"The international ambitions of the African riders on MTN-Qhubeka and
other teams hurt countries like Eritrea, who fell out of the top of
the African Tour. Algeria will have six riders, Morocco and South
Africa earned three spots, while Mekseb Debesay's fourth place on the
Africa Continental circuit gives Eritrea at least one rider, likely
Daniel Teklehaimanot, who held the Tour de France mountains jersey.
Tunisia also earned one place"
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By Cycling News August 18, 2015 7:45pm
Updated: August 18, 2015 7:45pm Race: UCI Road World Championships
USA gets six for Richmond World Championship men's road race
Defending champion Kwiatkowski misses shot at full team
The UCI finalized the rankings for the Continental tour
classifications on Tuesday, sealing the selections for the UCI Road
World Championship elite men's road race. The top 10 nations in the
WorldTour rankings automatically earned nine-man teams for the race,
giving Spain, Great Britain, Colombia, Italy, France, Belgium,
Australia, the Netherlands, Germany and the Czech Republic full
complements.
Defending champion Michal Kwiatkowski looks to have missed out on a
full team as Poland was outside the top 10 in the WorldTour and Europe
Tour rankings. He is likely to have five teammates.
The United States narrowly met the requirement for a six-man team: as
host country it was guaranteed six as long as it was in the top five
nations of the UCI America Tour. However, before the Tour of Utah, it
was sixth behind Brazil. While the performances of Utah overall winner
Joe Dombrowski (Cannondale-Garmin) and third placed Brent Bookwalter
(BMC) did not count toward that classification, the USA instead relied
on stage winners Kiel Reijnen, Eric Young and Logan Owen to push them
into fifth, just 42.5 points ahead of Brazil.
The UCI is yet to confirm the final allotments, but it seems Slovenia,
Ukraine, Russia, Denmark, Poland and Norway will have six riders,
while Austria, Belarus, Portugal, Turkey, Lithuania, Estonia, Croatia
and Ireland have three from their Europe Tour rankings.
Thanks to having a rider in the top 100 of the WorldTour individual
rankings, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Slovakia will have three riders,
giving favourite Peter Sagan at least two lead-out men. Latvia earned
a single spot thanks to Gatis Smukulis' two points in the WorldTour.
Azerbaijan, Greece, and Romania seem to have made one spot each thanks
to having riders in the top 200 in the Europe Tour.
The international ambitions of the African riders on MTN-Qhubeka and
other teams hurt countries like Eritrea, who fell out of the top of
the African Tour. Algeria will have six riders, Morocco and South
Africa earned three spots, while Mekseb Debesay's fourth place on the
Africa Continental circuit gives Eritrea at least one rider, likely
Daniel Teklehaimanot, who held the Tour de France mountains jersey.
Tunisia also earned one place.
Canada, which has suffered in previous years, earned six spots thanks
to its strong performance in the America Tour. Venezuela also took
six, while Argentina and Brazil took three. Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador
and Guatemala earned one spot each.
In the Asia Tour, Iran topped the list with six, while Kazakhstan,
Japan and Korea earned three spots.
Oceania's New Zealand gets three riders.
Tomas Nilsson contributed to this report.
Received on Tue Aug 18 2015 - 22:35:29 EDT