Austria’s fifth largest city is expected to benefit climbers throughout the duration of the Championships, with a mountainous location providing challenging courses.

The Championships will begin with the team time trials, with Team Sunweb seeking to defend both the men’s and women’s titles.

Riders will tackle 54.5 kilometres in the women’s event, compared to 62.8km in the men’s.

Attention will then turn to individual titles for the remainder of the Championships.

Junior and under-23 time trial titles will be on offer on September 24 and 25, with the women’s elite crown set to be contested on the latter.

Annemiek van Vleuten will seek to defend the title she claimed last year in Bergen, with her Dutch compatriot Anna van der Breggen likely to provide a strong challenge again over the 27.8km distance.

Another Dutch rider, Tom Dumoulin, will seek back-to-back wins in the men’s event the following day.

Australia’s Rohan Dennis is likely to provide one of the main threats to Dumoulin.

The remaining days of the World Championships will be focused on the road races.

Following junior and under-23 races, the women’s elite event will be held on September 29 over a 156.2km course.

Van Vleuten and Van der Breggen are expected to be among the contenders over the hilly terrain, although their team-mate Chantal Blaak is the defending champion.

The men’s race will be held over a longer 258.5km course, which has led to criticism of the UCI with some of the women’s field having questioned the decision.

A tough men’s course will include a steep eight kilometre climb of Höttinger Höll, which the peloton will have to climb on seven occasions during the race.

Slovakia’s Peter Sagan became the first rider to win three straight road world titles last year.

His reign is expected to come to an end on September 30 due to the nature of the course.

Poland’s former world champion Michal Kwiatkowski, Spain’s Alejandro Valverde and Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali are considered as being among the contenders.

Australia’s Richie Porte has seen his hopes ended by illness, which led to him withdrawing from the Championships.