When Zurich was introduced as host for the 2024 UCI Street World Championships, sure riders had been fast to mark it down of their diaries. Extra testing terrain than most World Championship hosts in latest instances and the added spice of unpredictable Alpine climate – each of which duly delivered – made for a salivating weekend of racing.
A collection of laps in and round Zurich and its surrounding countryside over undulating 154km and 273km distances for the elite girls and elite males respectively ensured that the rainbow jersey went onto deserved shoulders.
Lotte Kopecky left it late – a couple of metres from the road, in truth – to seal back-to-back highway race titles on a day of brutal climate and equally brutish climbs that decimated the peloton.
The next day, and in drier circumstances, Tadej Pogačar wasn’t within the temper to hold round, delivering a tactical masterclass by way of an assault launched 100km from the road. Solo from over 50km to go, nobody noticed Pogačar once more till they’d crossed the road.
His victory sees him observe Eddy Merckx and Stephen Roche by finishing the Triple Crown, after successful the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and World Championships in a single yr.
Cyclingnews has curated one of the best of the photographs from our associates at SWpix.com, highlighting a few of the finest angles of the weekend’s motion.
Amir Arsalan Ansari and Ahmad Badreddin Wais take to the sign-on stand representing the Refugee Biking Group.
The return of a well-recognized face. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot lined up for her first World Championships highway race since 2017.
The Swiss group led the best way in paying tribute to compatriot Muriel Furrer, who tragically died from the accidents she sustained in her crash throughout the junior girls’s highway race.
The peloton crosses over the Limmat River which runs by way of town, fed by Lake Zurich.
The World Championships highway race all the time delivers a sea of color with the array of nationwide group jerseys on show.
Riders from Rwanda and Mongolia battle the weather within the Swiss countryside.
The elite girls’s race suffered from unhealthy climate all through, with moist climate clothes a necessity.
Jan Tratnik setting the tempo within the breakaway after dropping again to gather his compatriot and chief Tadej Pogačar with 90km nonetheless to race.
Justine Ghekiere leads the cost within the breakaway group.
After an unbelievable season, fatigue seemed to be catching up with Remco Evenepoel. The Belgian struggled to keep up a correspondence because the race splintered throughout the ultimate phases.
Olympic time trial silver medallist Anna Henderson with a facial features that claims all there may be to know in regards to the climate circumstances in Zurich on Saturday.
Pavel Sivakov tries his finest to carry the wheel of his commerce teammate Pogačar. The Slovenian’s energy would ultimately show an excessive amount of for the Frenchman although.
Biding her time, Lotte Kopecky with a steely focus because the race reaches it is crescendo.
Climate akin to that of early Spring Classics – no surprise there have been 112 DNFs on Saturday.
Surrounded by noise, Tadej Pogačar strikes a relaxed determine as he powers in the direction of the Triple Crown.
Demi Vollering follows the assaults as they arrive thick and quick within the closing kilometres.
Kopecky in her component. As soon as the race was set for a lowered dash, she was the out and out favorite.
Again-to-back rainbow jerseys. The Belgian places her palms to her head in disbelief after a gruelling 154km of racing.
Giro. Tour. Worlds. Tadej Pogačar joins Eddy Merckx and Stephen Roche as the one male riders to win all three races in a single yr.
Wiping away the tears, Lotte Kopecky can hardly imagine she’s received the World Championships highway race for a second consecutive season.
Tadej Pogačar might have been the rider to cross the road, however his Slovenian teammates and employees performed an enormous half in guaranteeing their techniques performed out completely.
You’d wrestle to discover a happier runner-up in Zurich than Ben O’Connor – the Australian capped a formidable season with a shock highway race silver medal.
Nice Britain’s Oscar Onley shone on Worlds debut, ultimately ending sixteenth.
Natnael Tesfazion is lauded as if he’d simply received the rainbow jersey by the Eritrean contingent in Zurich.
After her Dutch group tackled the race head on – Demi Vollering has to accept fifth within the lowered bunch dash.
Puck Pieterse was the very best finisher of the U23 girls within the elite girls’s race, incomes her the rainbow jersey due to her thirteenth-place outcome.
A packed crowd, regardless of the rain, watch on because the Belgian nationwide anthem rings out.
The primary glimpses of Tadej Pogačar within the rainbow jersey. He appears to be at residence in it already.
A euphoric Tadej Pogačar ticks one other race off his to-do listing. We surprise which race is subsequent within the crosshairs for the unstoppable Slovenian?
Get limitless entry to all of our protection of the 2024 UCI Street World Championships – together with breaking information and evaluation reported by our journalists on the bottom from the junior, under-23, and elite time trials and highway races because it occurs and extra. Discover out extra.
