Outgoing world champion Peter Sagan passes the torch to Alejandro Valverde(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
The women's Keirin world champion Nicky Degrendele (Belgium) (Image credit: Michael Aisner)
American Kate Courntey wins the 2018 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships(Image credit: Scott-SRAM)
Stage 1 started in Glasgow with plenty of fans watching on(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
The UCI World Championships of all cycling disciplines will come together for the first time in 2023 and every four years after that, with Glasgow and Scotland chosen to host the inaugural 'combined' event.
The idea of a combined World Championships - awarding titles across road, track, mountain bike, and BMX - first surfaced last June when the UCI set out a new long-term agenda.
The plans were confirmed on Friday, with the announcement that the Worlds will be held in that format on a quadrennial basis, in the summer of the year before the Olympic Games.
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Glasgow and Scotland were chosen as the hosts of the inaugural edition, which will take place across two weeks in August 2023.
"I am delighted that the UCI has today awarded the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships to Glasgow and Scotland. The creation and the implementation of this event was one of the commitments I had made during my campaign for UCI presidency and I am proud to have fulfilled it," said UCI President David Lappartient.
"I wish to thank Event Scotland, Glasgow Life, UK Sport and British Cycling for their enthusiastic involvement in the very first edition of this historic event, which will uniquely showcase our sport and its different disciplines on an international stage. I am convinced that the UCI Cycling World Championships will be a great success, and I look forward enormously to preparing them with our Scottish partners."
Glasgow, home of the 2014 Commonwealth Games, co-hosted the multi-sports European Championships last summer, with all the cycling events taking place in the city. A BMX centre was created for the event and will be used again for the Worlds in 2023, while the city also boasts a track that has hosted rounds of the Track World Cup.
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While that infrastructure means the track and BMX events at the 2023 World Championships will take place in Glasgow, Scotland as a whole is also listed as a host, so the mountain bike or even road events could take place outside Glasgow. Fort William hosts a round of the MTB World Cup and has hosted the MTB World Championships in the past.
In total there will be 13 World Championships coming together, including road and track and their para-cycling counterparts, four separate mountain bike Worlds - Downhill, Marathon, Cross Country, and Cross Country Eliminator - and two for BMX - Freestyle and standard. The final two Worlds are Indoor Cycling - where riders perform artistic routines and even play football on bikes - and the Gran Fondo World Championships for amateurs.
The August date will create some upheaval in the road cycling calendar, though it has not been revealed which two weeks in August will feature. The Vuelta a España traditionally takes place in the last week of August and first half of September and, along with the Tour of Britain, has provided a springboard to the Worlds in recent years. The August date could also affect how some riders approach the Tour de France in July.
