UCI ROAD WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
The Union Cyclist International hosts the yearly world championships for road cycling known as the UCI Road World Championships (UCI). The UCI Road World Championships feature individual time trials, road races, and starting in 2019, a mixed team relay.
HISTORY
The Men’s Road Race for Amateurs was the single competition at the inaugural world championships in 1921. Italian Alfredo Binda won the men’s professional race at the first professional world championship in July 1927 at the Nürburgring in Germany, and Belgian Jean Aerts triumphed in the men’s amateur race. In 1958, the first women’s road race was held. In 1962, a men’s team time trial with competing national teams was introduced. The team time trial was only conducted during Olympic years starting in 1972. In 1994, the final year for the men’s team time trial in its original form, individual time trials were added for all divisions. A women’s team time trial was added to the schedule in 2012, and the men’s team time trial was reinstated. Both events were challenged by trade teams. A mixed relay team time trial will take the place of the men’s and women’s team time trial competitions in 2019.
Until 1995, male professional and amateur riders competed in separate events. In 1996, a category for men under the age of 23 took the place of the amateur category, and the professional category was changed to an open (later elite) category. The race has been contested in late September, usually after the Vuelta a Espaa, toward the end of the European racing season since 1995. Prior to that, the race had always taken place in the last week of August or the first week of September (with the exception of 1970, when it was a mid-season summer event).
Each year a different city or region hosts the global championships. A relatively flat circuit that favors cycling sprinters can be used for the competition, or a mountainous course that favors an all-arounder or climbing expert. In each instance, the race is typically conducted on a circuit that has numerous circuits that the riders must finish. The world championship road race and two of the three Grand Tours (namely the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France) form the Triple Crown of Cycling.
2022 UCI ROAD WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
A Women’s U23 category will be added to the road and time trial races, the UCI confirmed in February 2022. A separate race will be added starting in 2025, and the winner will be chosen from the elite women’s competition.
Russian and Belarusian teams won’t be permitted to compete, according to Aus Cycling’s announcement on March 1 in response to the IOC’s proposal about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.