Slight adjustments on difficult courses for the 2024 Cycling World Championships in Zurich

Wednesday, November 8, 2023 at 5:56 PM

The UCI has made minor adjustments to the courses for the 2024 Cycling World Championships in Zurich, Switzerland. Initially, the idea was to make the men’s road race 279.1 kilometers long, but six kilometers have now been removed. This leaves a road ride of 273.9 kilometers with almost 4,500 meters of elevation gain.

In August, the UCI and the local Swiss organization already announced a large part of the courses. In general, little shocking has changed, although the road trips are somewhat shorter than initially communicated. The men’s race has been shortened to 273.9 kilometers and the women’s race to 154.1 kilometers (which was 157.6 kilometers).

The individual time trial for men is 46.1 kilometers long, with two slopes that are good for more than 400 meters of elevation, and starts and finishes in Zurich. The chrono for women is 29.9 kilometers, has almost 330 meters of elevation through the same slopes and starts in Gossau. A lap of 26.8 kilometers with an elevation gain of 474 meters has been chosen for the Mixed Relay team time trial, which must be completed twice (one by men, one by women).

New to the Cycling World Cup is that the road races of the Para-cycling World Cup are also added to the competition schedule. This means that in the week of September 21-29, all kinds of disciplines will be held together in Zurich.

The local road race route takes place on a 26.8 kilometer circuit in and around Zurich. The beginning of the round is the most difficult, with two slopes that follow each other in quick succession. First there is the Zürichbergstrasse (1.1 km at 8%), then the Witikon (2.3 km at 5.7%). This is followed by a plateau of about eight kilometers before the descent begins. There is still an ascending section in the last ten kilometers, but this no longer means much.

The men start their road race in Winterthur and in the long run-up they work the Buch am Irchel (4.8 km at 4.2%), Kyburg (1.2 km at 12%) and Suessblatz (1.7 km at 8.5 %), followed by seven laps. The women start in Uster and then drive four complete laps around the circuit.