Road race poses brutal test for Yates

New Vuelta a Espana champion Simon Yates said he is not sure how his body will stand up to the brutal test of today’s World Championship road race in Innsbruck.

The 26-year-old, who won his maiden grand tour in Spain two weeks ago, admitted the course appeared perfectly suited to his characteristics.

He also went close to winning the Giro d’Italia, but will have to contend with a course which is being billed as the hardest in a generation.

Nearly 5,000 vertical metres over 258 kilometres of road makes today’s race one for the climbers. France’s Julian Alaphilippe – who won the OVO Energy Tour of Britain this month – is favourite with the bookies, with Yates reckoned to be third in line behind Spain’s Alejandro Valverde.

They take on six laps of the 23.8km “Olympic circuit”, a loop around some of the winter sports infrastructure on the climb to Igls. Before completing a seventh lap, they turn on to the Hottinger Holl, a 3.2km climb with an average gradient of 11.5 per cent and an eye-watering maximum of 28 per cent.

“The field is going to be in absolute pieces,” predicted BBC pundit Chris Boardman. “The title will almost certainly be decided on the last two climbs.

“It’s the width of a car, so tactically it is going to be very important at the bottom going through the villages to get right near the front, because there is no opportunity to move up.”

Yates and twin brother Adam will lead the British team in the absence of Tour de France champions Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas.

The Vuelta winner said he was not sure how his body would react after two weeks off. “We’ve done the recon and it looks good for me,” he said.

Holland’s Anna van der Breggen won the women’s race. The Olympic champion attacked with almost 40km left of the 156.2km course to win by 3min 42sec from Australia’s Amanda Spratt.