Historically, September is the second driest month of the year for Wollongong. But with Australia in the second year of a La Niña cycle, and a third year forecast for 2023, it's hardly a surprise the UCI Road World Championships look set for a wet conclusion.
After a dry and sunny start to the week of racing for the time trials in Wollongong, the weather has moved in on the coastal city. There is a 100% chance of rain Friday and 80% for Saturday. A dampener on what is to date, the biggest sporting event held in Wollongong and second World Championships on Australian soil after the 2010 Worlds in Geelong. The current forecast for the men’s road race on Sunday is 10% chance of rain.
The forecast rain for Friday and Saturday are modest falls of 5 to 15mm, and 3 to 5mm rain. Far from the historic flood event of 18 August 1998 when Wollongong received 316 mm of rainfall in just three hours. Organisers will be praying the only records broken this weekend are sporting, not climate related. Not of course that they weren't expecting at least some inclement weather.
"From what we've had historically, already the last few months ... I think we'd be naive to think that we're going to get eight days of sunshine," Wollongong Worlds safety manager Mark Renshaw told Cyclingnews in the weeks before the race.
The rain had already arrived on Thursday morning, with showers giving many of the riders a taste of what the course was like when it was wet.
With 33 turns on the 17.1km long Wollongong city circuit, there is a high possibility of the wet roads affecting the outcome of Friday's and Saturday’s races.
The junior and U23 men’s races take place Friday exclusively on the Wollongong city circuit. As will the junior women’s race on Saturday. The women’s elite/U23 road race on Saturday afternoon starts in Helensburgh, takes in the Mount Keira Loop, and concludes with six loops of the city circuit.
For the junior men, it’s 164 turns on the city circuit, 132 for the junior women, and 330 for the U23 men. For the elite/U23 women, that is close to 198 turns on a wet course or drying roads. And that does not include the twists and turns from Helensburgh or the 34.2km Mount Keira Loop.
The Mount Keira Loop includes roads only re-opened to the public earlier this month. Many sections of Mount Keira Road were re-sealed in the lead up to the World Championships following storm damage, and Harry Graham Drive was closed for several months with major repairs made to the road. Wollongong received over 700mm of rain in the first three-months of 2022.
