Glasgow plays host to the 2018 European Championships in August, but the routes for the road race and time trial were announced earlier this week. Just what will the riders face, and what will the watching spectators see of the city?
Background
Given the honour roll of previous winners, a strong start list is guaranteed for the road race on Sunday 5 August. The event offers national teams to try out combinations, some new and some more familiar, ahead of the Worlds in September, and with an eye to the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
Mirroring, to a large extent, the course on which Lizzie Deignan (then Armitstead) splashed her way to a Commonwealth Games title in 2014, the road race is likely to come down to a strong solo breakaway or a reduced ‘bunch’ sprint.
Last year, Marianne Vos put a challenging couple of seasons a little behind her with an excellent win in Herning, Denmark, ahead of Giorgia Bronzini and the evergreen Russian Olga Zabelinskaya. In 2016, Anna van der Breggen capped her Olympic-winning season with another jersey, outsprinting Kasia Niewiadoma and Elisa Longo Borghini, in Plumelec, after the championships were moved from Nice following the Bastille Day terror atrocity.
The route
The women face a 14.5-kilometer loop, (tackled, we guess, ten times?), and barely a meter of flat. Although there is barely any point that rises more than 55 meters above sea-level, it’s a constant up-and-down, twist-and-scream course.
The race leaves Glasgow Green and heads through the Saltmarket and historic Trongate, towards the main shopping centres on Argyle Street and Buchanan Street, and then turns up St Vincent Street and Sauchiehall Street before skirting Kelvingrove Park.
The route crosses the River Kelvin and sweeps past the stunning architecture of University Avenue before reaching the heart of the West End at Byres Road in the Hyndland area. Riders will turn east again, facing the nasty climb of Great George Street, and along into Woodlands, with a corkscrew twist up into Park Circus before dropping back towards the city centre on Sauchiehall Street and Bath Street, via St George’s Tron Parish Church. Next, racing will fly along the northern edge of George Square, up the tough Montrose Street climb and head out towards the beautiful Glasgow Cathedral and drop back through the Merchant City to the finish at Glasgow Green.
Depending on where you choose to spectate, there are multiple possibilities for seeing the race pass with pinch points letting you see the riders on their way ‘out’ and heading ‘back’ towards the finish. Notable spots would be around the Saltmarket; a very short walk between St Vincent Street and West George Street in the City Centre; Elmbank Street; and in the West End around Kelvin Way and Gibson Street.
The contenders
If Deignan rides, she’d be a very good bet, given her knowledge of the course and how ruthlessly she disposed of her own team-mates Emma Pooley to take the Commonwealth title. Hannah and Alice Barnes would also be strong favorites, if selected.
As usual, the main nation is likely to be the Netherlands … any of the Dutch women who show up, given their recent dominance. If the Dutch make any tactical errors then the likes of Sheyla Gutierrez (Spain), Lotta Lepisto from Finland, Germany’s Lisa Brennauer, or the Italian Elisa Longo Borghini would be in the mix.