Michal Kwiatkowski is considered an outsider for this year's road race world title on Sunday, possibly because he does not ride for one of the leading nations who will field a full team of nine, strong riders. However the Polish rider is a very dangerous outsider: He won the world title in Ponferrada in 2014 with a solo attack and has since shown his huge talent by winning the Amstel Gold Race, E3 Harelbeke and this year's Strade Bianche, Milan-San Remo and Clasica San Sebastian.
He worked for Chris Froome at the Tour de France and is also the Polish time trial champion. The width and depth of his talents means he will always be a contender when the rainbow jersey is up for grabs.
Kwiatkowski was part of the Team Sky squad that finished third in last Sunday's team time trial. He did not ride Wednesday's time trial but stayed in Bergen, training and studying the rolling road race circuit so he is at his best for the 267km race.
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In 2014 when it rained for much of the day on the Spanish course, Kwiatkowski attacked before the final climb to catch a break and then courageously jumped away alone. He held off Simon Gerrans (Australia) and Alejandro Valverde (Spain) to win the world title at the age of just 24.
"It's on of the most important races of the season for me and not only because I'm a former world champion," he told Cyclingnews, proud to represent Poland and clearly hoping for a similar race to Ponferrada.
"I'd be happy if it's a really hard race and if it comes down to a battle between Peter Sagan, Greg Van Avermaet, Philippe Gilbert, myself and a few others."
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