The 2016 UCI Road World Championships take place in Doha, Qatar, from 9-16 October with elite men, elite women and under-23 men racing for Great Britain Cycling Team in the Middle East.
Current and former world champions are among those selected to represent their country, alongside a number of riders who have enjoyed success this summer at the Olympics and on the WorldTour.
The team
Elite men
Mark Cavendish heads up the elite men’s line-up for Great Britain Cycling Team, with the flat Qatar course expected to favour the Manx Missile.
Cavendish has had an incredible 2016, ticking off all of his major targets so far; being selected for the UCI Track Cycling World Championships and earning rainbow stripes in the Madison alongside Sir Bradley Wiggins; claiming the yellow jersey in the Tour de France and moving second in the all-time stage wins rankings on 30; and achieving his Olympic dream by winning an omnium silver medal in Rio.
His fourth target for this year is to become road world champion – can the 31-year-old, who won the world title in Copenhagen in 2011, reach the top step of the podium again?
Alongside Cavendish are a number of fellow Olympians from Brazil, as Steve Cummings, Geraint Thomas and Ian Stannard will head to Doha.
Cummings is a man in form after becoming only the second British rider to win the Tour of Britain since its relaunch in 2004 and also impressing at the Tour de France over the summer, winning stage seven after a superb solo breakaway.
Geraint Thomas was potentially minutes away from a gold medal opportunity in the Olympic road race in August.
The Welshman crashed with 15km remaining on the final descent of the Vista Chinesa to miss out on a medal opportunity and will be hungry for another chance to represent his country.
Ian Stannard was one of the riders who supported Thomas’s bid in Rio, working tirelessly on the front of the peloton, alongside Cummings, to claw in a seven minute gap on the race leaders.
Two British national champions have been selected for their country in Qatar, with 2016 British Cycling National Road Championships road race champion Adam Blythe and time trial champion Alex Dowsett chosen.
Completing the British squad of 10, with nine set to ride the road race and two to be chosen for the time trial, is Luke Rowe, Scott Thwaites, Dan McLay and Ben Swift.
Elite women
Defending world champion Lizzie Deignan, née Armitstead, heads to the Middle East looking to retain the title she won in Richmond, USA, in 2015.
Deignan outsprinted Dutch rider Anna van der Breggan to become the fourth British woman to win the road race world championships and is aiming to become the first-ever elite British rider, male or female, to successfully defend their road world championships crown.
Deignan is part of a nine-woman British squad for Doha, with eight riders to compete in the road race and two to face the clock in the time trial.
As with the elite men, British champions have been selected to represent their country, and both time trial and road race champions from Stockton-on-Tees will take on the time trial.
2015 and 2016 national time trial champion Hayley Simmonds will race the time trial at the world championships for the second year in a row and will be joined by national road race champion Hannah Barnes.
Barnes will be doubling up in Doha, also named as part of the road race squad, alongside her sister Alice Barnes, who in finishing second to Hannah in Stockton won the under-23 national road race title this year.
Former Olympic champion Dani King is another stand-out name in the Great Britain Cycling Team squad and is joined by Annasley Park after a successful maiden season in Team Breeze colours.
Laura Massey, Abby-Mae Parkinson and Eileen Roe complete the line-up.
Under-23 men
Six men have been selected for the under-23 men’s squad for the 2016 UCI Road World Championships, with an experienced group of young riders set for the Middle East.
Could Jon Dibben book-end his 2016 with a second world title? The Southampton rider earned rainbow stripes on the track in London by winning the points race in March.
National under-23 road race champion Tao Geoghegan Hart and Gabriel Cullaigh both rode alongside Dibben at the recent UEC European Road Championships in France, with Cullaigh taking fifth place after a sprint finish.
Chris Latham, Scott Davies and James Shaw complete the line-up, with all riders competing in the road race and two of the six to be chosen to race the time trial.
Venue
Doha in Qatar plays host to the 2016 UCI Road World Championships – the first time the event has been held in the Middle East and only the second time the championships have gone to Asia, following the 1990 UCI Road World Championships in Japan.
Traditionally held in September, the championships have been moved to October due to the intense heat in Qatar. The courses for both the time trials and road races will be flat, with a number of technical challenges and the road races featuring cobbled sections. All races will finish on The Pearl-Qatar, an artificial island built on one of Qatar’s previous major pearl diving sites.
Elite women and under-23 men’s time trial
Course distance: 28.9km. Two laps of a technical course on The Pearl.
Elite men’s time trial
Course distance: 40km. Starting at the Lusail Sports Complex, heading south towards the finish on The Pearl, via the West Bay Lagoon.
Under-23 men’s road race
Race distance: 166km. Ten laps of a 15.2km course on The Pearl.
Elite women’s road race
Race distance: 134.5km. Beginning at the Qatar Foundation in Education City under a neutralised start, the route heads east towards Qatar Unitversity and West Bay Lagoon before seven laps of the 15.2km technical course on The Pearl.
Elite men’s road race
Race distance: 257.5km. The race begins in the Aspire Zone, to the west of Hamad International Airport under a neutralised start. The route heads north, through Lusail City, the Lusail Sports Complex, continuing as far as Abu Yazoul before heading south, going through Al Khor on the way to West Bay Lagoon and seven laps of the finishing circuit on The Pearl.
Schedule (UK times)
Time trials
Monday 10 October
Under-23 men: 9.30am to 1.50pm
Tuesday 11 October
Elite women: 11.15am to 2.30pm
Wednesday 12 October
Elite men: 11.45am to 2:05pm
Road races
Thursday 13 October
Under-23 men: 10am to 1.55pm
Saturday 15 October
Elite women: 10.45am to 2.20pm
Sunday 16 October
Elite men: 8.30am to 2.35pm
How to follow the racing
- Event-by-event reports, results, images and reaction will appear on the British Cycling website.
- Follow @BritishCycling on Twitter for Great Britain Cycling Team updates throughout the championships.
- Live coverage of elite time trials on BBC Red Button, with coverage of the start of the elite road races on BBC Red Button, with the conclusion on BBC One/Two.
