Cycling World Championships: 3 to watch in the Men’s Road Race
Published:This year’s course for the Men’s Road Race at the World Championships has certainly led to a very strong line-up for the start in Ponferrada with the Classics men all fancying their chances of winning the rainbow jersey.
The 254.8km course features two climbs – the Alto de Montearenas (5.1 kilometres long with an average 3.5 per cent gradient) and the Alto de Compostilla (1.1km, 6.6 per cent) – but with these unlikely to trouble the sprinters there will be plenty of riders in contention at the finish line.
One thing is for certain – the final destination of the rainbow jersey is hard to predict but Ladbrokes News are here to give you a helping hand with three riders to watch out for in Spain.
The Orica-GreenEDGE rider is in tremendous form after wins in Quebec and Montreal last week.
And with the Aussies possessing arguably the strongest squad in the race, the two-time Australian National Road Race champion is rightly the favourite for victory.
Michael Matthews, who has won Grand Tour stages this season, is another option for the Australia team should the race end in a sprint but Gerrans is in the form of his career at the moment and will never have a better chance of claiming the rainbow jersey.
It’s been a long season for Kristoff but the Norwegian rider has consistently show this year that he has all the tools to win a race of this nature.
The 27-year-old is a fast finisher capable of getting over the climbs so this course is well suited to his strengths but how much does the Tour de France stage winner have left in the tank at the end of a hard season?
The Team Katusha rider, who is 20/1 with Ladbrokes, certainly has claims to a podium place.
With the course set-up, sprinter Swift looks to be Great Britain’s best candidate to cross the line first.
Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas and Peter Kennaugh could also be options for Team GB depending on how the race pans out but the best bet for a British winner could be in a sprint finish.
And Swift has been in excellent form this year winning on a lumpy stage at the Tour of the Basque Country and finishing third at the Milan-San Remo.
If his team-mates can put him into a good position and keep the race together for a bunch sprint then the Team Sky rider could be an outside bet for glory.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
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