Will Remco Evenepoel dominate again the UCI Cycling World Championships 2023? He leads a list of favorites to Scotland for this Sunday's race - which is expected to be a hard, damp, and cool day in Glasgow

Yes, the men's race comes first this year to give equal space for the women to recover for their edition of the Tour de France. It will be quite an opening show around and in Glasgow. We just have the junior men's race the day before as the preview.

The 2023 UCI World Championship Men's Course

The elite men's road race is over 271.1 kilometers and includes 3570 metres of climbing. After racing 120 kilometers, including the climb of Crow Road (5.8km at 10%), the race ends with 10 technical and punchy laps in Glasgow

The 14.3-kilometer circuit includes 207 metres of climbing per lap. The Montrose Street climb, 200 meters, average 10.8% and with 1.5km to go, should provide a perfect place to launch an attack.

Looking at the weather forecast, it's all doom and gloom. Well, if you're a hard-man classics racer, you could be rubbing your hands together with glee at the expected rain and temperatures of 17C or 62F.

With the course and the weather, we should see an extremely reduced peloton at the end of the race, likely with under 50 riders battling for the win.

With the weather, it would compare to something like Liège-Bastogne-Liège – yes, where Remco Evenepoel also won.

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The Favorites for the 2023 UCI World Championship Men's Road Race 

Who should we look out for? Belgium is going in with a power-packed team of three leaders Remco, Wout van Aert and Jasper Philipsen. I would bet on Remco given his recent win in the Clásica San Sebastián. I think the course is going to be too hard for Philipsen.

Wout van Aert will be the second option but we need to see how he rides given he left the Tour for the birth of his second child and hasn't been racing since. And in the Tour, while he was super, he wasn't the 2022 Wout van Aert vintage.

Look for the Danes, Mads Pedersen won his first world title in Great Britain and will love this weather and this course. And have the support of an amazing team that includes an in form Mattias Skjelmose.

Mathieu van der Poel will want to make a statement after the 2022 fiasco that saw him arrested on the eve of the Worlds. The Dutch team in orange will rally around him, coming off a strong Tour de France and embracing a course as hard as Glasgow.

The 2023 UCI World Championships - Favorites And Underdogs

These are the top three riders to watch: Remco Evenepoel, Mads Pedersen, Mathieu van der Poel.

Then mark these names: Neilson Powless with the US support of Magnus Sheffield, Lawson Craddock and Kevin Vermaerke and of course, Matteo Jorgensen.

Christophe Laporte, supported by France, and if we are talking about an Ardennes type course, then you can't forget Ben Healy of Ireland.

So many names to mention for what will be a fight of attrition through Scotland this Sunday in the World Championships.

How Many UCI World Championships Are There?

There are 13 world championships across seven disciplines up for grabs in Scotland. There will also be more than 200 rainbow jerseys awarded. 

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