The cycling world championships are measured by the strength and confrontations between Remco Evenepoel, Mathieu Van der Poel, Tadej Pogacar, Primoz Roglic, who are called to compete for the rainbow jerseys.
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This Sunday, the men’s and women’s individual time trial opens the professional route with a big favorite, Evenepoel, who this year has participated in seven days of this style and has won four, including the one in the Paris Olympic Games.
The ‘hard’ ones
The Belgian hopes to repeat in Switzerland his success at the Paris Olympics, where he took gold in the time trial and road race.
Colombia will have its representative in the time trial, Walter Vargas, who was national champion in 2016 and 2021, won silver in 2023 and bronze in 2017 and 2018.
In Zurich, the road race will be the closing event of the World Championships on Sunday 29 September, with a demanding 273-kilometre course that suits Evenepoel well.
The Belgian rider will have an exceptional rival, Tadej Pogacar. The Slovenian, absent in Paris, hopes to become the third cyclist to achieve the triple crown (winning the Tour, the Giro and the World Championships) in the same year after Eddie Merckx in 1974 and Stephen Roche in 1987.
Pogacar will lead a powerful Slovenian team that will also include the recent winner of the Tour of Spain, Primoz Roglic.
However, there are doubts about the Belgian’s condition, which the coach himself has expressed to the media in recent days before facing the challenge at the end of the season.
“It’s still a human being, not a robot that we can meticulously adjust at any time and place,” he said. Koen Pelgrim.
He added: “Even if I hadn’t gotten sick, the decompression would have had its effect. As an athlete, you are so focused, so motivated, exhausting your body. And you don’t allow fatigue to build up and stress to increase. When all that is suddenly gone, you feel it much more.”
Pogacar, another star
Crowned last year in Glasgow in the road cycling category, Dutchman Van der Poel hopes to join the fight, and has even lost weight to be better able to cope with the 4,470 metres of altitude that await the peloton in Switzerland, but he has not had a good season either.
Tadej Pogacar
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“I have rested and I want to compete again and after Canada “I feel in good condition. I hope to arrive at the World Championships in good shape,” said Pogacar.
On his chances at the World Championships, he said: “The level will be high there, as always, and we will have to be at our best. Whatever happens during the rest of the season, I can be happy with what I have achieved this year. Anything else will be an advantage. My condition is good and I am focused on enjoying myself and doing well in this last part of the season.”
The day before, the Belgian Lotte Kopecky will defend her women’s road title in a race marked by the return of the Frenchwoman Pauline Ferrand-PrévotOlympic cross-country champion in Paris.
Colombians…
The American Chloe Dygert She is the favourite for today’s women’s individual time trial over 29.9 kilometres, as she comes to Switzerland to defend the title she won last year.
For Colombia in the conventional test there will be the representatives Stephanie Herrera and Diana Carolina Peñuela, while in paracycling they will be in the C4-5 category Paula Andrea Ossa and Martha Liliana Moreno.
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