Pogacar handed home advantage as Slovenia reveals punchy European Championships route

The European Road Championships will be held in and around Ljubljana in early October, bringing a major international cycling championship to Slovenia for the first time. For a country shaped in recent years by the rise of Pogačar and Primož Roglič, the timing could hardly be better.

The men’s road race, scheduled for Sunday 4 October, will cover 196 kilometres. It starts in Ljubljana, on Kongresni trg, before leaving the capital on a neutralised section and heading north through the Gorenjska region. The opening half of the race is relatively gentle, but the character changes once the peloton reaches the finishing circuit around Šenčur. Just before entering the local circuit, the peloton passes through Pogačar's hometown of Komenda.

On the circuit, the race turns into exactly the kind of contest Pogačar tends to enjoy. The local lap is 22.1 kilometres long and includes 367 metres of climbing, built around the ascent to Možjanca. The climb is short, steep and awkward: 2.1 kilometres at an average gradient of 10.2 percent, with ramps up to 15.8 percent. The elite men will tackle the climb five times, with its short, steep profile drawing obvious comparisons to the Côte de La Redoute at Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

From the final ascent of Možjanca, around 15 kilometres remain to the finish. The rolling terrain continues towards Štefanja Gora, where a technical descent drops towards the lower cable car station near Krvavec, a climb Pogačar often rode in his younger years. From there, the route descends quickly towards the circuit finish in Šenčur.

The women’s race takes place on Saturday 3 October and will be 130 kilometres long. It follows the same logic, with the Možjanca climb appearing twice in the finale.

The time trials, held on Wednesday 7 October, are also far from flat. Men and women will race over 22 kilometres, beginning with five flat kilometres before hitting the same Možjanca climb. A plateau and a fast final section complete the course.

National coach Uroš Murn has already said Pogačar is expected to ride the championships, with the Slovenian leader interested in both the road race and the time trial. Pogačar won last year’s European title in France after a 75 kilometre solo, ahead of Remco Evenepoel and Paul Seixas.

The 27 year old has also been consulted on the design of the route, although he has played down his role. He previously said that creating a good circuit in the area where he trains is not as simple as it sounds, because the terrain is often “either too hard or too easy.”

Organisers insist the final route is selective rather than extreme. Tomaž Poljanec, secretary general of the championships, said the course was designed to balance sporting challenge with logistics and the need to show Slovenia at its best. 

The finish close to Ljubljana Airport is no coincidence, given that the European Championships follow shortly after the World Championships in Canada.

That calendar remains a complication. The Worlds take place in Montreal from 20 to 27 September, leaving riders only a short window to travel back to Europe, recover and prepare for another title race. Still, unlike last season, there is at least a full week between the end of the Worlds and the start of the Europeans.