Belgium’s Lotte Kopecky wins the final rainbow jersey in the road race of the 2023 UCI Road World Championships(Image credit: Getty Images)
Axel Laurance celebrates with his French teammates after winning the U23 men road race(Image credit: Getty Images)
Remco Evenepoel wins the individual time trial at the UCI Road Worlds(Image credit: Getty Images)
Chloe Dygert wins elite women's time trial title at the 2023 World Championships(Image credit: Getty Images)
Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) celebrates as he crosses the finish line to win the elite men’s road race at the UCI World Road Championships(Image credit: Getty Images)
Denmark’s Albert Philipsen celebrates his victory of men's junior road race(Image credit: Getty Images)
France's Julie Bego savours victory in the Junior Women's road race (Image credit: Getty Images)
Switzerland's riders and staff celebrate another mixed relay team time trial victory(Image credit: Getty Images)
An U23 time trial gold for Italy's Lorenzo Milesi in Stirling(Image credit: Dario Belingheri/Getty Images)
Lotte Kopecky soloed to victory in the elite women’s road race to conclude the World Championships in Glasgow. The Belgian dropped Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Denmark) on the climb of Scott Street with 5.5km to go and pushed the pace to the finish line. Demi Vollering (Netherlands) pipped Uttrup Ludwig in the sprint for second place, 7 seconds down on Kopecky.
Kopecky claimed her third rainbow jersey of the week as she won track events and Belgium’s first elite women’s road title in half a century with her blistering attack.
Blanka Kata Vas outsprinted Shirin van Anrooij (Netherlands) to win the under-23 title and the first-ever rainbow jersey for Hungary
France’s Axel Laurance attacked alone on the penultimate lap to claim the rainbow jersey just two seconds ahead of the fast-closing chasers. Antonio Morgado (Portugal) won the sprint for the silver medal ahead of Martin Svrcek (Slovakia).
Remco Evenepoel smashed the elite men's individual time trial to claim the world title ahead of Italy’s Filippo Ganna and Great Britain's Josh Tarling in Stirling. Evenepoel also became the first-ever Belgian to win the elite men's world title in the discipline.
Chloé Dygert (USA) has won her second career elite women's world title in the individual time trial at the World Championships, covering the 36.2km course in 46:59, narrowly beating runner-up Grace Brown of Australia by just six seconds in Stirling.
Antonia Niedermaier (Germany) was the fastest under-23 rider to cross the line, with a time of 49:26 to win the rainbow jersey.
The first individual time trial of the week saw a surprise as Italy's Lorenzo Milesi scored a surprise win, beating widely acknowledged favourite, Belgian Alec Segaerts by 11 seconds in Stirling. Segaerts collects silver for the second year in a row after fading as he progressed along the 36.2km. Hamish McKenzie of Australia rounded out the podium with the bronze medal at 51 seconds down on Milesi.
Switzerland successfully defended their mixed relay team time trial title despite a crash by Marlen Reusser as she joined Stefan Küng, Stefan Bissegger, Mauro Schmid, Élise Chabbey, and Nicole Koller in taking the rainbow jersey. The six-rider team combined on the highly technical Glasgow city circuit course to beat Audrey Cordon-Ragot's France to silver by seven seconds, while Max Walscheid's Germany scored bronze at 51 seconds back.
Van der Poel attacked from a select group to catch and pass the lone breakaway rider Alberto Bettiol (Italy) with 22 kilometres to go on the technical Gasgow circuit. Van Aert, Pogačar and Pedersen worked hard to catch him but with one lap to go, they had to settle for the lower podium places.
Albert Philipsen of Denmark took a stunning solo win as Paul Fietzke (Germany) claims silver and Felix Ørn-Kristoff (Norway) bronze. The 16-year-old Dane added the junior road world title to his European cross-country mountain bike title and Danish national cyclo-cross, road race and time trial titles.
Part of an early seven-rider breakaway, Philipsen attacked with just over one lap to go in the nine-lap race to take the win in Glasgow. Fietzke beat Felix Ørn-Kristoff in a close sprint for silver.
Julie Bego of France goes solo on the finishing circuits to beat Britain's Cat Ferguson and Belgium’s Fleur Moors. Bego attacked with 20km remaining in the race on the ascent of Eldon Street in Glasgow’s city centre, and kept a lead that hovered between 10 and 20 seconds for the final lap of the 70.3km race.
Though the British, Belgian and Italian riders launched multiple attacks from the 12-rider chase group, they were not able to reel in the French rider.
UCI Road World Championships time trial – favourites
Following the elite men's road race, won by Mathieu van der Poel, and Tuesday's mixed relay TTT, the next set of elite races come with the time trials on August 10 (women) and August 11 (men).
Both races start and end in Stirling to the northeast of Glasgow, heading out west on a hilly course before concluding with the cobbled climb to Stirling castle. The women will tackle a 36.2km course while the men take on 47.8km of racing.
With a baby due next month, reigning women's world time trial champion Ellen van Dijk will not be taking part this year, leaving it up to Demi Vollering and Riejanne Markus to represent the Netherlands in her absence.
Vollering, fresh off a victory at the Tour de France Femmes, is likely the best hope for the Dutch to retain the rainbow jersey. She was second in the Tour's closing TT at Pau, though Markus did beat her to the Dutch national TT title back in June.
Demi Vollering (Netherlands) is among the favourites for the women's title (Image credit: Alex BroadwayGetty Images)
Vollering's trade teammate Marlen Reusser is perhaps the top favourite for victory. The Swiss rider is also in top form, having beaten Vollering by 10 seconds to win in Pau.
2019 world champion Chloe Dygert of the USA is another big favourite in her first Worlds since that crash in Imola three years ago. She kicked off her time in Glasgow with a dominant win in the individual pursuit on the track.
Watch out too for Grace Brown. The Australian finished fourth in Pau and was second at the Worlds time trial on home ground a year ago. Names on the outsiders list include Vittoria Guazzini (Italy), French pairing Cedrine Kerbaol and Juliette Labous, while British TT champion Elizabeth Holden is the best chance at home success.
In the men's race, all eyes will be on Italy's Filippo Ganna and the Belgian pairing of Wout van Aert and Remco Evenepoel. Ganna is, of course, a two-time world champion in the time trial, beating Van Aert into second place in both 2020 and 2021. He has two TT wins to his name this season as well as the individual pursuit world title just a few days ago.
Two-time world champion Filippo Ganna is the top favourite to win again in Stirling (Image credit: Stuart FranklinGetty Images)
With second place in the road race at the weekend, Van Aert has now racked up four silver medals at the road Worlds and will be keen to finally grab a gold. The Belgian TT champion showed that he is in the better form of the two Belgians lining up in Stirling and showed that he was the 'best of the rest' at the Tour de France's closing time trial.
Evenepoel, who has a silver and two bronzes to his name in the Worlds time trial – plus that European TT title in 2019 – struggled in the road race, but the time trial is where he comes into his own. Don't rule him out.
Slovenia's Tadej Pogačar is another superstar taking on the time trial. He's taken on the race twice before but hasn't finished better than sixth place, meaning he perhaps won't be a top favourite for gold. But with the Tour de France in his legs and a strong showing with bronze in the road race, he'll be up there once again.
Reigning world champion Tobias Foss (Norway) was an outsider last year and starts this year's race in a similar position after a challenging 2023 season. He told Cyclingnews recently that a podium could be within reach this time around.
Stefan Küng and Stefan Bissegger line up for Switzerland, the former having taken bronze last year. The pair are always there or thereabouts in top-level TTs at the Worlds and Grand Tours, but never quite seem to score that big victory. Nevertheless, they'll be in the hunt for medals.
On a start list packed with big names, two-time world champion Rohan Dennis (Australia) rides his final Worlds, while trade teammate Geraint Thomas represents Great Britain's best chance of a result. Soudal-QuickStep trio Kasper Asgreen (Denmark), Rémi Cavagna (France) and Mattia Cattaneo (Italy) are another three to watch out for, with Asgreen the man most likely to challenge the medal places.
The '11-day mega event' will bring together 13 different cycling World Championships, across at least six different locations around Glasgow and southern Scotland. The event will award rainbow jerseys for road racing, time trials, track, BMX, indoor cycling and para-cycling.
The UCI will duplicate the unified World Championships every four years before each Summer Olympic Games.
The 2023 UCI Road World Championships is the 96th edition of the event, first contested 102 years ago for amateurs in 1921. For the second year in a row, 13 rainbow jerseys will be awarded with the U23 women competitions taking place within the elite women's road race and time trial. The U23 women will have their own races on the schedule from 2025.
The 2023 road races in Scotland will finish with the Glasgow City Circuit, a 14.3km urban circuit that includes several short climbs before finishing at George Square. The junior women and junior men will race five and nine laps respectively of the Glasgow City Circuit. The men’s road race starts in Edinburgh and the under-23 men’s and women’s road races start in Loch Lomond.
The time trial events will be held on a circuit that starts and finishes in Stirling to the north of Glasgow, with only the Team Relay time trial held in Glasgow.
The UCI Road World Championships will move to Zurich, Switzerland in 2024 and the 2025 host is Kigali, Rwanda.
UCI Road World Championships Facts and Figures
First edition: Race for amateurs began in 1921
First UCI Road World Champion: Sweden’s Gunnar Sköld
First edition with professionals: In 1927 the first Championships for professional men took place in Nürburgring, Germany
First women's race at event: In 1958 the women's road race was added to the program
First women to win a rainbow jersey: Luxembourg’s Elsy Jacobs
Most world titles: French rider Jeannie Longo won five rainbow jerseys in the road race and four more in the individual time trial
Youth categories: Dedicated races and medals were introduced in 1975
Most recent event added to schedule: The team time trial mixed relay was put on the schedule in 2019
U23 Women's titles: 2022 was the first year titles are awarded to U23 women in the time trial and road race, with the winner being the first under 23 rider over the line in the elite women's events
U23 Women stand-alone events: The category will have its own races on the schedule from 2025
'Rain would affect the race fiercely. It is a street circuit full of white lines and with an uneven road surface' says Vollering in days leading up to race
