The Men's road race of the
2016 UCI Road World Championships
The 2016 UCI Road World Championships took place in Doha, Qatar, in October 2016. The championships was moved from the traditional September to October to avoid extreme hot and blustery weather. The event consisted of a road race, a team time tr ...
was a cycling event that took place on 16 October 2016 in
Doha, Qatar. It was the 83rd edition of the championship, and
Slovakia's
Peter Sagan was the defending champion.
Sagan became the first rider since
Paolo Bettini in
2006
File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...
and
2007
File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...
to retain the rainbow jersey, after winning the sprint finish from a select group of riders that had made a break from the rest of the field in the opening half of the race, in the desert crosswinds. The silver medal went to
2011
File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...
world champion
Mark Cavendish from Great Britain, a bike length in arrears of Sagan, with the bronze medal going to Belgium's
Tom Boonen, the
2005
File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...
world champion. It was the first time that all three medallists were previous world title winners.
Course
The race was due to start and finish in the capital city of
Doha, the home base for the
Tour of Qatar. The route for the Worlds road races was presented in February 2015, which was made up of a loop of through the desert and a finishing circuit in Doha city centre, including of
cobblestone
Cobblestone is a natural building material based on cobble-sized stones, and is used for pavement roads, streets, and buildings.
Setts, also called Belgian blocks, are often casually referred to as "cobbles", although a sett is distinct fro ...
s. The finishing circuit of on
The Pearl-Qatar was used for a stage of February's
Tour of Qatar: riders noted that the course was highly technical, going through 24
roundabout
A roundabout is a type of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junction.''The New Shorter Oxford En ...
s, with stage winner
Alexander Kristoff comparing it to a
criterium. However it was also noted that the lack of long straight sections meant that the effect of the
crosswinds frequently occurring in Qatar would be significantly lessened, reducing the race's unpredictability.
Subsequently, in August 2016 it was reported that the UCI had made changes to the course, increasing the amount of riding through the desert to and reducing the number of laps of the finishing circuit from eleven down to seven. The start of the men's race was also moved to the
Aspire Zone, with the riders heading out northwards towards
Al Khor and returning to Doha.
Qualification
Qualification was based on performances on the
UCI UCI most commonly refers to:
* University of California, Irvine, a public university in Irvine, California, United States
* Union Cycliste Internationale, the world governing body for the sport of cycling
UCI may also refer to:
* Uganda Cancer I ...
run tours and
UCI World Ranking during 2016. Results from January to the middle of August counted towards the qualification criteria on both the
UCI World Ranking and the
UCI Continental Circuits across the world, with the rankings being determined upon the release of the numerous rankings on 22 August 2016.
The following nations qualified.
Schedule
All times are in
Arabia Standard Time (
UTC+03:00).
Participating nations
199 cyclists from 48 nations were entered in the men's road race, with 197 riders taking the start. The numbers of cyclists per nation are shown in parentheses.
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Results
Final classification
Of the race's 199 entrants, 53 riders completed the full distance of .
Failed to finish
144 riders failed to finish, while Colombia's
Rigoberto Urán and Norway's
Vegard Breen failed to start.
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:2016 UCI Road World Championships - Men's road race
Men's road race
UCI Road World Championships – Men's road race
2016 in men's road cycling