Next month, the elite international peloton will fight for the 84th rainbow jersey at the 2016 world road cycling championships in Doha, Qatar. With a flat route, the Worlds title should be won by a sprinter but former Belgian rider John Lelangue, technical director of the Qatar Worlds, sends a warning in an interview with Velonews : "Expect surprises."

"We can expect some surprises. It is a very technical circuit, and even if it is flat — that’s something that we cannot change in Qatar — we cannot guarantee it will be a bunch sprint", he explained.

Mark Cavendish, Marcel Kittel, Andre Greipel and Alexander Kristoff will be among the favourites for the elite men's road race. But the scenario is not written yet. "The wind can change a lot in Qatar, and this can make for some surprises. There can be a lot of wind, and sometimes it can change direction. There is also a technical finishing circuit, and at the worlds, we have teams of nine, of six, of three. It’s not like at the Tour de France, when the sprinter teams can control everything. I think we can expect many things to happen."

In August, UCI announced changes to the course, increasing the amount of desert roads to 151 kilometres and reducing the number of laps of the finishing circuit from eleven down to seven. "There are not a lot of straightaways," Lelangue added.

"Once a group goes, they do not have them in their vision. And with the varied teams, it will be difficult to manage. The worlds are always a different race."

"And if it is a sprinter who wins, well, that is part of cycling, too. I was happy to see a guy like Cavendish to be world champion. To see a good sprint is always exciting. Like we saw at Rio, no one expected Greg Van Avermaet to win on that course, so others can take their chances here as well. There are others, like [Tom] Boonen, who is not a pure sprinter but very fast. All of this mix will make for an interesting race."