Road Cycling at the Cycling UCI World Championships 2023

[Grassmarket 3,429]

7 hours ago, heywoodu said:

Dutch NOS is being very annoyed with Shirin van Anrooij seemingly going for her U23 chances instead of the team effort. NOS should shut up, as long as the U23 race is still integrated in the elite race, the U23 riders should fully focus on their chances as they wish....

 

Luckily after today it's just one more time of this nonsense and then in 2025 the U23 women have their own race in Rwanda.

She had her excuses polished and ready...

 

"It was a tough race," the Dutch rider responded. "I didn't feel good at the beginning of the race, so I was dropped early on. Right then, I thought it was over and done with, and I wouldn't be able to get back. We couldn't even see the cars anymore. I was with Marianne Vos and Lorena Wiebes, and they said we should let the others do the work, but nobody really did anything."

 

"However, I knew that we wanted to fight for the rainbow jersey with Demi Vollering, so I told Marianne that I was going to put the pedal to the medal. We had to try, as we could still help with positioning," said the Lidl-Trek rider. "That's how I fought my way back before we reached the local laps. Eventually, I ended up in a group with Blanka and Anna, so at that moment, I realized it was about the U23 title. Blanka was too fast, though; I didn't have much power left in my legs."

 

Edited August 13, 2023 by Grassmarket

[mpjmcevoy 362]

3 hours ago, Rafa Maciel said:

So compared to Tokyo,  have pretty much held on to their form with 6 gold although they are down 2 medals overall. They'll also know that there are another couple of targets on the track that they will be aiming for - including men's pursuit, women's keirin and women's omnium. On the road, I wouldn't be surprised to see GB focusing on the time trial events given the performances of Tarling and Henderson. For both the BMX disciplines and Mountain bike, GB very much in the medal hunt, but it is going to be difficult for them to do much better than they did in Glasgow.

 

Perhaps as expected heading into Paris, there's been a big movement for  against their Tokyo results where they only took 2 bronze medals. Like GB, they are perhaps unlikely to be able to do much more across the BMX and mountain bike disciplines, but I would think they would like to get some better results across the track events.  

I'd say GBR are VERY pleased with the way things stand. The revelation for them will have been Finucane (and to a lesser extent Capewell); if Marchant continues to gain ground, the GBR sprint team will be a serious player, not something you could say recently. You also have to factor in a couple of missing names here - specifically Ethan Haytor and Zoe Backstedt -and presumably improvements from Marchant and Barker, and for different reasons Archibald. I'm assuming at this point Trott-Kenny is done.

[Rafa Maciel 1,594]

40 minutes ago, mpjmcevoy said:

I'd say GBR are VERY pleased with the way things stand. The revelation for them will have been Finucane (and to a lesser extent Capewell); if Marchant continues to gain ground, the GBR sprint team will be a serious player, not something you could say recently. You also have to factor in a couple of missing names here - specifically Ethan Haytor and Zoe Backstedt -and presumably improvements from Marchant and Barker, and for different reasons Archibald. I'm assuming at this point Trott-Kenny is done.

I'll be interested to see who GB Cycling are going to announce as the replacement for McCulloch given all she has done for the women's sprint team. It's not beyond the realms of possibility that Finucane can take 3 medals next year if she can carry this form through to next year. 

 

On Laura Kenny, they don't expect her to feature at Paris but could be back in the squad by the time the next World Champs comes round. 

[Rafa Maciel 1,594]

1 hour ago, Nickyc707 said:

One advantage GB will have compared with 2021 is greater representation in both the BMX disciplines. The other factor for the riders from all countries is that in a lot of events in cycling outside of the track Olympic fields are weaker than those at WC as there are greater limits on numbers per NOC.

GB are probably heading for a doubling of their representation across the Mountain bike and BMX disciplines but despite this, it could still see them coming away with less medals in these events than they won in Tokyo.

 

Off the top of my head I think GB are defending 3 gold, a silver and a bronze - Pidcock and Schriever have good chance to defend their titles but Worthington has struggled for form since Tokyo. Kye Whyte will be up against a formidable French team on home soil but if he can make the final could have medal chance. Finally, Reilly and/or Brookes will look to figure in the men's freestyle but Jeanjean will look to use home advantage. 

[Josh 10,537]

4 hours ago, Rafa Maciel said:

GB are probably heading for a doubling of their representation across the Mountain bike and BMX disciplines but despite this, it could still see them coming away with less medals in these events than they won in Tokyo.

 

Off the top of my head I think GB are defending 3 gold, a silver and a bronze - Pidcock and Schriever have good chance to defend their titles but Worthington has struggled for form since Tokyo. Kye Whyte will be up against a formidable French team on home soil but if he can make the final could have medal chance. Finally, Reilly and/or Brookes will look to figure in the men's freestyle but Jeanjean will look to use home advantage. 

Brooks* Shriever*

[Nickyc707 382]

On 8/13/2023 at 11:17 PM, Rafa Maciel said:

GB are probably heading for a doubling of their representation across the Mountain bike and BMX disciplines but despite this, it could still see them coming away with less medals in these events than they won in Tokyo.

 

Off the top of my head I think GB are defending 3 gold, a silver and a bronze - Pidcock and Schriever have good chance to defend their titles but Worthington has struggled for form since Tokyo. Kye Whyte will be up against a formidable French team on home soil but if he can make the final could have medal chance. Finally, Reilly and/or Brookes will look to figure in the men's freestyle but Jeanjean will look to use home advantage. 

I was actually referring to the cycling programme as a whole outside the track. Equalling the five medals they got last time seems feasible given the form of the time trialers.

[Nickyc707 382]

On 8/13/2023 at 10:20 PM, mpjmcevoy said:

I'd say GBR are VERY pleased with the way things stand. The revelation for them will have been Finucane (and to a lesser extent Capewell); if Marchant continues to gain ground, the GBR sprint team will be a serious player, not something you could say recently. You also have to factor in a couple of missing names here - specifically Ethan Haytor and Zoe Backstedt -and presumably improvements from Marchant and Barker, and for different reasons Archibald. I'm assuming at this point Trott-Kenny is done.

Matt Walls may also be a factor