Info courtesy of Eurosport: In the men’s road race, Wout van Aert is the overwhelming favourite for hosts Belgium and arrives in stellar form, having won the general classification at the Tour of Britain, while Remco Evenepoel offers the Belgians a different option. However, defending champion Julian Alaphilippe has had a string of near-misses in 2021 and will be desperate to defend the rainbow stripes.
Mathieu van der Poel has barely been spotted since crashing out of the mountain bike race at the Olympics, but dominated the Antwerp Port Epic on his return earlier in September and will inevitably be watched carefully by the entire peloton.
Elsewhere, Slovenia boast the last two Grand Tour winners, Tadej Pogacar and Primoz Roglic, and potential dark horse Matej Mohoric, while Italy’s Sonny Colbrelli arrives after being recently crowned European champion.
Great Britain’s hopes will likely swing between Tom Pidcock, Ethan Hayter and Mark Cavendish, depending on how the race plays out. Pidcock won De Brabantse Pijl earlier this season on similar terrain, while Hayter finished just behind Van Aert at the recent Tour of Britain. Luke Rowe, Jake Stewart, Fred Wright, Ben Swift and Connor Swift will support them in the road race.
In the time trial, the event will come down to one question: is Filippo Ganna on top form? If the Italian is, he’s basically unstoppable. But the signs from the European Championships and Olympics are that he’s not, paving the way for him to be usurped. Van Aert seems the most obvious candidate if he’s prepared to bury himself before the road race, while Evenepoel and Switzerland’s Stefan Kung are other contenders. Hayter and Dan Bigham will compete for GB. Olympic champion Roglic will sit out the TT battle as Pogacar and Jan Tratnik are drafted in for Slovenia.
Czech Republic
.. ČERNÝ Josef
0 Denmark
.. BJERG Mikkel
.. ASGREEN Kasper
0 Netherlands
.. VAN EMDEN Jos
0 Belgium
.. EVENEPOEL Remco
.. VAN AERT Wout
0 Italy
.. AFFINI Edoardo
.. GANNA Filippo
0 New Zealand
.. SCULLY Tom
0 Ireland
.. MULLEN Ryan
.. CHRISTIE Marcus
0 Italy
.. AFFINI Edoardo
.. GANNA Filippo
0 New Zealand
.. SCULLY Tom
0 Ireland
.. MULLEN Ryan
.. CHRISTIE Marcus
0 Switzerland
.. BISSEGGER Stefan
.. KÜNG Stefan
0 Austria
.. RITZINGER Felix
0 France
.. THOMAS Benjamin
.. CAVAGNA Rémi
0 Poland
.. KWIATKOWSKI Michał
0 United States
.. MCNULTY Brandon
.. CRADDOCK Lawson
0 Syria
.. WAIS Ahmad Badreddin
0 Norway
.. LEKNESSUND Andreas
0 South Africa
.. DE BOD Stefan
.. GIBBONS Ryan
0 Kazakhstan
.. FOMINYKH Daniil
0 Great Britain
.. BIGHAM Daniel
.. HAYTER Ethan
0 Serbia
.. ILIĆ Ognjen
0 Slovenia
.. POGAČAR Tadej
.. TRATNIK Jan
0 Spain
.. RODRIGUEZ Carlos
0 Lithuania
.. LAŠINIS Venantas
0 Uzbekistan
.. HALMURATOV Muradjan
0 Sweden
.. LUDVIGSSON Tobias
0 Slovakia
.. KUBA Ronald
0 Panama
.. JURADO Christofer Robín
0 Eritrea 0 Cyprus
.. MILTIADIS Andreas
0 Colombia
.. URÁN Rigoberto
0 Bulgaria
.. GYUROV Spas
0 Argentina
.. SEPÚLVEDA Eduardo
0 Algeria
.. LAGAB Azzedine
0 Albania
.. SEFA Ylber
20 Portugal
.. REIS Rafael
.. OLIVEIRA Nelson
21 Canada
.. HOULE Hugo
.. ZUKOWSKY Nickolas
23 Germany
.. MARTIN Tony
.. WALSCHEID Max
