Tom Boonen has predicted that tomorrow’s men’s road race Worlds will be a race of attrition, with no more than 60 riders coming to the final to sprint for the win in Doha, Qatar.

"There will be a first and second and third and fourth and fifth and sixth group. Maybe the first and second groups will come back together but the others, they won't come back. I think the first part of the race is hard enough to make a difference even if it’s still a long way to go," Boonen told Cyclingnews on Thursday.

"150 kilometres in the desert in these temperatures means the circumstances are completely different than in a normal World Championships. It's not like you can have a fresh team to close the gap on the finishing circuit. It might be just two or three from each team in each group, and I really don't see a bigger group than 60 riders going to the finish line."

While high winds aren’t predicted, the Belgian legend, who counts four GC wins and 22 stage wins ay the Tour of Qatar, says that you don’t need lots of wind to make a difference.

"You don't need that much wind to make a big difference. More wind would be better but it's very open here, almost like being on an island, so winds of 9-12kph is already a lot. I think we've made big differences with less wind here," Boonen said. "It's all about the circumstances of the moment, but Qatar is different to Flanders or anywhere else. If you have a little bit of wind, you can make a big difference. There's nowhere to hide.”