Since first being opened to professional riders in 2016, the elite road race at the European Championships has become a staple fixture of the men’s calendar towards the backend of the season.
This year’s event, which takes place in the Drôme-Ardèche region of France, has shifted its position from last year, occurring a little later to take place on the first Sunday of October. As such, it occupies the weekend in between the World Championships before it and Il Lombardia after it, and will form something of a trilogy of races with those more established events.
The parcours appear to have been selected with this in mind, as the route looks set to suit the same riders who have targeted those races. In contrast to the editions that have preceded it, which have often ended in bunch sprints (including last year in Flanders, when Tim Merlier triumphed), this is a far hillier route, with over 3,000m elevation gain in total.
The route
The Val d’Enfer will be the definitive hill of the race. It’s a classic circuit hill, in that it only lasts 1.6km, but packs a real punch, with an average gradient of almost 10%. The riders will tackle it six times in total, the first three times as part of a wider loop of 34.7km, then another three times as the centrepiece of a shorter 17km circuit, the last coming just 6.5km from the finish.
On its own, Val d’Enfer would be an obstacle to suit the puncheurs, and possibly even keep the sprinters in contention. But in addition to it the riders must also climb the Saint Romain de Lerps during the first circuit, swinging this race well in favour of the climbers. It’s a much longer effort, lasting 7km in total, and at a tough average gradient of over 7%.
That will require a sustained effort that anyone other than the pure climbers will likely find hard to navigate, and much as the Worlds road race was shaped by the early climb of Mont Kigali, looks set to force early selection even before they take on the all-important final laps and three additional climbs of Val d’Enfer.
Contenders
Tadej Pogačar
Bad news for everybody else assembling in Drôme-Ardèche with the hope of being crowned European champion — that man Tadej Pogačar has decided to throw his hat into the ring. The recently-crowned world champion has only ever ridden this event once, and never won it, and fancies riding the wave of his currency form as a chance to add to his ever more complete-looking palmarès.
His crushing victory in Kigali at the World Championships confirm that he’s in as good a form as ever, and though the route here isn’t quite so well-suited to him, with fewer kilometres of climbing bringing tactics more to the fore as opposed to the pure attrition that shaped last Sunday’s road race, he remains the overwhelming favourite.
Remco Evenepoel
Remco Evenepoel has become to Pogačar what Jonas Vingegaard is to him in the mountains and Grand Tours, and Mathieu van der Poel is in the punchy Classics: the Slovenian’s nemesis, the one man who seems capable of challenging him.
Yet Evenepoel has historically struggled more than that pair, succumbing to distant second-place behind him at last year’s Il Lombardia, and at last weekend’s World Championships, and never having won a one-day race in which both have finished. Still, Evenepoel's tears at the end of the race in Kigali demonstrate that he’s not happy to settle for second best behind the Slovenian, and, if granted a better run of luck than the cramps that curtailed him that day (and still remembering the crushing defeat he inflicted on Pogačar at the World time trial), he’ll believe he can challenge the world champion for another gold medal to add to his glittering medal collection.
Jonas Vingegaard
Sunday’s road race will see that rarest of occurrences: Jonas Vingegaard riding a one-day race. The Dane typically shies away from the Classics, preferring the long form racing of Grand Tours and stage race, but a tough course in Drôme-Ardèche has helped convince him to go for the European title. Despite rarely riding these races, in theory he should suit it, especially given the increased punch he has demonstrated this past season. Overcoming specialists Pogačar and Evenepoel will be difficult, however, and there’s no knowing where his form is at having not raced at all in the three weeks since sealing overall victory at the Vuelta a España.
Mads Pedersen
Boasting perhaps the strongest line-up in the race, in addition to the climbing prowess of Jonas Vingegaard the Danes also have the punchy Mattias Skjelmose (fresh from his fourth-place finish at the Worlds road race), and one of the riders of the year: Mads Pedersen. Pedersen has wowed us all season from the spring Classics, to his prolific Giro d’Italia, and most recently his inexhaustible showing at the Vuelta a España, and his appetite for racing remains insatiate as he prepares to ride the European Championships. The big question mark is whether this route is too hard for him. While he has climbed well above expectations all year, as a sprinting rouleur he has a limit, and the three ascents of the Saint Romain de Lerps might just be his undoing.
Read more: Opinion: Mads Pedersen is the rider of this season
João Almeida
Other contenders
As the home nation, France will be eager to make an impression, and have a wide variety of talent from which to assemble a line-up, from young talents Romain Grégoire and Paul Seixas to the experienced Julian Alaphilippe. They have yet to finalise their selection, but however their line-up ends up looking, we can expect them to want to animate the race.
Neither is there a clear leader for the Italians, with the in-form Christian Scaroni and the unpredictable Alberto Bettiol are both options, but not standout ones. Juan Ayuso will, by contrast, lead the Spanish team, fresh from his impressive showing in Kigali that saw him place eighth in the road race.
Toms Skujiņš will also compete on the back off a strong Worlds road race, where he finished fifth. And there will be an eye-catching contingent of young talented riders who could make breakthrough rides, including Czechia’s Mathias Vacek, Netherlands’ Tibor Del Grosso and Switzerland's Jan Christen.
Prediction
We think Tadej Pogačar will blow his opponents away and add yet another title to his palmarès.
