Oliver Naessen returned Saturday morning from a reconnaissance of the world championship road race course around Imola, Italy, and told Belgian media, "It was difficult - very difficult."

"We knew it would be difficult, and that was confirmed after the reconnaissance. There are two climbs, Mazzolano and Cima Galisterna, and even in between they are never flat."

"The circuit is flat and the roads are wide, so there is little time to recover except for just a few miles," he said of the start and finish areas of each of the 28.8 km circuits, where the men run a total of 258.2 km and climb 5,000 m nine times.

"It will be a tough course. You have to push and focus all the time," Nessen continued.

"The first climb is the shorter of the two, which isn't too bad, but the second one is pretty steep.

"It's a course for a very strong Wout Van Aert. He has a very positive attitude and seems very happy with what he saw."

Naessen, who together with Van Aert, Greg Van Avermaet, Loic Vliegen, Yasper Steiven, Pieter Serry, Tim Wellens, and Thijs Benoot make up the eight-man Belgian contingent, also told Het Newsblad that positioning during the race will be very important He told Het Newsblad that it will be very important.

"On narrow, winding roads, you have to hold the lead," he said, naming France's Julien Alaphilippe and Denmark's Jacob Fuglsang.

"Then there are the Slovenians with Tadej Pogačar and Primoš Roglic, and the Italian and Spanish teams are always good at the World Championships," Nessen said.