World's best set for brutal Cycling World Championships course as Illawarra route unveiled

The route was unveiled on Friday, with competitors to start in Helensburgh before riding into Wollongong and completing laps of two separate loops, one that includes a draining climb up Mt Keira, the second 'city circuit' featuring a short, intense summit of Mt Pleasant.

The ascents appear to pale in comparison to Europe's great climbs, including the famed Alpe d'Huez in France, but Renshaw declared the Illawarra escarpment just as punishing.

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"It's going to be very tough, it's not an easy course at all," Renshaw, who was part of the course design team, said. "If we have wind off the ocean at certain moments, it's going to make the race exposed and we could see the race attacking quite early.

"As far as the elevation, Mt Keira is not a super-high climb, it's not the Pyrenees or the Alps, but it will be a very solid climb. Over that five to seven kilometres it's still a long effort, especially midway into a World Championships race."

While the route for the September race has been outlined, the exact course details will not be finalised until UCI officials are able to travel to the Illawarra early next year, with race distances still to be confirmed.

The climb up Mt Pleasant immediately caught the eye of professional cyclists, it's position roughly six kilometres from the finish line ensuring it will play a pivotal role in determining the final outcome of each road race.

For Rio Olympian Gracie Elvin this is where the sprinters will likely see their hopes of victory evaporate.

"It won't be a bunch sprint finish," Elvin said. "That something a lot of foreigners might not know about Australia, it's not a flat country. You don't need a huge climb to make a big difference.

"Mt Pleasant will definitely be a decider. Some sprinters will be able to hang on, but they'll need a good team around them to support them getting back to the group. The attacking riders are going to make it super hard for any sprinter to survive."

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For Oenone Wood, one drive up Mt Pleasant in a mini-van was enough to get her excited and she predicted a number of attacking moves to occur on the steep climb.

"There's so much potential to break the bunch," Wood said. "It's steep enough and it's long enough, there are going to be a lot of breaks.

"We went up it in a van and I was rubbing my hands together thinking it will be fantastic to watch the carnage that happens on this hill."

While the men's road race will cap an intense eight days of racing on September 25, the official proceedings will commence one week earlier when history is created in the elite time trial events.

For the first time, both the men's and women's time trials will be contested on the same day on the same course, a technical route that takes in Gwynneville, Fairy Meadow, Mt Ousley, Towradgi and finishes at City Beach.

"You're going to have to be a complete package," Wood said. "Riding along the coastline, there's the potential for the wind to be a factor. The course will suit pure time-trialists, it's not such a hilly course, so the straights you're just going to have to put your foot down."

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