With Olympic gold medalist Fabian Cancellara deciding not to defend the world titles he won in Stuttgart and Salzburg, and with the other 2007 TT champs Hanka Kupfernagel and Lars Boom also DNS, this week’s UCI world time trial championships in Varese, Italy, will see the crowning of three new rainbow jerseys. Cancellara is not starting because of season fatigue combined with a bug he picked up at last week’s cold and wet Tour of Poland; Kupfernagel says she is not in good enough shape after a disappointing Olympics; and Boom is two weeks too old for the under-23 category (he was born December 13, 1985).

The absence of the last year’s winners opens up the three time trials to a wide variety of contenders. Former three-time champ Michael Rogers of Australia is the logical favorite to collect a fourth title in Thursday’s elite’s men’s TT; the 2006 women’s champ and recent Olympic gold medalist Kristin Armstrong could double up on Wednesday; and European U23 TT champ Adriano Malori of Italy is the favorite for Tuesday’s opener.

An unusual feature of this week’s world championships is that all three time trials will take place on different courses, and they utilize only small sections of the circuit to be used in the road races at the weekend. However, all of the events start and finish in Varese’s horseracing track, the Bettole hippodrome, which has been converted into the Mapei Cycling Stadium for worlds week. The finish-line crowds will watch from the racecourse’s permanent grandstands and temporary bleachers that line the newly paved finishing straightaway, while a tented expo occupies the hippodrome’s grass infield.

UNDER-23 TT: Malori has a host of challengers

The U-23 time trial

The under-23 men’s time trial course is comprised of two loops. The first is a flat 8.5km out-and-back section on flat city streets. This kicks straight into the main 25km loop that opens with a 6.25km-long climb into the tree-covered hills north of town. It averages only 2.5 percent, but contains several steeper pitches that will fully test the riders’ technical skills. This is followed by a couple other short uphill sections before a long descent back into Varese on a wide roads that pass through three short tunnels before reaching a climb back into town and a final uphill ramp to the hippodrome finish.

Given his home-field advantage, 23-year-old Italian national champ Adriano Malori is the pre-race favorite. The Italian is a time-trial specialist, having already won the European title in July (also on home ground) after taking fifth place in last year’s worlds at Stuttgart. He’s on great form after winning last week’s Chrono Champenois TT in France.

Malori is by no means a shoo-in for the world title. He won the European title by only seven seconds over the other main medal contender, 21-year-old Timofey Kritskiy of Russia — recent winner of the William Tell GP in Switzerland; and at the 2007 worlds Malori finished two seconds behind the fourth-place finisher, 22-year-old Michael Christensen of Denmark. None of last year’s three medalists is returning.

Profile: The U-23 time trial

It’s notoriously difficult to predict the outcome of races in the under-23 category because these young riders are always improving. Two riders who could cause an upset are Germany’s Patrick Gretsch, 21, who won the world junior title four years ago in Verona, and Costa Rica’s Andrei Amador, 20, who finished an excellent fifth overall in the recent Tour de l’Avenir — not only did he climb with the best in the Pyrénées but he also took fourth place in the 21km TT stage.

Three others who finished top 10 at the Avenir — the under-23’s Tour de France — could also challenge for a medal on Tuesday. Colombia’s Jarlinson Pantano is one of those rare South American riders who can climb and time trial, which is also the case with U.S. U23 time trial champ Peter Stetina and Avenir stage winner Tejay Van Garderen. The two Americans have both had long seasons, but the 10-day Avenir might just have given them the conditioning they’ll need in an attempt to succeed 2001 world champ Danny Pate, who remains the only American to medal in this event.

WOMEN: Another gold for Armstrong?

The Elite women's time trial

At the Beijing Olympics, the gold-medal ride of America’s Kristin Armstrong in the time trial and Great Britain’s Nicole Cooke in the road race garnered more mainstream coverage than the elite men’s champions. These two women are both motivated to repeat their triumphs in Varese, though Cooke is not contesting the time trial.

The women’s 25.15km TT course is the same as the second loop of the U23 men’s course, heading through the rolling hills north of Varese. With its wide variety of steady climbs, sharp turns, technical descents and long straightaways, it suits Armstrong as much as those on which she earned gold medals at the 2006 worlds in Salzburg and last month’s Olympics in Beijing.

Profile: The Elite women's time trial

Expect Armstrong to be challenged by the other Beijing medalists, Emma Pooley of Great Britain and Christiane Söder of Austria, three former world champs Karin Thürig of Switzerland, Jeannie Longo of France and Zulfia Zabirova of Kazakhstan, while American Christine Thorburn will be looking for another medal to go with the bronze she took two years ago.

ELITE MEN: Leipheimer vs. Rogers match?

The Elite men's time trial

The elite men’s 43.7km Varese course is based on this weekend’s road race circuit but doesn’t use either of that course’s two main climbs. Instead, it takes a less complicated initial loop around the western part of town before dropping to the lakeside to make an almost complete 22km loop around the Lago di Varese.

The TT circuit’s main uphill, to the village of Buguggiate, curves away from the water at 4.1 percent for 2km before the course heads back into town on suburban streets to rejoin the main road circuit about 800 meters from the top of the Ronchi climb. The course then heads through the heart of the 100,000-popuation city, between grand Renaissance-style buildings and formal parks, and turns north on wide modern streets. After a left turn with less than a kilometer to go, the riders will take the short ramp into the hippodrome finish.

It’s a classic course that would have suited the absent two-time champ Cancellara, whose title might well go to one of the other Olympic medalists, Gustav Larsson of Sweden or Levi Leipheimer of the U.S. Based on current form — his two TT stage wins at the Vuelta a España — Leipheimer is in line to become the first U.S. elite men’s TT gold medalist. Larsson could only place third in the TT stage of the Deutschland Tour, beaten by Germany’s Tony Martin and Bert Grabsch — who will both be strong contenders in Varese on Thursday.

Profile: The Elite men's time trial

Also in the mix should be several former worlds medalists: three-time champ Michael Rogers of Australia, 2002 champ Santiago Botero of Colombia, 2001 runner-up David Millar of Great Britain, 2005 silver medalist José Ivan Gutierrez of Spain, 2006 silver medalist and reigning U.S. champ Dave Zabriskie and 2007 bronze medalist Stef Clement of the Netherlands.

Besides Martin and Grabsch, the other outsiders include Sylvain Chavanel of France,
Stijn Devolder of Belgium and Svein Tuft of Canada.