Final climb is like a mountain race

Manama : Milan-San Remo winner Bahrian-Merida’s Vincenzo Nibali was in Innsbruck earlier this week to ride reconnaissance over the 2018 UCI World Championships road race circuit. Accompanied by fellow Italian teammates Franco Pellizotti of Bahrain-Merida and Alessandro De Marchi (BMC Racing), the trio rode over the Olympia road circuit twice, despite cold conditions and snow.

The Worlds take place in September and Nibali has already stated that the road race will be one of his major targets for the season. The Italian will also aim at winning his second Tour de France in July. 

After his reconnaissance Nibali stated that the course was harder than he expected. “The final climb looked like a mountain bike endurance race, so hard,” he said.

“It will be a difficult race to manage, from power distribution to food, from the technical choices to the choice of athletes for a complete national team. After seeing it on paper, I was expecting a hard route but riding it is quite another thing. Many other riders will be as surprised as I was today.”

A number of riders will head to the circuit in the coming months as they try to ascertain whether the course suits their characteristics. Peter Sagan – the winner of the last three road world championships will seek to defend his crown but question marks remain as to whether he can make it over the climbs.