2024 World Road Cycling Championships

World Road Cycling Championships podium history | 2023 edition

Road Race: Elite Men Road Race | Elite Women Road Race

Time Trial: Team Time Trial mixed Relay | Elite Women Time Trial | Elite Men Time Trial

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Sunday, September 29: Elite Men World Championship Road Race, 273.9 km

Winterthur - Zurich: 1 Winterthur lap + 7 city circuit laps

Course map & profile | Photos

Tadej Pogacar is World Road Champion. He is the first rider to win the triple crown of the Giro/Tour/Worlds since Stephen Roche did it in 1987. Photo: Fabrice Coffrin/AFP

Bill and Carol McGann's book The Story of the Tour de France, 2019: A Year of New Faces is available in both Kindle eBook and audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.

Weather at the finish city of Zurich at 2:20 PM, local time: 15C (59F), cloudy, with the wind from the east at 13 km/hr (8 mph). There is just a 1% chance of rain.

The race: Guillaume Boivin (Canada) did not start. After crashing early in the race Julian Alaphilippe (France) abandoned. Mikel Landa (Spain) abadoned soon thereafter.

Here's the UCI's race report:

The 2024 UCI Road and Para-cycling Road World Championships concluded in spectacular fashion on Sunday with Tadej Pogačar claiming the final rainbow jersey of the nine-day event in Zurich, Switzerland. The Slovenian won the Men Elite road race with a monumental ride marked by a daring attack with more than 100km remaining. His victory caps off a historic season, including victories at the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France.

Joining a breakaway that emerged earlier on the seven laps of the city circuit - and that included Pogačar’s fellow Slovenian Jan Tratnik - Pogačar dropped the last rival remaining on his wheel, France’s Pavel Sivakov, with 51.5km to go and rode to victory on his own. After 273.9km of racing (with 4,470m of elevation) starting from Winterthur, Australia’s Ben O’Connor took the silver medal (+34’’) with the 2023 UCI World Champion, Dutchman Mathieu Van der Poel (+58’’), winning the sprint for third place.

Into the last hour of the race. Remco Evenepoel and I think Quinn Simmons are here in the third group, 1min 24sec behind an escaped Tadej Pogacar.

“I cannot believe what just happened, after this kind of season,” Pogačar reacted. “I put a lot of pressure on myself for today. The race unfolded pretty quick and there was a dangerous breakaway in the front and I maybe did a stupid attack but luckily Jan was there with me and I never gave up. It’s an incredible day.

“I don’t know what I was thinking, I went with the flow and luckily I made it, but it was super tough,” he added after yet another historic feat.

Everyone knew it was coming. Tadej Pogacar attacks with France's Pavel Sivakov trying to hold his wheel. Pogacar was quickly alone. Photo: Peter Dejong/AP.

A couple of weeks after his most recent win, in the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, Pogačar’s title is his 23rd victory in a season he began early March with an 81km solo victory in the Strade Bianche.

He delivers the first Elite UCI rainbow jersey for Slovenia, after previous titles for Janez Brajkovič (Men Under 23 individual time trial in 2004) and Matej Mohorič (Men Junior road race 2012 and Men Under 23 road race 2013), and notably claims a ‘Triple Crown’ - Giro d’Italia, Tour de France, UCI World Championships - only achieved previously by Belgium’s Eddy Merckx (1974) and Ireland’s Stephen Roche (1987).

Complete results:

Photos

273.9 kilometers raced at an average speed of 42.410 km/hr

1	Tadej Pogačar	Slovenia	6hr 27min 30sec
2	Ben O'Connor	Australia	@ 34sec
3	Mathieu van der Poel	Netherlands	0:58
4	Toms Skujiņš	Latvia	s.t.
5	Remco Evenepoel	Belgium	s.t.
6	Marc Hirschi	Switzerland	s.t.
7	Ben Healy	Ireland	1:00
8	Enric Mas	Spain	1:01
9	Quinn Simmons	United States	2:18
10	Romain  ardet	France	s.t.
11	Roger Adrià	Spain	s.t.
12	Bauke Mollema	Netherlands	s.t.
13	Mads Pedersen	Denmark	3:52
14	Markus Hoelgaard	Norway	s.t.
15	Georg Zimmermann	Germany	s.t.
16	Oscar Onley	Great Britain	s.t.
17	Brandon McNulty	United States	s.t.
18	Jai Hindley	Australia	s.t.
19	Kevin  Vermaerke	United States	s.t.
20	Mathias  Vacek	Czech Republic	s.t.
21	Archie Ryan	Ireland	6:04
22	Valentin Madouas	France	s.t.
23	Frederik Wandahl	Denmark	s.t.
24	Magnus Cort	Denmark	6:36
25	Giulio Ciccone	Italy	s.t.
26	Juan Ayuso	Spain	s.t.
27	Attila Valter	Hungary	s.t.
28	Florian Lipowitz	Germany	s.t.
29	Felix Grossschartner	Austria	s.t.
30	Adam Yates	Great Britain	s.t.
31	Wilco Kelderman	Netherlands	s.t.
32	Aleksandr Vlasov	Neutral Athlete	s.t.
33	David Gaudu	France	s.t.
34	Matteo Jorgenson	United States	s.t.
35	Pavel Sivakov	France	6:40
36	Simon  Geschke	Germany	7:01
37	Stefan Küng	Switzerland	s.t.
38	Romain Grégoire	France	s.t.
39	Neilson Powless	United States	12:09
40	Harold Tejada	Colombia	s.t.
41	Tobias Halland Johannessen	Norway	s.t.
42	Rui Costa	Portugal	s.t.
43	Lorenzo Rota	Italy	s.t.
44	Pier-André Côté	Canada	s.t.
45	Edoardo Zambanini	Italy	s.t.
46	Nick Schultz	Australia	s.t.
47	Magnus Sheffield	United States	s.t.
48	Diego Ulissi	Italy	s.t.
49	Sam Oomen	Netherlands	s.t.
50	Georg Steinhauser	Germany	s.t.
51	Maxim Van Gils	Belgium	s.t.
52	Mikkel Frølich Honoré	Denmark	s.t.
53	Natnael Tesfatsion	Eritrea	s.t.
54	Michael Woods	Canada	s.t.
55	Nelson Oliveira	Portugal	s.t.
56	Johannes Staune-Mittet	Norway	s.t.
57	Thomas Pidcock	Great Britain	s.t.
58	Alex Aranburu	Spain	s.t.
59	Carlos Rodríguez	Spain	s.t.
60	Daniel Felipe Martínez	Colombia	s.t.
61	Rudy Molard	France	s.t.
62	Pablo Castrillo	Spain	s.t.
63	Mattia Cattaneo	Italy	s.t.
64	Primož Roglič	Slovenia	s.t.
65	Bob Jungels	Luxembourg	s.t.
66	Filippo Zana	Italy	s.t.
67	Eddie Dunbar	Ireland	s.t.
68	Simon Yates	Great Britain	s.t.
69	Antonio Tiberi	Italy	17:39
70	Larry Warbasse	United States	s.t.
71	Krists Neilands	Latvia	s.t.
72	Lukáš Kubiš	Slovakia	19:23
73	Reuben Thompson	New Zealand	s.t.
74	Edgar David Cadena	Mexico	s.t.
75	Andreas Leknessund	Norway	s.t.
76	Sebastian Schönberger	Austria	s.t.
77	Łukasz Owsian	Poland	s.t.
78	Márton Dina	Hungary	s.t.
79	Einer Rubio	Colombia	s.t.
80	Thomas Silva Guillermo	Uruguay	s.t.
81	Eric Antonio Fagúndez	Uruguay	s.t.

 

Elite Men Road Race Course Map & Profile:

 

2024 Men's World Championship Road Race photos by Fotoreporter Sirotti:

Remco Evenepoel gets his bike before the race start.

Pre-race ceremonies. The Italian team is presented.

It's about time to race.

Looks like a nice day for a bike race.

The peloton speeds along.

The fans were out in force.

Jan Tratnik leads fellow Slovenian Tadej Pogacar.

Gone. Pogacar and Sivakov have left the pack behind.

Van der Poel leads the chase.

Tadej Pogacar has left the best bicycle racers in the world behind to win the World Championships.

Giro, Tour and Worlds. A rare and special accomplishment for Tadej Pogacar.

Ben O'Connor finished second.

Mathieu van der Poel finishes third, ahead of Toms Skujins.

Right after the race finish, the crowd around Pogacar.

Everyone is wearing jackets and Pogacar has to pour water over himself to cool down.

The podium, from left: Ben O'Connor (2nd), Tadej Pogacar (1st) & Mathieu van der Poel (3rd).

Tadej Pogacar will be easy to spot for a year in his bright rainbow jersey.

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Saturday, September 28: Elite Women's World Championship Road Race, 154.1 km

Ustar - Zurich: 1 lap around Greifensee + 4 city Circuit laps.

Course map & Profile | Photos

Lotte Kopecky is Champion of the World.

Les Woodland's book The Olympics' 50 Craziest Stories: A Five Ring Circus is available in print, Kindle eBook & audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.

Weather at the finish city of Zurich at 2:30 PM, local time: 12C (53F), rain, with the wind from the west at 5 km/hr (3 mph). There is a 77% chance that the rain will continue, dropping to 41% at 4:00 PM.

The race: Before the start there was a minute's silence in memory of Muriel Furrer, the Swiss cyclist who died yesterday. The championships are continuing with the blessings of Furrer's family.

Rotem Gafinovitz (Israel) did not start.

Here's the UCI's race report:

A rainy day in Zurich, Switzerland, delivered two spectacular rainbows when Belgium’s Lotte Kopecky powered to a second successive title in the Women Elite road race while the Netherlands’ Puck Pieterse took the Women Under 23 title at the UCI Road and Para-cycling Road World Championships.

Kopecky is the first rider to win the event two years in a row since Marianne Vos did so in 2012 and 2013. She’s also won six UCI World Champion titles on the track.

The USA’s Chloé Dygert and Italy’s Elisa Longo Borghini completed the Elite podium. Australia’s Neve Bradbury and Germany’s Antonia Niedermaier took the Women Under 23 silver and bronze medals behind Pieterse.

Kopecky dedicated her first words after the race to Switzerland’s Muriel Furrer, who passed away on Friday after suffering serious injuries in a fall during Thursday’s Women Junior road race: “First of all, I want to bring my condolences to the family of Muriel,” said Kopecky.

She then described the ups and downs she experienced during Saturday’s road race before sprinting to victory.

A rainy day in Zurich. Here the peloton is about halfway into the race. Photo: Chris Auld

“From three laps to go, I was actually freezing,” the Belgian said. “But I tried to keep my head as cool as possible and I didn’t have any troubles but on the longer one (climb), when Demi [Vollering] went, I had some difficulties but I tried to keep my own pace and come back. In the end, it was a lot of mind games. A rider [Elisa Longo Borghini] came from the back with speed and Demi replied immediately, which was perfect for me.”

The 154.1km race opened up early and the relentless pace led to some very intense racing on the four laps of the closing city circuit (26.9km). Oranje jerseys were highly visible, recognisable not only due to their distinctive orange colour, but also the aggressive tactics of the riders wearing them.

Three Dutchwomen - Demi Vollering, Marianne Vos and Riejanne Markus - were among the nine athletes at the front into the last 10 kilometres. Vollering gave it her all to get rid of her rivals, but there were still six riders in the sprint for victory. Kopecky proved to be the strongest.

In the group sprinting for 10th place, Pieterse (13th) was the first Under 23 rider to cross the line, claiming the rainbow jersey ahead of Bradbury (15th) and Niedermaier (18th), also part of the same group.

Complete results:

Photos

154.1 kilometers raced at an average speed of 37.672 km/hr

1	Lotte Kopecky	Belgium	4hr 5min 26sec
2	Chloé Dygert	United States	s.t.
3	Elisa Longo Borghini	Italy	s.t.
4	Liane Lippert	Germany	s.t.
5	Demi Vollering	Netherlands	s.t.
6	Ruby Roseman-Gannon	Australia	s.t.
7	Justine Ghekiere	Belgium	@ 1min 6sec
8	Marianne Vos	Netherlands	s.t.
9	Riejanne Markus	Netherlands	s.t.
10	Blanka Vas	Hungary	3:00
11	Noemi Rüegg	Switzerland	s.t.
12	Juliette Labous	France	s.t.
13	Puck Pieterse	Netherlands	s.t.
14	Magdeleine Vallieres	Canada	s.t.
15	Neve Bradbury	Australia	s.t.
16	Caroline Andersson	Sweden	s.t.
17	Katarzyna Niewiadoma	Poland	s.t.
18	Antonia Niedermaier	Germany	s.t.
19	Mischa Bredewold	Netherlands	s.t.
20	Sarah Gigante	Australia	3:21
21	Anna Henderson	Great Britain	4:19
22	Ava Holmgren	Canada	s.t.
23	Elise Chabbey	Switzerland	4:21
24	Urška Žigart	Slovenia	s.t.
25	Niamh Fisher-Black	New Zealand	9:01
26	Évita Muzic	France	s.t.
27	Ingvild Gåskjenn	Norway	10:10
28	Carina Schrempf	Austria	s.t.
29	Yuliia Biriukova	Ukraine	s.t.
30	Grace Brown	Australia	s.t.
31	Lauren Stephens	United States	s.t.
32	Alice Towers	Great Britain	s.t.
33	Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig	Denmark	s.t.
34	Paula Patiño	Colombia	s.t.
35	Kristen Faulkner	United States	s.t.
36	Ashleigh Moolman	South Africa	s.t.
37	Mie Bjørndal Ottestad	Norway	s.t.
38	Brodie Chapman	Australia	s.t.
39	Katrine Aalerud	Norway	s.t.
40	Elena Hartmann	Switzerland	s.t.
41	Olivia Baril	Canada	s.t.
42	Gaia Realini	Italy	10:16
43	Franziska Koch	Germany	11:01
44	Christine Majerus	Luxembourg	s.t.
45	Dominika Włodarczyk	Poland	s.t.
46	Cédrine Kerbaol	France	s.t.
47	Teniel Campbell	Trinidad & Tobago	s.t.
48	Usoa Ostolaza	Spain	s.t.
49	Eneritz Vadillo	Spain	s.t.
50	Alice Maria Arzuffi	Italy	s.t.
51	Clara Emond	Canada	s.t.
52	Lotte Claes	Belgium	s.t.
53	Sara Martín	Spain	s.t.
54	Sigrid Ytterhus Haugset	Norway	s.t.
55	Fariba Hashimi	Afghanistan	s.t.
56	Erica Magnaldi	Italy	s.t.
57	Marion Bunel	France	s.t.
58	Barbara Malcotti	Italy	s.t.
59	Olha Kulynych	Ukraine	11:07
60	Soraya Paladin	Italy	s.t.
61	Elinor Barker	Great Britain	15:17
62	Ruth Edwards	United States	18:31
63	Mireia Benito	Spain	s.t.
64	Alison Jackson	Canada	21:05
65	Fiona Mangan	Ireland	s.t.
66	Yanina Kuskova	Uzbekistan	s.t.
67	Ana Vitória Magalhães	Brazil	s.t.
68	Paula Blasi	Spain	s.t.
69	Edseth Marte Berg	Norway	s.t.
70	Anastasia Carbonari	Latvia	s.t.
71	Nina Berton	Luxembourg	s.t.
72	Jasmin Liechti	Switzerland	s.t.
73	Eri Yonamine	Japan	s.t.
74	Yurina Kinoshita	Japan	s.t.
75	Stina  Kagevi	Sweden	s.t.
76	Rebecca Koerner	Denmark	s.t.
77	Solbjørk Minke Anderson	Denmark	s.t.
78	Julia Borgström	Sweden	s.t.
79	Julie De Wilde	Belgium	21:27
80	Margot Vanpachtenbeke	Belgium	s.t.
81	Anabel Yapura Fernanda	Argentina	26:57

 

Elite Women Course Map & Profile:

Course map & profile

Women's World Championship Road Race photos by Fotoreporter Sirotti:

Climbing and descending in the rain. The winner of this race would be a worthy champion.

Rounding a corner in the rain.

One of the French team riders

A Dutch rider

Lotte Kopecky is clearly the day's best rider.

Fourth place Liane Lippert finishes.

Winner Kopecky just after the race.

Dutch rider Marianne Vos (8th place today) warming up after a wet, cold day on the road.

The podium, from left: Chloé Dygert (2nd), Lotte Kopecky (1st) & Elisa Longo Borghini (3rd)

Kopecky's teammates celebrate the Belgian victory.

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