Cavendish, Froome and Armitstead head GB Road World Championships long list

British Cycling has announced the long list of riders from which the squad that will contest the UCI Road World Championships in Richmond, Virginia, next month will be chosen.

Lizzie Armitstead, British and Commonwealth champion, Olympic silver medallist and winner of the UCI Women World Cup last season, spearheads Great Britain’s challenge in the women’s road race, seeking to follow Beryl Burton, Mandy Jones and Nicole Cooke into the rainbow jersey.

The long list for the men’s elite road race includes two-time Tour de France champion Chris Froome, who may also feature in the time trial, an event in which he won an Olympic bronze medal at London 2012 behind Sir Bradley Wiggins.

Also named is Mark Cavendish, who in Copenhagen in 2011 became only the second British male rider to win a Road World Championship, the other being the late Tom Simpson who triumphed at San Sebastian in 1965.

UCI president Brian Cookson last year hailed the routes of the elite road races in Richmond as providing “challenging, exciting and scenic courses for the world’s best cyclists.”

– Punchy climbs and cobbles - 2015 Road Worlds in Richmond, Virginia have makings of a Classic

Here are the long lists for the various events, as notified by British Cycling

Elite Men (road race nine places, time trial two places)

Adam Blythe
Mark Cavendish
Steve Cummings
Alex Dowsett
Andy Fenn
Chris Froome
Luke Rowe
Geraint Thomas
Scott Thwaites
Ian Stannard
Ben Swift
Adam Yates
Simon Yates

Elite Women (road race six places, time trial two places)

Lizzie Armitstead
Alice Barnes
Hannah Barnes
Lucy Coldwell
Lucy Garner
Hayley Simmonds
Jessie Walker
Molly Weaver

U23 Men (road race five places, time trial two places)

Hugh Carthy
Gabriel Cullaigh
Scott Davies
Owain Doull
Tao Geoghegan Hart
Matt Gibson
Chris Latham
Chris Lawless
Alex Peters
James Shaw

Junior Men (road race three places, time trial two places)

Nathan Draper
Alex Braybrooke
Joey Walker
Joe Holt
Joseph Fry
Matthew Bostock

Junior Women (road race four places, time trial two places)

Henrietta Colborne
Eleanor Dickinson
Grace Garner
Elizabeth Holden
Abby-Mae Parkinson