There are several different schools of thought as to what is the best route to the World Championships. Many have utilised the three-week Vuelta a Espana, while others have headed to race in Canada. Tyler Farrar (MTN-Qhubeka), however, believes that the eight-day Tour of Britain is the perfect way to prepare for the big day.
“Given the Worlds course, I think that the Tour of Britain is the best race there is to get ready for it,” Farrar told Cyclingnews at the start of the second stage in Clitheroe. “You get a nice big workload of eight days of racing and then you have two weeks to bounce back. I’ll fly directly to America the day after this day ends so I can get over the jet lag as much as possible and be ready.”
Riding the World Championships in your home country is an opportunity that not many riders get. With only six places available in the USA’s men’s squad, places are at a premium for Richmond but Farrar has already secured his place in that line-up with one more rider to be named.
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“It’s a huge honour. As an American, to have the World Championships in America, it’s a one in a life-time opportunity and it really means a lot to me to just make it onto the team and get to the start in a few weeks. It would be better if we had nine riders of course but with six we’ve still got quite a strong squad. Everyone is super motivated in the team and we hope we can put on a good show at the Worlds.
It is the MTN-Qhubeka rider’s first time at the Worlds since the 2011 road race in Copenhagen, where he finished 10th in the bunch sprint. At 31, he is also one of the oldest on the team - with Brent Bookwalter taking the role of elder statesman by a few short months – and is one of the most experienced in the line-up. His place in the team is largely down to his classics expertise, a style of racing the Belgian resident favours heavily.
“I think that it’s great. It’s really a Flemish classics type course. It’s not crazy hard but it’s not totally easy either. It will be a real power sprinter that wins there,” he explained. “I’ve certainly done a lot of classics in my career at this time. I’ll probably sharing my experience. It depends a little on how Taylor Phinney is riding. He’s still coming back from injury but he’s riding well. We’ll see in the lead-up to it. We haven’t really sat down and hashed it out yet but we’ll see.”
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