Tom Pidcock will lead Great Britain in the elite men’s road race at the World Championships in Zürich, Switzerland next week, it was announced on Tuesday afternoon.
The squads for both the Road Worlds and the Para-cycling Road Worlds were released, with 16 Olympic and Paralympic medallists in the 51 names.
Pidcock will line up at the road Worlds for the first time since 2021 in Leuven, where he finished sixth. While not quite in the same form as Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia) or Remco Evenepoel (Belgium), the 25-year-old will hope to animate a punchy race, having won the Amstel Gold Race this year, if he has recovered from the concussion he suffered at the Tour of Britain.
He will be joined by Stevie Williams, the winner of La Flèche Wallonne and the Tour of Britain, and twins Adam and Simon Yates, riding the Worlds for the first time since 2020, as well as Oscar Onley, James Knox, Mark Donovan, and Jake Stewart on a hilly course.
Anna Henderson, silver medallist in the time trial at the Olympics, will lead the squad in the women’s elite road race, where she will be joined by Elinor Barker, Claire Steels and Lizzie Holden, along with Josie Nelson and Alice Towers, who are also eligible for the under-23 title.
GB will also have medal favourites in the under-23 men’s race, through Joe Blackmore, and in the junior women’s race, through Cat Ferguson, who finished second last year. Josh Tarling, who won a bronze medal in Glasgow, will also hope to return to the podium in the men’s elite time trial.
Off the back of her record 19th Paralympic medal, Dame Sarah Storey will head to Zürich to compete in the C5 road race and time trial. She will be joined in the para-cycling squad by reigning C3 road race champion Fin Graham, among others. Paralympic road race champions Sophie Unwin and Jenny Holl will hope for more success on their tandem in Switzerland.
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“It’s fantastic to see riders in such good form after a busy season, and motivated to defend titles or contest rainbow jerseys for the first time,” Stephen Park, GB’s performance director, said.
“For our younger riders, this is a fantastic opportunity to compete at world level alongside teammates they can look up to and learn from and I’m confident we’ll see some great successes from our future stars.
“We saw last year at the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships in Glasgow, the benefits for riders, spectators and the sport as a whole that came from combining the Olympic and Paralympic track programmes, so to bring the road programmes together is something I am a huge advocate of.
“Day in, day out our programmes across all levels and all disciplines work collaboratively together, so to be able to continue this into competition and showcase all of our athletes on the same stage, is a truly fantastic opportunity.”
ROAD
Elite men
Mark Donovan
James Knox
Tom Pidcock
Oscar Onley
Jake Stewart
Josh Tarling
Stevie Williams
Adam Yates
Simon Yates
Elite women
Elinor Barker
Anna Henderson
Lizzie Holden
Claire Steels
Under-23 men
Joe Blackmore
Matthew Brennan
Josh Charlton
Bob Donaldson
Oliver Stockwell
Louis Sutton
Callum Thornley
Ben Wiggins
Under-23 women
Josie Nelson
Alice Towers
Junior men
Oliver Dawson
Seb Grindley
Elliot Rowe
Dylan Sage
Fin Tarling
Junior women
Arabella Blackburn
Cat Ferguson
Carys Lloyd
Imogen Wolff
Esther Wong
PARA-CYCLING ROAD
Men
Archie Atkinson (C4)
Felix Barrow (T2)
Will Bjergfelt (C5)
Jaco van Gass (C3)
Fin Graham (C3)
Matt Robertson (C2)
Callum Russell (H4)
Ben Watson (C3)
Women
Fran Brown (C1)
Amelia Cass (C2)
Morgan Newberry (C5)
Daphne Schrager (C2)
Sarah Storey (C5)
Katie Toft (C1)
Tandems
Lora Fachie (piloted by Corrine Hall)
Lizzi Jordan (piloted by Danni Khan)
Chris McDonald (piloted by Adam Duggleby)
Sophie Unwin (piloted by Jenny Holl)
