Bury twins Adam and Simon Yates will spearhead Great Britain’s team at the upcoming UCI Road World Championships in Zurich.
The 32-year-olds are part of GB’s 55-person squad, which includes 16 Olympic and Paralympic medallists.
The annual Road World Championships – which features men’s, women’s, under-23, juniors and para-cycling categories – is one of the showcase events in the calendar year.
The Yates brothers come into the competition after mixed seasons. Adam won stage nine of last month’s Vuelta a España, while Simon has struggled with injuries and contracted Covid at the Tour de France.
Stephen Park, performance director for the Great Britain cycling team, said: “It’s fantastic to see riders in such good form after a busy season, and motivated to defend titles or contest rainbow jerseys for the first time.
“For our younger riders, this is a fantastic opportunity to compete at world level alongside teammates they can look up to and learn from and I’m confident we’ll see some great successes from our future stars.”
🛣️ On the road to Zurich!
— British Cycling (@BritishCycling) September 17, 2024
Meet our squads heading out to Switzerland 🇨🇭 for the 2024 UCI Road and Para-cycling Road World Championships – including 16 medallists from the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games! 🥇#Zurich2024 pic.twitter.com/PXHYciV4a7
Although countrymen compete as teammates in the road race there is just one world title up for grabs – and another in the time trial.
The Yates brothers will be supported by the Olympic Mountain bike champion, Tom Pidcock.
But the reigning Tour de France champion Tadej Pogačar, of Slovenia, is the strong favourite in the men’s road race.
The circuit is a 274km alpine route with a total elevation gain of nearly 4500m.
His main challenger is expected to be Remco Evenepoel, who became the first male cyclist to win the road race and time trial at the same Olympics in Paris.
The Belgian is the favourite to defend his time trial world title, although GB’s Josh Tarling is expected to challenge.
In the women’s events, defending world road race champion Lotte Kopecky is the favourite to defend her title in a hilly 154km road race.
Olympic time trial gold medallist Grace Brown is hoping to add a world title by overcoming the reigning world champion, Chloé Dygert.
In the para-cycling, Eccles-born Dame Sarah Storey leads a star-studded GB squad.
The newly-crowned 19-time Paralympic champion is aiming to add to her existing 23 para-cycling world titles.
Feature image: Adam Yates, courtesy of René Hourdry on Wikimedia Commons
