom Dumoulin took gold by 57 seconds, but Roglič excelled on the uphill finish to beat Chris Froome into third place.
