When Zurich was introduced as host for the 2024 UCI Road World Championships, sure riders have been fast to mark it down of their diaries. More testing terrain than most World Championship hosts in latest occasions and the added spice of unpredictable Alpine climate – each of which duly delivered – made for a salivating weekend of racing.
A sequence of laps in and round Zurich and its surrounding countryside over undulating 154km and 273km distances for the elite ladies and elite males respectively ensured that the rainbow jersey went onto deserved shoulders.
Lotte Kopecky left it late – just a few metres from the road, in truth – to seal back-to-back street race titles on a day of brutal climate and equally brutish climbs that decimated the peloton.
The following day, and in drier circumstances, Tadej Pogačar wasn’t within the temper to hold round, delivering a tactical masterclass by an assault launched 100km from the road. Solo from over 50km to go, nobody noticed Pogačar once more till they’d crossed the road.
His victory sees him observe Eddy Merckx and Stephen Roche by finishing the Triple Crown, after successful the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and World Championships in a single yr.
Cyclingnews has curated the very best of the pictures from our pals at SWpix.com, highlighting among the greatest angles of the weekend’s motion.
Amir Arsalan Ansari and Ahmad Badreddin Wais take to the sign-on stand representing the Refugee Cycling Team.
The return of a well-known face. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot lined up for her first World Championships street race since 2017.
The Swiss crew led the best way in paying tribute to compatriot Muriel Furrer, who tragically died from the accidents she sustained in her crash in the course of the junior ladies’s street race.
The peloton crosses over the Limmat River which runs by the town, fed by Lake Zurich.
The World Championships street race all the time delivers a sea of color with the array of nationwide crew jerseys on show.
Riders from Rwanda and Mongolia battle the weather within the Swiss countryside.
The elite ladies’s race suffered from unhealthy climate all through, with moist climate clothes a necessity.
Jan Tratnik setting the tempo within the breakaway after dropping again to gather his compatriot and chief Tadej Pogačar with 90km nonetheless to race.
Justine Ghekiere leads the cost within the breakaway group.
After an unbelievable season, fatigue catching up with Remco Evenepoel. The Belgian struggled to be in contact because the race splintered in the course of the closing phases.
Olympic time trial silver medallist Anna Henderson with a facial features that claims all there’s to know concerning the climate circumstances in Zurich on Saturday.
Pavel Sivakov tries his greatest to carry the wheel of his commerce teammate Pogačar. The Slovenian’s energy would ultimately show an excessive amount of for the Frenchman although.
Biding her time, Lotte Kopecky with a steely focus because the race reaches it is crescendo.
Weather akin to that of early Spring Classics – no surprise there have been 112 DNFs on Saturday.
Surrounded by noise, Tadej Pogačar strikes a peaceful determine as he powers in direction of the Triple Crown.
Demi Vollering follows the assaults as they arrive thick and quick within the closing kilometres.
Kopecky in her aspect. Once the race was set for a lowered dash, she was the out and out favorite.
Back-to-back rainbow jerseys. The Belgian places her arms to her head in disbelief after a gruelling 154km of racing.
Giro. Tour. Worlds. Tadej Pogačar joins Eddy Merckx and Stephen Roche as the one male riders to win all three races in a single yr.
Wiping away the tears, Lotte Kopecky can hardly consider she’s gained the World Championships street race for a second consecutive season.
Tadej Pogačar might have been the rider to cross the road, however his Slovenian teammates and employees performed a giant half in making certain their ways performed out completely.
You’d battle to discover a happier runner-up in Zurich than Ben O’Connor – the Australian capped a powerful season with a shock street race silver medal.
Great Britain’s Oscar Onley shone on Worlds debut, ultimately ending sixteenth.
Natnael Tesfazion is lauded as if he’d simply gained the rainbow jersey by the Eritrean contingent in Zurich.
After her Dutch crew tackled the race head on – Demi Vollering has to accept fifth within the lowered bunch dash.
Puck Pieterse was the best finisher of the U23 ladies within the elite ladies’s race, incomes her the rainbow jersey due to her thirteenth-place consequence.
A packed crowd, regardless of the rain, watch on because the Belgian nationwide anthem rings out.
The first glimpses of Tadej Pogačar within the rainbow jersey. He appears to be at house in it already.
A euphoric Tadej Pogačar ticks one other race off his to-do record. We surprise which race is subsequent within the crosshairs for the unstoppable Slovenian?
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