Worlds

The UCI World Championships are upon us.  Over the next week, champions will be crowned in TTT, ITT and road race, for men, women, and juniors.  For those so inclined, NBC Sports will be covering the women's TT (Tuesday, 9/24), men's TT (Wed, 9/25), women's road (Sat, 9/28) and men's road (Sunday, 9/29).

The Field
USA is sending a total of 29 riders.  The men's elite team is 7 strong, with automatic bids going to Fast Freddie Rodriguez (current national champ), Andrew Talansky and Tejay VanGarderen.  Talansky and Tejay earned their bid by being in the top 50 of world rankings.  The others are Chris Horner (barely off of his Vuelta victory), Taylor Phinney (Boulder-based TT power), Alex Howes (also from Boulder, what-what), and Peter Stetina.
The U-23 team has the familiar face of Lawson Craddock, as well as 4 others, all of whom ride for the Bontrager (formerly Livestrong) team.
Among the women are Mara Abbott (BOULDER!), and Evelyn Stevens (Olympian, 2nd in Worlds TT last year).
Complete list here.

The TT
I'm skipping over the TTT, because it's really just for funsies to fill up the week.  For TTT, the riders go with their pro team, not by country, and to my knowledge you don't get to sport an awesome jersey for the rest of the year announcing your awesomeness.  Which isn't to say there's not pride and cash on the line, but, you know, we've seen it.

The men's elite TT course

The elite men's time trial course is 57km, ending in= Florence.  I want to go ride it just because I'm sure it's beautiful.  But 35 miles is a LONG TT.  Taylor Phinney skipped out on the USAPC pretty much to train for this race.  It's flat, which suits his track background, but I'm concerned about the length (that's what she said).  Not that he doesn't have the motor, but he seems more likely to excel in a race more about the pure speed.  It's hard to not pick a standby, like TdF winner Froome or billion-time Swiss TT champion and crowd favorite Cancellara, but Taylor has been so many times the bridesmaid (2nd place twice last Worlds, 4th place twice in the Olympics) I'll be rooting for him to be the bride.  Not like he'll be worrying about saving energy for the road race.  And he'll probably have sweet shoes.

The Road Race
Because the Worlds are only one day, it's always a long day.  Like maybe they can wear the guys down enough to make a breakaway a possibility.  One thing about the national races, as opposed to the pro team races, the peloton does seem to be less organized.  There's less cooperation, fewer people per team, and a different feel to the race.  This year's race is 272 km, almost 170 miles, mostly in a circuit around Florence.

The only chance for an American to win this thing is a weird breakaway situation.  I'd be looking for something like a 10 man break, which on the last circuit splinters even more on the last lap and some opportunist Talansky who hasn't been doing his share of the work takes advantage.
The women's race is only (only!) 140 km, and does that same circuit 5 times to finish.  Stevens will be focusing on the TT, but she's won some overalls and can certainly handle this course.  Abbott is coming off a GC in the women's Giro, first American ever to wear that crown.  Again, though, I think both of them would operate better in a small break than trying to pull away in a mass finish.
U!S!A!U!S!A!

Parting Thoughts: The only thing I put ahead of me is do and re.