Recently on Cyclingnews.com |
 Giro finale Photo ©: Bettini |
World Championships - CM
Verona, Italy, September 27-October 3, 2004
Main Page Live coverage Start list Results Previous Race Next Race
Race 6 - Friday October 1: Road Race - Junior Women, 73.75km
Who'll step into Jeanson's jeans?
By the Cyclingnews Team
Taking place a few days before the elite women's race in Verona is the junior women's race, which will take place over the same course. The juniors will race five laps for a total of 73.75km. The course has changed slightly from the Worlds in 1999, with extra laps added and a section of the course taken out but retains the same climb up la Torricelle. After the course goes roughly four kilometers up then another four down a narrow windy road, it is flat for the rest of the 14km lap.
On the almost identical course at the 1999 World Championships five years ago, over 65km it was Canadian Genevieve Jeanson who won the race by eight seconds over Trixi Worrack. Defending Champion Loes Markerink (Netherlands) is now 19 and too old for the junior race and there will be a fresh slate of women lining up this year.
Course description
Similar to the Verona World's of five years past, the 2004 road circuit is one and a half kilometres shorter at 14.75 kilometres, tougher with more ascensions of the Torricelle climb, and in all cases bar the Under 23 men, a longer race overall.
With the start/finish at the Piazza Brā, the pletone head in a northerly direction for three kilometres of flat before the start of the 3.1 kilometre-long Torricelle climb that begins from the Viale dei Colli. The final part of the Torricelle is the hardest, where the Viale dei Colli turns to the Via Santa Giuliana 700 metres from the top, marking the 'Cima Coppi' (highest point of the race).
Cresting the Torricelle with mouths wide open and gasping for air (km 6.1), riders then swoop down the twisty street bearing the same name at breakneck speed for just over four and a half kilometres before two 90-degree right-handers in close succession, the first coming at km 10.7 at the intersection of Vie Caroto and Cipolla. (Definitely a place to grab something to eat, with streets named after carrots and onions... )
Hopefully something a little more digestible awaits with the rifornimento (feed station) at km 12.3, before riders cross the Ponte Aleardi bridge and execute a large 'U' that brings them back along the finishing straight of the Corso Porta Nuova.
Road map
