UCI Road World Championships 2019
Sunday: Mads Pedersen takes rainbow jersey in dismal conditions
Mads Pedersen (Denmark) took the win on the final day of the World Championships, proving the strongest from a three-man group which emerged late on in Harrogate.
The Dane surprisingly outkicked Matteo Trentin (Italy) in the dash for the line, while Stefan Küng (Switzerland) took bronze. It was a day notable for both the horrific weather, which caused the race to be shortened, and the underperformance of the biggest favourites.
A race of attrition which saw five men including Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) establish a lead on the Harrogate circuit, Pedersen prevailed in the rain and cold to take his biggest career win and round off the 2019 World Championships.
- Pedersen proud to bring first elite men's road world title to Denmark
- Rainbow jersey slips through Trentin's fingers at World Championships
- World Championships: Küng's bronze ends Switzerland's drought in elite men's road race
- The lights go out for Van der Poel in dramatic fashion at World Championships
- 'Best day ever' says Valgren of Danish teammate Pedersen's World Championships victory
- Peter Sagan: I missed my opportunity at World Championships
- Alaphilippe: The World Championships was a day of suffering – I was just happy to finish
- World Championships: I was completely frozen, says defending champion Valverde
- Matthews struggles through 'horrendous' conditions at World Championships road race
- No fairytale finale for Swift at home World Championships
Saturday: Virtuoso Van Vleuten wins elite women's road race
Annemiek van Vleuten (Netherlands) produced one of the greatest World Championship victories of all time, riding solo for 105 kilometres - more than two thirds of the race - before raising her arms in Harrogate to celebrate a first road race world title.
The 36-year-old attacked on the Lofthouse climb, expecting to force a selection, but found herself alone and pressed on for more than three hours. Her teammate Anna van der Breggen had an armchair ride in the chase group, and rode away for silver after it was clear the rest of the group could do nothing about Van Vleuten. Amanda Spratt (Australia) claimed the bronze medal.
- Van Vleuten claims world championship with audacious 100km solo attack
- Anna van der Breggen: Gold and silver is a great result
- Dygert Owen: It was gold or bust
- Amanda Spratt: It was survival of the fittest
Reports
- Mads Pedersen wins elite men's rainbow jersey
- Van Vleuten wins elite women's road race with 100km solo
- Battistella wins U23 men's road race after Eekhoff disqualification
- Jastrab wins Junior women's road race
- Simmons solos to victory in junior men's road race
- Dennis defends elite men's individual time trial
- Chloe Dygert Owen wins elite women's individual time trial
- Bjerg wins third straight U23 time trial world title
- Tiberi wins Junior Men's Time Trial title
- Gareeva wins Women Junior Individual Time Trial
- Netherlands win inaugural Team Time Trial Mixed Relay
Team previews
State of the Nation
Ahead of the elite road races, we're taking an analytical dive into the big teams, looking at their history, key riders, strengths and weaknesses, with insight into the mood in each team camp from an expert from each country.
- Great Britain men - Swift leads a team gunning for third British world title in history
- Belgium men - Gilbert and Van Avermaet headline an all-star cast
- Australia men - ‘One shot in the barrel’ with Matthews locked and loaded
- France men - All on the almighty Alaphilippe in Yorkshire
- Netherlands men - Van der Poel leads the line with Terpstra waiting in the wings
- Spain men - Team built around Valverde but hopes aren't as high as 2018
- Netherlands women - The biggest danger for the Dutch could come from within the team itself
- USA women - Hopes of ending 40-year drought rest squarely on Rivera's shoulders
- Italy women - Bastianelli the best bet as the Azzuri ponder how to crack the Dutch
- Great Britain women - Deignan seeking second title as host nation hopes for home advantage
- Australia women - Spratt leads squad with strength in depth
Friday: Battistella wins U23 men's road race as Eekhoff is disqualified, Jastrab the junior women's champion
The U23 men's road race culminated in chaos and controversy as Nils Eekhoff (Netherlands) crossed the line first, only to be told 45 minutes later he had been disqualified for drafting earlier in the race. The victory, in turn, went to Samuele Battistella (Italy), with Stefan Bisseger (Switzerland) second and Tom Pidcock (Great Britain) third, but the fall-out was only beginning.
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Earlier in the day, Megan Jastrab (USA) delivered on her favourite status in the junior women's road race with a strong and canny victory. The 17-year-old took the initiative, attacking inside 2km to go and, before nearly being caught in sight of the line, surged again and held off the chasers with plenty of time to celebrate. Julie De Wilde (Belgium) claimed the silver while Lieke Nooijen added another medal to the Netherlands' tally.
- Podcast: Controversy in the U23 men's race
- Video: UCI releases footage of Eekhoff drafting
- Eekhoff 'devastated and mad' at World Championships disqualification
- Eekhoff's agent threatens legal action after rider is stripped of world U23 title
Thursday: Simmons claims another gold for USA in Junior Men Road Race
Quinn Simmons gave the USA its second gold medal of the UCI Road World Championships with a long solo attack in a rainy junior men's road race on Thursday. Simmons attacked with 33km to go, distancing the chase group by over a minute on the technical, slippery circuit.
Alessio Martinelli (Italy) put in a spirited chase for two laps, but fell 56 seconds short to claim silver. Several chasing groups came together behind the two attackers, and Magnus Sheffield made it two medals for the USA, out-sprinting Enzo Leijnes of the Netherlands for the bronze.
The performance followed the dominant ride by Chloe Dygert Owen to win the elite women's time trial, topping the two Dutch favourites by a large margin.
- Simmons solos to victory in junior men's road race
- Colombia complain to UCI as junior left stranded with mechanical
- The new Evenepoel: Quinn Simmons takes the world by storm
Wednesday: Dennis repeats as time trial world champion
Rohan Dennis roared back into the spotlight on Wednesday with a dominant performance to claim his second consecutive title as elite men's time trial world champion.
After quitting the Tour de France suddenly, Dennis has stayed out of the public eye, quietly building his form for Worlds on a tough and technical course. The strategy worked, and Dennis flew through the 54km course to come home 1:08 ahead of Belgian Remco Evenepoel, with Filippo Ganna taking a fine bronze for Italy at 1:55.
"I spent a lot of time at home, did a lot of work in my head to get mentally prepared for today," Dennis said. "It's been a lot tougher than it looked out there, so there's a lot of people to thank and it's good to repay them on the day when it really matters."
- Rohan Dennis rides BMC Timemachine TT at 2019 World Championships
- Remco Evenepoel: The silver medal feels like gold at this World Championships
- Ganna comes of age with World Championships bronze
- World Championships: A time trial too far for Vuelta winner Roglic
- World Championships: Dowsett's top-five brings Olympics into play
Tuesday: Dygert Owen crushes Elite Women's Time Trial as rain soaks U23 men
The 2019 UCI Road World Championships were plunged underwater on Tuesday, with torrential rain in North Yorkshire leading to pools of water on the time trial course, causing crashes in the U23 men's event and a delay to the elite women's event.
Despite the disruption, Chloe Dygert Owen (USA) delivered one of the all-time great World Championships performances to take her first road world title. After an injury-plagued 2018, and despite not racing on the road in Europe this year, the 22-year-old crushed the competition, relegating the previously dominant Dutch duo of Anna van der Breggen and Annemiek van Vleuten to the lower steps of the podium by a margin of more than 90 seconds.
A few hours beforehand, Mikkel Bjerg (Denmark) claimed a third consecutive U23 men's time trial world title with another resounding display of strength. The 20-year-old covered the 30.3km course in 40:20, getting the better of the USA duo of Ian Garrison and Brandon McNulty.
The pools of water, which had been cleared in time for the women's race, saw numerous crashes, with some insisting the race should have been halted or cancelled.
- Bad luck continues to wreak havoc on Moolman-Pasio at World Championships
- Dygert Owen overcomes injury to dominate time trial World Championships
- Van Vleuten's dreams washed away by Dygert Owen’s dominance
- Heavy rain and floods cause delay for women’s World Championships time trial
- Delay to World Championships time trial called too late, says Simmonds
- World Championships: USA one step behind rainbow in rain-soaked Yorkshire time trial
- Riders split over safety of water-logged World Championships course
Courses
Worlds Overview
The 2019 UCI Road World Championships take place in Yorkshire, Great Britain from September 21-29. The racing will be centred around Harrogate, but start locations will be spread across the county, in Ripon, Northallerton, Richmond, Doncaster, Bradford and Leeds.
For the first time, para-cycling will feature as part of the UCI’s showcase week, with road races on the Harrogate circuit on the opening Saturday.
Time trials
The following day will see the first edition of the new team time trial mixed relay, which will see national teams of three men and three women compete on two laps of a 14km circuit in Harrogate. The men’s trio will tackle the first lap before passing on to the women’s trio for the second lap.
After the junior men’s and women’s time trials on September 23, the under-23 men and elite women tackle a 32.5km course from Ripon to Harrogate the following day.
On September 25, the 54km elite men’s time trial takes places between Northallerton and Harrogate, with defending champion Rohan Dennis of Australia going up against 19-year-old European TT champion Remco Evenepoel of Belgium.
Road races
The junior men’s and women’s road races and the under-23 men’s road race take place on the Thursday and Friday, with the final weekend in Yorkshire devoted to the elite road races.
The elite women’s road race takes place on Saturday, September 28, starting from Bradford and tackling three laps of the Harrogate circuit for a total distance of 149.5km.
On Sunday, September 29, the elite men tackle a 261km course – shortened from the original 284.5km course on the morning of the race due to bad weather – that starts from Leeds and later takes in nine (increased from the original seven) laps of the Harrogate circuit.
The hilly and technical circuit in Harrogate is 14km in length, and a wide variety of riders will travel to Yorkshire with a chance of landing the world title. Lizzie Deignan (Great Britain) will be the home favourite in the women’s road race, while a Dutch squad with Annemiek van Vleuten, Chantal Blaak, Anna van der Breggen and Marianne Vos will have plenty of options for victory.
Three-time champion Peter Sagan (Slovakia), as ever, leads the line of contenders for the elite men's world title, though on a course so open to interpretation, expect a very deep pool of possible winners on the start line in Leeds. France's Julian Alaphilippe and Mathieu van der Poel of the Netherlands have also emerged as two big favourites to win the rainbow jersey.
Yorkshire has placed itself firmly on the world cycling map in the years since its successful hosting of the Grand Départ of the Tour de France in 2014, with the Tour de Yorkshire now a firm fixture on the international calendar.
2019 World Championships race previews
2019 World Championships stories and features
- Everything a bonus for Alaphilippe as World Championships come into focus
- Lizzie Deignan headlines Team GB roster for Yorkshire World Championships
- How to watch the World Championships – live streams from anywhere
- Durbridge backs Matthews and Dennis for World Championships success
- Nibali still in line to ride World Championships in supporting role
- World Championships: Injuries force changes to Australian elite women's team
- USA Cycling names World Championships rosters
- Van der Breggen, Van Vleuten, Vos lead powerful Dutch team at World Championships
- Van der Poel and Mollema lead Netherlands team for World Championships
- Stybar aims to change the record at Yorkshire World Championships
- French squad named to support Julian Alaphilippe at Yorkshire World Championships
- Fuglsang, Valgren and Asgreen lead strong Danish men's team for World Championships
- Trentin carries hopes of a nation at World Championships
- Gilbert, Van Avermaet and Evenepoel lead Belgium squad at World Championships
- Cadel Evans raised the bar for Australia at World Championships, says Clarke
- Degenkolb throws hat in the ring for World Championships
- Road to Yorkshire: How best to prepare for the World Championships
- Lefevere: Evenepoel could win World Championships time trial
- Haga: No standout leader means we'll seek World Championships opportunities
- Doing it the QuickStep way: Belgium's multi-pronged approach to the World Championships
- Mollema, Brand, Pieters welcome new team time trial mixed relay at World Championships
How to Watch
How to watch the World Championships – live streams from anywhere
If you live outside a broadcast zone or are on holiday outside your country and find that the live streams to be geo-restricted, you can get around this by getting access to them by simulating being back in your home country via a 'virtual private network', or VPN, for your laptop, tablet or mobile.
TechRadar tested hundreds of VPNs and recommends the number one best VPN currently available as Express VPN. With ExpressVPN, you can watch on many devices at once including Smart TVs, Fire TV Stick, PC, Mac, iPhone, Android phone, iPads, tablets etc. Check out Express VPN and get 15 months for the price of 12.
The UCI's own YouTube channel will also provide coverage of select races.
