The elite time trials at the UCI Road World Championships 2024 in Zürich take place on the opening Sunday - 22 September - with the women's race occurring first, followed by the men's.
Both are over hilly, but not mountainous, courses that finish in the centre of Zürich, the biggest city in Switzerland, with Remco Evenepoel of Belgium and Chloe Dygert of the USA looking to defend their titles.
The individual time trials are followed by the mixed relay team time trial in midweek, which takes place on the same loop as the road races, which happen the following weekend.
The junior men's and women's and under-23 men race against the clock midweek too.
The 2024 Worlds is the first to combine the Road Worlds and the Para-cycling Worlds in the same event, with the para-cycling time trials happening throughout the week.
Women's individual time trial
29.9km, Sunday 22 September, 12pm BST
The first elite race at the Road World Championships is the women’s time trial from Gossau to the middle of Zürich, a 29.9km route which is not one for the pure rouleurs, with its 327m of elevation gain. It is a course of two halves, with a hilly opening 15.5km before the second 14.4km of flat. Those who lose time on the first part will hope to speed along the second.
The route begins in Gossau, a small town to the southeast of Zürich, and takes in five minor climbs, or bumps, as the route passes through the foothills of the Pfannenstiel, a wooded mountain, with views over Lake Zürich. Five-and-a-half kilometres in, there is 700m at 5.3%, before a climb of 2.4km at 4.9%, including 600m at 8.5%, at 10km into the TT. There are then three more smaller ramps, 400m at 6.7%, 200m at 7.1%, and 200m at 8.4% before the flat section.
The race finishes in the Sechseläutenplatz in the middle of the host city. There are timing points at 10.4km, atop the biggest climb, and at 20.5km. It will be tackled on TT bikes, but is not a course for the purists, with the amount of climbing involved.
Men's individual time trial
46.1km, Sunday 22 September, 2:45pm BST
Later that same day, the elite men ride a longer course, which begins and finishes in Zürich itself, starting in Oerlikon to the north of the city, close to the biggest airport in Switzerland. The TT begins on the open-air Oerlikon Velodrome, which held the World Championships in 1923, 1929, 1936, 1946, 1953, 1961, and 1983. The route heads south towards where the women began in Gossau, before joining up on the same course from just outside the town.
At 46.1km it is over 16km longer than the elite women’s route, but with little extra climbing with the extra distance, with 413m of elevation gain. There is a timing point at 12.5km in, before the climbing starts, and then another at 26.6km in, after that 2.4km hill on the way towards Lake Zürich. The third timing point comes at 36.7km in, once the route becomes a largely flat fast run-in back to the centre of Zürich.
Home fans will be rooting for Stefan Küng, but it is a course which will favour the defending champion Evenepoel, with the climbing and flat TT mix.
Mixed relay team time trial
53.7km, Wednesday 25 September, 2pm
Later in the week, the mixed relay TTT barely feels like a time trial, with its use of the same City Circuit as the road race. In just 53.7km there is 948m of elevation, so it will be a hard job for the three riders of the team to stick together on the course. With the Zürichbergstrasse and the Wikiton tackled on each lap, it will be one for the climbers.
Junior and U23 time trials
The men’s junior time trial hugs Lake Zürich all the way down to Feldmeilen and back to Zürich, close to an Early Bronze Age pile-dwelling site, not that the riders will be able to see that. On their 24.9km course there is just 40m of elevation. The women’s equivalent is much the same, but is 6.1km shorter, at 18.8km long, turning at Herrliberg, which means 36m of elevation.
The under-23 men, meanwhile, ride the same course as the elite women, with 327m of elevation thanks to the foothills of the Pfannenstiel. It begins in Gossau, with 29.9km to be tackled before finishing in the centre of Zürich. The under-23 women race at the same time as the elite women.
Para-cycling time trials
The para-cycling TT courses come in two different kinds: either a copy of the elite women’s course from Gossau to Zürich, or an out-and-back route out of Zürich, along the lake, and then back. The women’s B and C4-5 and the men’s B and C4-5 tackle the 29.9km route that the elite women rode, with the significant amount of climbing involved. The next day, the other individual para events take place, with the women’s C1-3 and H3-5, and the men’s C1-3 and H1-5 heading south along the lake from the Sechseläutenplatz as far as Herrliberg. It’s 18.8km with just 36m of climbing.
The women’s H1-2 and T1-2 and men’s T1-2 individual event is much the same, but turns sooner, at Küsnacht, meaning 11.3km with 13m of elevation along the course.
Meanwhile, the mixed handbike team relay rides the Seefeld Circuit nine times, for a distance of 14.7km around the centre of Zürich, which involves 41m of elevation.
