Former World Champion Mark Cavendish went to Richmond to recon the 2015 UCI Road World Championship road circuit. He rode the course at dawn with a police escort after stopping on his way home from the Tour of California.

“It’s harder than Denmark,” Cavendish told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “There’s a lot of 90 degree corners, which there wasn’t so many [of] in Denmark [where] there was a lot of flow. There’s going to be a lot of acceleration.”

Cavendish had won his World title in the 2011 race in Copenhagen, beating Matt Goss (Australia) and Andre Greipel (Germany) in a bunch sprint.

He was asked the cobbles on the climb of Libby Hill, and replied, “Those are not challenging, if I’m honest. The most challenging hill is the climb on Governors Street. The cobbles are more about positioning.

We’re professional bike riders. The juniors might find it hard there but to the professionals it’s not really anything. It’s not like riding on a flat road, obviously. Positioning is probably key, but in terms of technical difficulty, they’re not that big a deal.”

The world championship men’s road race takes place on Sunday, September 27.

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