| Men's road race | |
| Series: | 2020 UCI Road World Championships |
| Date: | 27 September 2020 |
| Stages: | 1 |
| Distance: | 258.2 |
| Unit: | km |
| Time: | 6h 38' 34"[1] |
| Speed: | 38.869 |
| Type: | medals |
| Previous: | 2019 |
| Next: | 2021 |
The Men's road race of the 2020 UCI Road World Championships was a cycling event that took place on 27 September 2020 in Imola, Italy.[2] Mads Pedersen was the defending champion,[3] but he did not compete in the race.
For the first time since 1997,[4] a French male rider won the rainbow jersey as Julian Alaphilippe attacked on the final climb of the Cima Gallisterna; he managed to hold off a chasing group of five riders by 24 seconds to take victory at the finish line, at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari.[5] The silver medal went to Belgium's Wout van Aert – his second of the week – while the bronze medal was taken by Marc Hirschi from Switzerland.[6]
The race took place on a 28.8km (17.9miles) course, starting and finishing at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari (a motor racing circuit).[7] Heading out from the Autodromo into the Emilia-Romagna countryside, the course used two climbs with an average gradient of 10% separated by the town of Riolo Terme, before returning to the Autodromo. The men's road race lapped the course nine times, making a total of 258.2km (160.4miles).
Qualification was based mainly on the UCI World Ranking by nations as of 17 March 2020.[8]
The following nations qualified.[9]
| Criterium | Rank | Number of riders | Nations | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| To enter | To start | |||
| UCI World Ranking by Nations | 1–10 | 13 | 8 | |
| 11–20 | 9 | 6 | ||
| 21–30 | 7 | 4 | ||
| 31–52 | 2 | 1 | ||
| UCI World Ranking by Individuals (if not already qualified) | 1–200 | |||
177 cyclists from 43 nations competed in the event. The number of cyclists per nation is shown in parentheses.[10] [11]
177 cyclists were listed to start the 258.2km (160.4miles)-long course.[1] However, Alexey Lutsenko was forced to withdraw from the race after testing positive for COVID-19, while Nikias Arndt and Natnael Berhane also did not start.[12] 88 riders completed the full distance.[1]