With a bronze and silver medal in the past, Matti Breschel has been the natural captain of the Danish team for the world championships during the last couple of seasons. A hard course means, however, that the Saxo-Tinkoff rider may be forced to hand over the leadership role in this year's race.

As a double medallist at the world championships, Matti Breschel has proved that he is a formidable rider in the biggest one-day races. With this year's worlds starting in his home city of Lucca, he would love to compete for another top result, but having seen the course the 2010 runner-up fears that it may be too hard for him.

"The course is really hard," Breschel tells CyclingQuotes.com. "We start in Lucca - where I live - and then we cover a number of climbs even before we hit the final circuit in Firenze. It contains a hill which is very similar to the one in Verona (Matti Breschel was 6th in the U23 worlds in Verona in 2004, ed.) and so it has a length of 3-4 km."

"We have both Jakob (Fuglsang, ed.) and Chris (Anker Sørensen, ed.) who are more suited to this kind of course. But for me and the Danish team, the most important thing is to get that medal, and then we have to see who is strongest on the day."

"A world championships race is 250-260 km of very tough racing where every meter accumulates fatigue, and in the end you will pay for it. We all hope to be able to line up 6 or 9 riders since a 3-man team has very limited opportunities."

CyclingQuotes.com suggested to Breschel that it was left to the Saxo-Tinkoff rider himself, Lars Bak, Chris Anker Sørensen and Jakob Fuglsang to get the necessary points for the worlds qualification ranking, but Matti Breschel did not agree.

"I don't think that you should forget the other riders. We have plenty of professionals, so everyone has to produce the needed results. Then we will see if it enough when we get to the month of August."

This year's world championship road race will take place September 28 in Firenze.