2024 UCI Road World Championships in Zurich: Preview, top riders, schedule, how to watch live cycling action
The Canton of Zürich plays host to the 2024 Road World Championships, and for the first time ever, the Para-Cycling Road World Championships will take place concurrently as part of a single combined event.
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This year's 2024 UCI Road World Championships, being held in Zurich, Switzerland, mark a special occasion: it is the first time the UCI Para-Cycling Road World Championships is being held alongside the non-adaptive version of the sport as a single combined event.
The rainbow jersey will be awarded a total of 11 times in road cycling in addition to another 53 in Para-cycling from 21 to 29 September 2024.
Five elite world titles are on offer: men's and women's individual time trials, men's and women's road races, and the mixed relay team time trial.
Zurich, the main host city, will be the finish line for all major races, although the elite time trials and road races will begin elsewhere within the Canton of Zürich.
Notably, the men's double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel is also the defending time trial world champion and will once again be a threat. On the women's side, both Olympic champions Grace Brown (ITT) and Kristen Faulkner (road race) are expected in the field.
Discover what you can expect from the elite races, both in terms of potential challengers and the course layouts.
Men's elite category riders to watch at 2024 UCI Road World Championships
Unsurprisingly, Evenepoel is the a favourite in both the time trial and road race after his showing at Paris 2024.
The Belgian comes in as the defending time trial world champion too, and having finished third overall at the Tour de France this year can clearly hang with the climbers – something he will have to do with over 4,400m of altitude gain set on this road race course.
His hopes in the road race have perhaps been affected by the news that Belgian teammate Wout van Aert has been ruled out for the season after the latter took a heavy tumble on a wet downhill at the Vuelta a España.
Of course, the name on everyone's lips to challenge Evenepoel and perhaps take his first rainbow jersey is Tadej Pogacar. The Slovenian recently secured a solo win at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal and heads to Zurich in top form after resuming racing following his Tour de France victory.
Reigning road race world champion Mathieu van der Poel won't want to give his title up that easily, although the sheer amount of climbing to be done might be a stretch too far for the Dutchman.
In the time trial, look for the likes of Filippo Ganna, Josh Tarling, and Stefan Küng to also be challenging Evenepoel.
2024 UCI Road World Championships: Women's elite category riders to watch
Australia's Brown is the reigning Olympic time trial champion, having claimed gold on a wet day in Paris as some of the other favourites struggled. It is her final pro season and an Olympic-World Championships double would certainly be some way to sign off.
But defending champion Chloé Dygert (USA), who ended up with Olympic bronze after a crash on the slippery Parisian roads, will want to make up for her disappointment from the Games.
It remains to be seen whether Great Britain's Anna Henderson, who took Olympic silver but then crashed out of the Tour de France Femmes last month, has recovered sufficiently to race in Zurich.
Brown and Dygert are both also entered in the women's road race, as is the Olympic road race champion Faulkner.
But the usual suspects – the Netherlands' Marianne Vos and Demi Vollering, Belgium's Lotte Kopecky, Poland's Kasia Niewiadoma, and Italy's Elisa Longo Borghini – will all want to have a say too.
Kopecky is the defending champion from Glasgow, while Niewiadoma and Vollering finished the Tour de France Femmes first and second respectively and can hold their own over the climbing required.
2024 UCI Road World Championships: Men's and women's elite time trial and road race courses
Both men's and women's elite time trials feature a little bit of climbing, with the women gaining 327 vertical metres over 29.9km from Gossau to Zurich and the men 413m over 46.1km from Oerlikon to Zurich.
The same climbs will feature on both races, with the men racing a little longer around Zurich before reaching the hilly portion of the route.
The road races promise to be a different beast, however. Both the women and men will endure more climbing than they did last year in Glasgow, on routes that begin in Uster and Winterthur respectively and end in Zurich.
The women's road race features one lap of a loop around the Greifensee lake before heading to the city circuit around Zurich, which will be ridden four and a half times.
That circuit includes a short 782m but sharp climb of the Zürichbergstrasse, which at its steepest features gradients of nearly 16 per cent (and an average climb of 8.6 per cent), as well as a climb to the Witikon quarter of the city (1.9km at 6.2 per cent).
At 154.1km, the distance of the race for the women is the same as they competed in Glasgow in 2023, but at 2384m of altitude gain features an extra 155m of vertical climbing.
Meanwhile, the men begin with a ride around Winterthur circuit northeast of Zurich, featuring climbs up to Buch am Irchel (4.8km at 4.2 per cent) and at Kyburg (1.3km at 10.1 per cent), before joining the same city circuit for seven and a half laps.
In total, the men's elite road race has a distance of 273.9km – around 3km longer than last year – with a painful 4,470m of climbing, up from 3,570m in 2023.
Route profiles of (from top) the women's elite time trial, men's elite time trial, women's elite road race, and men's elite road race at the 2024 UCI Road World Championships
Zurich 2024 UCI Road and Para-Cycling Road World Championships – Full schedule
All times are listed in Central European Summer Time (UTC +2 hours). Subject to change.
Saturday 21 September 2024
- 17:15 – Mixed H1-5 team relay – Seefeld Circuit, Zurich–Zurich, 14.7km
Sunday 22 September 2024
- 10:00 – Women's B individual time trial – Gossau–Zurich, 29.9km
- 10:00 – Women's C4-5 individual time trial – Gossau–Zurich, 29.9km
- 12:00 – Women's elite individual time trial – Gossau–Zurich, 29.9km
- 14:45 – Men's elite individual time trial – Oerlikon–Zurich, 46.1km
Monday 23 September 2024
- 09:15 – Men's junior individual time trial – Zurich–Feldmeilen–Zurich, 24.9km
- 12:15 – Men's B individual time trial – Gossau–Zurich, 29.9km
- 14:45 – Men's C4-5 individual time trial – Gossau–Zurich, 29.9km
- 14:45 – Men's under-23 individual time trial – Gossau–Zurich, 29.9km
Tuesday 24 September 2024
- 08:30 – Women's junior individual time trial – Zurich–Herrliberg–Zurich, 18.8km
- 11:00 – Women's C1-3 individual time trial – Zurich–Herrliberg–Zurich, 18.8km
- 11:00 – Women's H3-5 individual time trial – Zurich–Herrliberg–Zurich, 18.8km
- 11:00 – Men's C1-3 individual time trial – Zurich–Herrliberg–Zurich, 18.8km
- 11:00 – Men's H1-5 individual time trial – Zurich–Herrliberg–Zurich, 18.8km
- 16:00 – Women's H1-2 individual time trial – Zurich–Küsnacht–Zurich, 11.3km
- 16:00 – Women's T1-2 individual time trial – Zurich–Küsnacht–Zurich, 11.3km
- 16:00 – Men's T1–2 individual time trial – Zurich–Küsnacht–Zurich, 11.3km
Wednesday 25 September 2024
- 10:45 – Men's B road race – City & Lakeside Circuit, Zurich–Zurich, 103.2km
- 10:45 – Women's B road race – City & Lakeside Circuit, Zurich–Zurich, 84.7km
- 14:00 – Mixed team relay time trial – City Circuit, Zurich–Zurich, 53.7km
Thursday 26 September 2024
- 09:00 – Men's H1-2 road race – Lakeside Circuit, Zurich–Zurich, 38.0km
- 09:00 – Women's H1-5 road race – Lakeside Circuit, Zurich–Zurich, 38.0km
- 10:00 – Women's junior road race – Uster–Zurich, 73.6km
- 12:15 – Men's C4-5 road race – City & Lakeside Circuit, Zurich–Zurich, 90.9km
- 12:15 – Men's C3 road race – City & Lakeside Circuit, Zurich–Zurich, 71.6km
- 14:15 – Men's junior road race – Uster–Zurich, 127.2km
Friday 27 September 2024
- 08:30 – Men's C1 road race – Lakeside Circuit, Zurich–Zurich, 62.7km
- 08:30 – Men's C2 road race – Lakeside Circuit, Zurich–Zurich, 62.7km
- 11:00 – Men's T1-2 road race – Lakeside Circuit, Zurich–Zurich, 31.8km
- 11:00 – Women's T1-2 road race – Lakeside Circuit, Zurich–Zurich, 31.8km
- 12:45 – Men's under-23 road race – Uster–Zurich, 173.6km
Saturday 28 September 2024
- 08:15 – Men's H3 road race – City & Lakeside Circuit, Zurich–Zurich, 57.8km
- 10:45 – Women's C1-3 road race – Lakeside Circuit, Zurich–Zurich, 56.5km
- 10:45 – Women's C4-5 road race – City & Lakeside Circuit, Zurich–Zurich, 70.2km
- 12:45 – Women's elite road race – Uster–Zurich, 154.1km
Sunday 29 September 2024
- 09:45 – Men's H4 road race – City & Lakeside Circuit, Zurich–Zurich, 57.8km
- 09:45 – Men's H5 road race – City & Lakeside Circuit, Zurich–Zurich, 57.8km
- 10:30 – Men's elite road race – Winterthur–Zurich, 273.9km
How to watch the 2024 UCI Road World Championships
Switzerland's SRG is the host broadcaster and will produce the live pictures from Zurich.
In the United Kingdom, the BBC owns the rights and will carry coverage on BBC Sport and BBC iPlayer.
FloBikes will stream live coverage in the United States and Canada, while Eurosport will broadcast the event throughout most of Europe.
In Australia, the action will be on SBS Sport and SBS On Demand.
Please check local listings for coverage in your area.