The route of the men’s road race for the 2023 Worlds, 271 kilometers between Edinburgh and Glasgow, in Scotland, caused a lot of talk before the start of the event, Sunday August 6 at 10:30 a.m. (Paris time).
After 128 rather classic kilometres, the race is likely to be decided on a 14.3 kilometer circuit in Glasgow, to be covered ten times. This one, all uphill, downhill and curved, is a vertiginous turnstile, with 48 turns per turn, or 480 in total, on a grainy asphalt, full of hastily filled potholes. With so many turns, the raises will be decisive.
If the Montrose Street bump (200 meters at 14%), which is part of the circuit, is too short to be really selective, “the accumulation of efforts will make the final very difficult”, estimates the Dutchman Mathieu Van der Poel, who expects “a very tough, wear-and-tear race”.
The plotter “must have been stuffed”
The course of the race on Sunday is so atypical and surprising that it has aroused a number of comments, amused or annoyed, from runners and coaches.
“For a Formula 1 Grand Prix it’s fantastic, but for a cycle race it’s not my favorite. The guy who drew it may have been hanging out in the pub too much, ”said Belgian Remco Evenepoel, outgoing world champion.
In the same vein, French puncheur Benoît Cosnefroy believes that the plotter “must be stuffed”. “Even if the course corresponds to my qualities, it is not worthy of a World Championship. It’s made for a criterium at best,” he added.
French sprinter Bryan Coquard finds inspiration elsewhere to explain the thrills that await runners: “You don’t have to be sick on the rides. By dint of turning, we will want to vomit on arrival, “he laughs.
More soberly, Thomas Voeckler, the coach of the Blues, believes that “this circuit is unlike any other”. “You can lose your mind, literally and figuratively,” he warns.
In the columns of Le Soir, the former Belgian world champion Philippe Gilbert thinks that the riders “cyclo-cross specialists will be the favorites, [because] they take the turns faster than the others. They have a natural drive that saves them a second here, a second there. Among them are Mathieu Van der Poel and Belgian Wout van Aert, eight world champion titles in the undergrowth between them.