"I am less enthusiastic," says Thijs Zonneveld about the upcoming World Championship: "That’s not very smart"

“I am less enthusiastic,” Zonneveld said, not too cheerfully, in his preview of the World Championships. If we talk about the sporting side of things for a moment, many riders and countries are not sending anyone, and many top riders are absent. Vingegaard is not riding, Van der Poel is not riding, Van Aert is not riding... That's a real shame for a World Championship."

According to Zonneveld, the main reason all these men are not going is because of the extremely tough road race. "It's at an altitude of 1,500 meters in Africa, which causes a lot of logistical problems. Think of extra vaccinations, which you have to take into account during the year, and extra altitude training. It's also hot there, the humidity is high, and it's an extremely tough World Championship anyway, especially for the men."

"Once again, it's only suitable for climbers, and we're getting a bit fed up with that. Next year, you'll have three World Championships in a row, with more than 4,000 meters of altitude, and this one even has 5,500 meters of altitude. That's the biggest mountain stage of all the Grand Tours, the stage to the Col de la Loze in the Tour de France, something like that. As a result, a lot of riders are already saying: I'm not going," Zonneveld analyzed.

“You're left with a small group of favorites, and that's not very smart,” he continued. Not only are Van der Poel and Van Aert skipping the World Championships, but the most excellent African rider of the moment doesn't really stand a chance either. “If you want to promote African cycling, then create a course that would be suitable for Biniam Girmay. Very few will make it to the finish line.”

This has a direct impact on this weekend's individual time trial, which many riders will not be participating in because they did not want to go to Rwanda just for a time trial. “We would have liked to have had a few of them there who are not going. Ganna and Tarling are two critical riders in the men's field,” said Zonneveld, referring to the two fast riders from INEOS Grenadiers.