Rainbow bright

2004 is a repeat World's performance for Verona, which also hosted the festivities in 1999, a year crowned by the road-race win of Spaniard Oscar Freire.

Freire will again be on the rainbow-jersey hunt, shouldered by a strong Spanish contingent that includes defending road-race champion Igor Astarloa, Alejandro Valverde and Tour de France stage winner Juan Antonio Flecha.

The majority of the pro peloton's high-octane names will be in attendance, with the glaring exception of American Lance Armstrong, who put a close to his 2004 season in the weeks after winning a sixth consecutive Tour de France in July.

Armstrong arch nemesis Jan Ullrich of Germany, however, has made the Verona trip, signed up to contest both the road race and time-trial.

Serpentine and twitchy, the Verona road course traces 14.75 km multiplied by 18 laps for an elite-men's total of 266.5 km. The route is flat free, a leg-searing procession of roller-coaster terrain and the Torricelle climb, a short but taxing wall that will take on Everest proportions on the final laps.

The time-trials will be run along the banks of Lake Garda in nearby Bardolino. Weather could be the name of the race-against-the-clock game, as any inopportune rain could turn the course's technical rollers and descents downright dangerous.

Junior Women TT (15.75 km)

Under-23 Men TT (36.75 km)

Junior Men TT (24.05 km)

Elite Women TT (24.05 km)

Elite Men TT (46.75 km)

Junior Women Road Race (73.75 km)

Under-23 Men Road Race (177 km)

Junior Men Road Race (132.75 km)

Elite Women Road Race (132.75 km)

Elite Men Road Race (266.5 km)