The Worlds Are Your Oyster

Designing a course so a local rider wins the rainbow jersey? Felix Lowe asks just what are the Worlds coming to…

- Felix Lowe

Harald Tiedemann Hansen, the president of the Norwegian cycling federation, didn’t exactly mince his words: ‘We wanted a course that would give Norwegian cyclists a chance to win,’ he said of the road race course for last month’s World Championships in Bergen.

In coming up with a hilly route in a bid to see off most of the out-and-out sprinters, the host nation couldn't do much more to tee up their two top riders – short of painting the names Alexander Kristoff and Edvald Boasson Hagen all over the decisive Mount Ulriken (aka Salmon Hill).

Norway had good reason to be confident: Kristoff and Boasson Hagen have taken 46 of their combined 127 pro wins on home soil. That said, a Norwegian win at the Norwegian Worlds still didn't happen – instead, Peter Sagan took victory and notched up a rainbow hat-trick in the process.