After his current bikepacking adventures, Wout van Aert used his post-Spring break to take a look at the course for the 2023 UCI Highway World Championships, heading to Scotland for a recon alongside Belgian teammate Lotte Kopecky.
The pair have been a part of a Belgian contingent that included nationwide selector Sven Vanthourenhout, coach Serge Pauwels, and youthful riders Julie De Wilde and Jonathan Vervenne.
The group flew to Scotland on Thursday and spent Friday testing each the highway race and time trial programs for the 2023 Worlds, which happen earlier this 12 months as a part of an expanded and multi-discipline UCI World Championships in early August.
Kopecky would be the clear chief of the Belgian girls’s workforce whereas Van Aert will share management alongside outgoing world champion Remco Evenepoel, who’s at the moment using the Giro d’Italia, whereas Jasper Philipsen is another choice.
“It was a puzzle to discover a second between the remaining durations, coaching periods, altitude coaching and races,” Vanthourenhout advised Het Nieuwsblad. “After all Remco could not be there, however we’re making a report, taking pictures footage We share this info with all potential World Championship riders. This was a brief however environment friendly journey.”
The highway races on the 2023 World Championships will begin and end in Glasgow, with the primary motion boiling all the way down to a 14km circuit within the centre of the Scottish capital. The time trials, in the meantime, happen round Stirling to the north, with extra nation roads however with a showstopping end on the steep cobbled climb as much as the Stirling Fortress.
The conclusion from the Belgian camp was that the Glasgow highway race circuit was extremely technical, with Lotte Kopecky reportedly saying it is “100 instances worse than Leuven”, which hosted the 2021 Worlds.
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Van Aert, in the meantime, uploaded his experience to Strava with the title ‘Dangerous Enterprise’, showing to finish the one-lap recon on a metropolis rental bike.
“Not solely are there 42 corners, it could actually get hectic,” stated Pauwels. “Generally you flip at proper angles into an asphalted strolling path within the park, the place there’s nonetheless a pole within the center to maintain out site visitors. It’s by no means 500 meters straight forward.”
Vanthourenhout added: “Mixed with the space, we will count on pure put on and tear. There are locations the place Remco can even lose his power. Furthermore, it’s tough to arrange a chase. I count on a most of 30 males within the ultimate.”
TT recon
The Belgian camp had already been out to Stirling earlier within the day to take a look at the time trial course, with Van Aert posting a experience of 64.41km to Strava, presumably this time on his personal bike.
The precise particulars of the TT course, together with the space, have but to be formally confirmed, however it finishes on the Fortress after a visit into the countryside, the place Van Aert apparently encountered some highland cows. Van Aert selected to skip the time trial final 12 months with a view to deal with the highway race in Wollongong however is contemplating going for the double this 12 months.
“By way of asphalt, you’ve got every thing: from very coarse to easy, over rolling roads,” stated Pauwels.
“It’s most akin to that end in Avila that we all know from the Vuelta. The final 3km are powerful, however the final kilometre on these cobblestones are particularly arduous. It is going to be a spectacular end.”
