The junior women's road race at the UCI Road World Championships is just 73.6km long and less punchy than last year's route in Glasgow. There are a couple of significant climbs that should select the best riders before a relatively flat finish.
The winner will need speed as well as climbing power to take home the rainbow bands in Zurich. Cyclingnews looks at a few of the top favourites.
Célia Gery (France)
Double French national champion Célia Gery has had a stand-out season that included two stages of the Watersley Ladies Challenge and the Tour of Flanders victory - upgrading her third place in that race in 2023. She's a contender in almost every race she enters with final podium placings in the EPZ Omloop van Borsele, Tour du Gévaudan Occitanie and Bizkaikoloreak stage races.
A fourth place in the European Championships signals her strong form and she will be in her element in the much hillier road race in Zurich.
Cat Ferguson (Great Britain)
British champion Cat Ferguson had high expectations on her shoulders at last year's Worlds in Glasgow and finished second to France's Julie Bego in the road race.
This year, she has the upper hand as an 18-year-old and a slew of wins throughout the season including the GC in the Omloop van Borsele, Tour du Gévaudan Occitanie and Bizkaikoloreak as well as podiums in the Tour of Flanders, La Choralis Fourmies Féminine and Piccolo Trofeo Alfredo Binda. Already signed to the WorldTour Movistar team through 2027, her talent has been widely recognized. She just has to have luck and strength to finish it off.
Puck Langenbarg (Netherlands)
European Champion Puck Langenbarg wasn't exactly the top favourite for the race in Limburg, but the Dutch champion packs a powerful sprint and benefitted from a large group coming to the line. With a descent and a small climb in the final 10km, there is a good chance for another reduced bunch sprint in Zurich, and Langenbarg's form and confidence make her a top favourite in that scenario.
Viktória Chladoňová (Slovakia)
The junior world champion in MTB cross country and winner of the Nové Mesto World Cup for juniors, Chladoňová is also the bronze medalist at Worlds in cyclocross. While she hasn't raced as extensively on the road as her rivals at the UCI level, she did place second overall in the only Nations Cup she did this year at the Tour du Gévaudan Occitanie and remains a top contender for road Worlds.
Auke De Buysser (Belgium)
If the women's junior race comes down to a sprint, there are few in the field faster than De Buysser, who won the sprint classification at the Omloop Borsele, the Belgian road title, the GP Ceratizit Junior, the Vermarc Cycling Project Junior two-day race, and half a dozen national-level races all in bunch sprints. A podium at the Piccolo Trofeo Binda shows she can get over the climbs, too, making the Belgian a outsider to watch.
