British Cycling has today announced its long list for the UCI Road World Championships, which take place in Tuscany later this month, with Chris Froome heading the Men’s Road Race line-up, Sir Bradley Wiggins and Alex Dowsett racing in the Men's Time Trial, and Emma Pooley a surprise call-up to the women’s squad, including being Great Britain’s sole representative in the Women's Time Trial.
Lucy Garner, winner of the Junior Women’s Road Race title for the past two years, steps up to the senior squad, while twin brothers Simon and Adam Yates, who both enjoyed success at the Tour de l’Avenir last month - Simon won two stages, while Adam was second overall - are in the squad for the Under-23 Men’s Road Race.
When he won the Tour de France in July, Sky’s Chris Froome said he would target the World Championship Road Race, in which the closing circuit features a tough climb to Fiesole above Florence, as well as a smaller climb of Via Salviati.
Whoever makes the final selection, he will be supported by a strong Great Britain line-up, although missing from the long list today is Garmin-Sharp’s David Millar, who acted as road captain when Mark Cavendish won the rainbow jersey in Copenhagen in 2011, and again in the Olympic Road Race in London last year.
Wiggins, meanwhile, is looking to rescue his 2013 season by adding the World Time Trial Championship to the Olympic title he won in London last year. he's joined by Dowsett, who in the colours of Movistar was a surprise winner of an individual time trial in May's Giro d'Italia.
In the Women’s Road Race, Pooley – the 2010 World Time Trial champion who has put top-level racing on hold to focus on completing her PhD – and Garner will be joined by riders including Lizzie Armitstead, winner of a silver medal behind Marianne Vos of the Netherlands at London 2012.
British Cycling Performance Manager Shane Sutton commented: “I think the selection of the elite teams speak for themselves, we’ve got Olympic medallists, Tour de France winners and former World Champions all in the mix and I think we could do well across the board there.
“The Yates brothers have put some really impressive rides in on the road this season so I’m looking forward to seeing what they can do, and we should be well represented in the Junior events as well.”
The UCI Road World Championships take place in Tuscany from 22-29 September. You can find full information on the official website.
British Cycling says that it will confirm final line-ups “in due course.”
Here are the squads announced today:
Men’s Elite Road Race – 8 places qualified, 11 riders named
Mark Cavendish
Steve Cummings
Alex Dowsett
Josh Edmondson
Andy Fenn
Chris Froome
Luke Rowe
Ian Stannard
Geraint Thomas
Jon Tiernan Locke
Bradley Wiggins
Men’s Elite Time Trial
Alex Dowsett
Sir Bradley Wiggins
Women’s Elite Road Race – 6 places qualified, 6 riders named
Lizzie Armitstead
Katie Colclough
Nikki Harris
Lucy Garner
Sharon Laws
Emma Pooley
Women’s Elite Time Trial
Emma Pooley
U23 Men’s Road Race – 6 places qualified, 8 riders named
Jon Dibben
Owain Doull
Tom Moses
Joe Perrett
Alex Peters
Alistair Slater
Adam Yates
Simon Yates
U23 Men’s Time Trial
Joe Perrett
Junior Men’s Road Race
Scott Davies
Tao Geoghegan Hart
Matt Gibson
James Knox
Junior Men’s Time Trial
Matt Gibson
Junior Women’s Road Race
Anna Christian
Bethany Hayward
Add new comment
21 comments
Yay Anna! #gomanxies
So who is going for the win in the Men's road team?
I saw Cav in Florence 3 weeks ago !?
All said here about Cav is true but I'd go for Millar over him for this event. But what do I know?!
He's a team player, it's home grounds, and he can do what he did last year- push the race race hard in the early stages, if needs be. He's not actually a one-dimensional "sit on the wheel then explode in the final couple of hundred metres" rider like some people seem to think he is.
Cavendish has clearly stated he wants to ride in 2013 to repay the efforts for his win in 2011.
See CyclingNews & Sporza for this.
He also rode last year in Valkeburg when he didn't really have a chance of winning.
It's great to see Alex Dowsett getting the place he deserves.
No doubting Cav is a team player, but he's changed his whole program to focus on getting qualified for the world cup track events
Cavendish is many things and one thing he *is* is a team player.
Just because he isnt up for the win doesnt mean he will not buzz off helping someone else win.
When he has to put the graft in he is rarely not there.
Personally i think he would make a good captain - if there is one thing he knows it is how to win races, he is not afraid to call the shots and certainly has the experience.
In my opinion.
Cav already said its not for him, so why is he being picked?
Also, No Hannah Barnes in the women's team. I thought that would be a no brainer
I think it shows the quality in depth British cycling now has that they can afford to leave Millar out.
Although coming to the end of his career he can still cut it with the young un's but he seems a pragmatic sort of fella and probably understands why he has been left out.
My thoughts too. It wasn't so long ago that we struggled to scrape a handful of riders who were up to the job, and enough UCI points to qualify them in the first place.
I think David Millar would have made a great captain on the road, there's no obvous captain in the list. What about Peter Kennaugh? A great domestique for Froome in the TDF, no?
G will probably be captain - he's been road captain a couple of times for Sky inc this year's Dauphine. Unless Bradders is up for it....
As for PK he's still wiped out from the Tour apparently. DNF Colorado, and they had to pull him from the ToB squad.
Isn't Tuscany Cav's second home and training ground?
Interesting, its only Sir Bradley in the ITT
Pooley may be having a relatively quiet year c/o the PhD write-up and being in a smaller team, but she's still been getting some high placings (including wins). And some of the time "off" has been spent doing bonkers triathlons, which probably won't slow have slowed her down too much...
So not that surprising she's in there.
Maybe I've misread the course but surely it would be a waste of time for Cav, no?
Still wants to do his bit for the team though. And he can get over the lumps ok and help out as a domestique for a while, as he did last year
Wonder what David Millar did wrong? I thought he worked like crazy for Cav in the Olympic road race
He got old. Happens to the best of us.
No Froome v Wiggins TT head to head, shame.