The Road Cycling World Championships kick off tomorrow in Stuttgart, Germany with U23 and Women’s Time Trials.

The Elite Men will have their time trial on Thursday.

Road races will start on Friday. The course for the circuit race is 19.1km long with several challenging climbs.  The Women will do 7 laps, the U23 riders will do 9. Elite Men will race on Sunday, covering 14 laps for a total of 267 km. Paolo Bettini is looking to keep his rainbow jersey, and will not sign the anti-doping pledge. He and the rest of the Italian team (Alessandro Ballan, Danilo Di Luca and Davide Rebellin are favorites for the race.Alejandro Valverde will be in there gunning if he get to race, and the Schleck brothers can’t be dismissed either. The U.S. team, consisting of Hincapie, Vande Velde and Zabriskie could pose a threat as well.