After both men crashed out of the Tour de France, Tom Dumoulin and Tony Martin have both had great returns to racing. Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) has featured well in the Vuelta and is second overall after eight stages, including one day in the leaders jersey. Despite not winning the time trial, Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) rode well on some hilly days to win the Tour de Poitou-Charentes overall.

"My collarbone was in a lot of pieces," Martin told Cyclingnews during the Tour du Poitou-Charentes. "The doctors did a really good job. I had no pain after the surgery. One week after my crash, I was already on the rollers and I was always confident that the timing was good for the Worlds."

Martin has returned to racing and has some more race days ahead in Plouay and Canada before he and Dumoulin will battle for the Rainbow Jersey in America at the Worlds TT. Dumoulin will finish the Vuelta and is targeting the stage 17 time trial.

"Dumoulin is for sure the guy I have to look at," Martin told Cyclingnews. "But like in the past, I'll do my things. I'm confident I'll get to the Worlds with a good condition. I'm looking forward to seeing the course in Richmond. It'll be about power, not about climbing. From what I understand it's a nice one, a little bit hilly but not too hard. The team time trial course seems to be a nice one too. Like every time trial longer than 10 kilometers, the 23km TT that we have here at Tour du Poitou-Charentes is an interesting distance for a pre-Worlds test."