World Cycling Championships 2017 Bergen, Norway: Route road race

World Cycling Championships 2017 Bergen, Norway: Route road race - men

Sunday, 24 September 2017 - The men's road race at the 2017 UCI Road World Championships in Bergen, Norway, totals 276.5 kilometres. Following the start in Kollsnes the route travels to a local circuit in Bergen, which is raced twelve times. A series of three climbs in each round account for a tough route.

Following the departure from Kollsnes on the island Sotra the route travels along the rugged west coast of Norway. Via the Sotra Bridge the riders arrive in the county Hordaland on Norway’s mainland. Approximately 10 kilometres after crossing the 1,236 metres suspension bridge the pack hits the local circuit in Bergen. The circuit is on the menu twelve times. Each round takes in 281 vertical metres and as the men face 471 vertical metres on the run-in to the circuit the route amounts to 3,843 vertical metres.

Bergen is known as Syv Fjell, or city of the seven mountains. The highest mountain is Ulriken, peaking at 643 metres. However, the route of the road race of the UCI Road World Championships doesn’t go higher than 173.5 metres. Rain is to be reckoned with as Bergen is the wettest city in Europe.

The Bergen circuit is 19.1 kilometres and is, as said, raced twelve times. After the recreation area Festplassen the riders disappear into a 200 metres tunnel and via the Puddefjord Bridge they head for the Gyldenpris neighborhood. Løbergsveien is the first climb of the lap, a 5% slope of 700 metres, while the second is only 2.5 kilometres later when the road rises at 4.8% for 1 kilometre.

Following a flat kilometre the Salmon Hill – which is a climb on the lower slopes of Ulriken – is the last in a series of three. The route doesn’t lead all the way to the top as Salmon Hill amounts to 1.5 kilometre, while the average gradient is 6.4%. After cresting a technical 2.4 kilometres descent leads back to Bergen.

Still 8.2 kilometres remaining to the line. The first kilometres are slightly undulating – while they take in 700 metres of cobbles – before the last 2.7 kilometres of each lap are on the flat.

Once before the World Cycling Championships were held in Norway. In 1993 Lance Armstrong soloed to the rainbow jersey in the capital Oslo, while Miguel Indurain sprinted to second place.