When Zurich was introduced as host for the 2024 UCI Highway World Championships, sure riders have been fast to mark it down of their diaries. Extra 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 – a number of metres from the road, actually – to seal back-to-back street race titles on a day of brutal climate and equally brutish climbs that decimated the peloton.
The next day, and in drier circumstances, Tadej Pogačar wasn’t within the temper to hold round, delivering a tactical masterclass via 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 profitable the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and World Championships in a single yr.
Cyclingnews has curated the most effective of the pictures from our associates at SWpix.com, highlighting a few of the greatest angles of the weekend’s motion.
Amir Arsalan Ansari and Ahmad Badreddin Wais take to the sign-on stand representing the Refugee Biking Crew.
The return of a well-recognized face. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot lined up for her first World Championships street race since 2017.
The Swiss group 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 via town, fed by Lake Zurich.
The World Championships street race all the time delivers a sea of color with the array of nationwide group jerseys on show.
Riders from Rwanda and Mongolia battle the weather within the Swiss countryside.
The elite ladies’s race suffered from dangerous 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 unimaginable season, fatigue seemed to be catching up with Remco Evenepoel. The Belgian struggled to be in contact because the race splintered in the course of the last levels.
Olympic time trial silver medallist Anna Henderson with a facial features that claims all there may be to know in regards to 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.
Climate akin to that of early Spring Classics – no surprise there have been 112 DNFs on Saturday.
Surrounded by noise, Tadej Pogačar strikes a relaxed 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 factor. As soon as the race was set for a decreased dash, she was the out and out favorite.
Again-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 imagine she’s received the World Championships street race for a second consecutive season.
Tadej Pogačar could have been the rider to cross the road, however his Slovenian teammates and employees performed a giant half in guaranteeing their ways performed out completely.
You’d wrestle 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.
Nice Britain’s Oscar Onley shone on Worlds debut, ultimately ending sixteenth.
Natnael Tesfazion is lauded as if he’d simply received the rainbow jersey by the Eritrean contingent in Zurich.
After her Dutch group tackled the race head on – Demi Vollering has to accept fifth within the decreased bunch dash.
Puck Pieterse was the best finisher of the U23 ladies within the elite ladies’s race, incomes her the rainbow jersey because of her thirteenth-place outcome.
A packed crowd, regardless of the rain, watch on because the Belgian nationwide anthem rings out.
The primary glimpses of Tadej Pogačar within the rainbow jersey. He appears to be at dwelling in it already.
A euphoric Tadej Pogačar ticks one other race off his to-do checklist. We surprise which race is subsequent within the crosshairs for the unstoppable Slovenian?
Get limitless entry to all of our protection of the 2024 UCI Highway World Championships – together with breaking information and evaluation reported by our journalists on the bottom from the junior, under-23, and elite time trials and street races because it occurs and extra. Discover out extra.
