Road World Championships 2021 news – Men’s Road Race Follow LIVE as Wout van Aert goes for glory

204km to go: The state of the nation

We’re 64km in to the race and the breakaway has just passed the finish line in Leuven for the first time.

Denmark and Belgium are sharing duties on the front of the peloton. We’re going to see a fair bit of Tim Declerq in these first few hours.

Welkom in vlaanderen

For the second blue riband event of Flanders 2021, the men’s World Championship road race.

We’ve seen some grumbling on Twitter – where else? – that the course is not as close to that of the Tour of Flanders as they might have expected. But of course it’s not. When you’ve already got the cycling world’s undivided attention for one day each year, the point of hosting another big event is to put a few more of your wares in the shop window.

Which is why the route contains none of the bigger bergs and most challenging cobbles you’ll find in De Ronde. It does

And while it is not an objectively hard course, all that means is that everyone can get round, which is more-or-less true of any elite parcours. This is nevertheless one that can easily be made to be tough, and there are certainly teams that will want it that way.

There are also those, like Australia, Colombia and Germany, who think it could come down to a sprint. And then there are the teams, one in particular, who can handle almost any scenario that unfolds.

Make no mistake, the home squad are here to win, and to win with Wout.

Unfortunately for the boys in bleu, every other country is going to do everything in their power to prevent them from doing so. Few have left out any of their highest calibre weapons.

The firepower on display today is immense.

France, though obviously seeking to defend the rainbows for Julian, have Arnaud Demare and Remi Cavagna as strong back-up options. Slovenia also have three riders who can win, though Primoz Roglic is likely to be their nominated leader.

Italy’s squad, while arguably weaker at its strongest point than that of the other big nations, contains even more options. Sonny Colbrelli is in the form of his life, but a willing wind could nod almost any of their riders into contention.

Let’s not pretend we don’t want to see a resumption of the Van Aert v Van Der Poel show, though. Expect a lot of “Kamaan Wout” signs on the side of the road today.

Grab yourself a Stella, because the next five hours are gonna be a rough and tumble rollercoaster ride where quite literally several different scenarios and outcomes are possible.

Opinion: Dramatic shift in women’s cycling enhanced by greater coverage

This year, women’s cycling is the most competitive it’s ever been, and it is the most accessible it has ever been, and those two things run in correlation.

Across 2021, many of the Women’s World Tour and classics have been broadcast live, along with commentary and analysis (on Eurosport & GCN in the UK at least), though not all, and along with the huge amount of talent in the peloton, the viewing experience has improved.

By being able to watch the majority of races unfold live, audiences can see the evolution of the peloton across a season, the progress certain riders have made, the learnings and experience they gain and use in subsequent races. The way they focus on working for their team-mates in some races and challenge for the win in others, and the UCI world championships have been no different this week.

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