Zürich was the place to be, for all road cycling fans. The 2024 UCI Road and Para-cycling Road World Championships were being held here. So a friend and I took the chance and went to watch the men’s elite race on Sunday. Since the race was structured in such a way that we would actually see them 7 times, that was especially cool. This meant we could see a lot of the race.
And of course shoot some pictures.
Zumikon
We started off in Zumikon, which was effortlessly reachable using the Forchbahn. There we started off at the bottom of a descent through the town. We waited there for everything to get started.
When we were waiting there, there was a leading group, some chasers and then finally the big peloton. Since I had never seen a peloton, it was quite a bit overwhelming, but super cool. And it went over super quick.
Finally, it was also quite surprising the number of cars that followed the peloton. All the team/country cars and then also some ambulances and Official cars. To be honest, I was a bit afraid about the corner, but the cyclists all turned the corner quite excellently. And even if they were three riders deep, the turn went well. The cars, on the other hand, seemed quite a bit less adapt to turn the corner at that speed. But it all went well.
Schwäntenmos
Our plan was to walk along the route when all the riders had passed. And this plan worked wonderfully well, since we would always get about 20–25 minutes between the riders. So the next stop was Schwäntenmos, where we wound an excellent spot in a curve, where we could see the race clearly.
And the curve made for some quite spectacular images. And also thanks to the curve, we could see the riders coming up.
Since this is the second round for all the riders. The gap was a bit bigger than before. But all riders still looked quite fresh, and they were riding super quick, since this was a flat piece (even a bit downwards before).
While the background in the images became much nicer outside the town, we also found another problem. There weren’t any sidewalks anymore. So after the group had passed we were walking on the road, the same road the riders had just raced on. And of course, we had to take care a bit, since several cars ware still driving through.
Binz
The next place was not really a place yet, but just where we were on our journey when the entire rider group passed us again. Since it was a downhill piece, the speed of the riders was rapid. In the leading group as well as the chasing group, this was just super impressive to see.
But later, when the main peloton passed us, you could not only see and hear the riders, but since we were so close to the road you could actually feel the riders passing by, a big gust of air.
After Binz we made our way to Witikon. When the leading group passed us, my friend was hit by a water bottle on of the riders threw away. While it hurt a bit, I would argue that if you have to get hit by a water bottle, it should be one from the leading pack, which is much cooler than getting hit by any random bottle.
Witikon
In Witikon we were able to see the riders climbing. I have ridden this road before with my bike and honestly, it is quite steep. But the leading group, and really all riders, rode up the incline at a mind-boggling speed.
The race leader, and alter winner, pictured above was a bit in front of the group, but not by much. I particularly like this image of him looking back at his chasers.
And when the entire peloton passed us, you could again feel the bikes. We were so close to the race.
Zürich
Finally, we made our way down to Zurich, the very way the riders were riding up. Again, I clicked a picture of the race leader in front of the pack.
And again, since this was a bit of a downhill bit, the pace was quite fast. I was sometimes struggling quite a bit to click the picture in such a way the riders were not blurry. As you can see below, the speed was so fast, something had to be blurry, and I’m delighted that in this case it’s the background, with the riders being in focus.
We finally made our way more into Zurich. It was packed and at some point it was quite challenging to get through, since there were so many people. It was fun to see the riders next to University buildings, though.
Our final spot, was quite loud, and it was much more crowded. While it was nice to see the atmosphere, I was also glad that we got to see the other parts of the race, where it was less crowded. Overall a great experience and in my opinion one of the better big sports events I have attended.
Post script: Image license
All images in this blog post were shot by me, using my phone. I’m pleased to share them with anyone under the following Creative Commons license:
UCI Road Cycling Elite men’s race pictures © 2024 by Oliver Kamer is licensed under CC BY 4.0