When the UCI Road World Championships course for Wollongong was announced, with no long climbs but still plenty of elevation gain, instantly discussion turned to the question of whether or not a sprinter can make it through this course.
The answer, for Tadej Pogačar, however, was another question. “Maybe. Who do you consider a sprinter?”
“If you are talking about Wout van Aert, Van der Poel, those guys you don’t drop just on this parcours. It’s just impossible almost, but you can make them tired. But you also get tired after 267km. It’s not a lunch ride but it’s a really really tough day for everybody.”
Pogačar came to the World Championships straight from Canada, where he raced two WorldTour races in the build up the Road World Championships, the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal and the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec. In Montréal, which has some resemblance to the Wollongong course, Pogačar seemed to test that ‘make them tired’ strategy.
The two-time Tour de France winner came toward the line at the end of the 221km race with 4,124km of climbing, alongside Van Aert, Adam Yates, Andrea Bagioli
and David Gaudu having made and then forced the selection.
The Belgian is a rider that’s usually tough to beat, even on an rising dash to the line, but that day Pogačar had his measure. He surged with all his power in the sprint and Van Aert couldn’t match him. The Slovenian took his flight to Australia with lots of confidence about what was ahead.
Wollongong may not has the long climbs, and Pogačar may not be surrounded by the strongest team but the Grand Tour rider has proven his versatility and ability to take victory on a one day race, with Montréal his fourth one-day victory. His others are Strade Bianche, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Il Lombardia.
“I’m really motivated. I can not wait. It’s interesting paracours,” Pogačar told reporters after the time trial and getting a taste of riding around Wollongong.
The elite men’s race on Sunday September 25 starts in the hamlet of Helensburgh, just south of Sydney, heads down the coast toward Wollongong before a single loop of the Mount Keira circuit, which is named after the 8.7km long climb with an average gradient of 5%.
The climb is the biggest single ascent of the race but comes at just 42km into the day of racing. After that the race moves onto the corner heavy Wollongong city circuit, with its centrepiece being the climb of Mt Pleasant – 1.1km at 7.7% and a maximum of 14%.
Riders will tackle that circuit 12 times before they finally get to celebrate or commiserate as they cross the coastal finish line for the last time.
Slovenia may have Pogačar, but not Primož Roglič or Matej Mohorič, so it’s not just a matter of how to beat Van der Poel and Van Aert but also their larger and stronger rivals.
Attack maybe Pogačar best defence.
“We need to do something because I think those teams will try and play it more safe and calm but we don’t have a full team,” he said.
“So we will see how the riders that are in our team feel and we will decide together how we play it on Sunday. I think we have good riders, there is only six, but with six riders you can do a lot … We will see.”
