The '11-day mega event' will bring together 13 different cycling World Championships, across at least six different locations around Glasgow and southern Scotland. The event will award rainbow jerseys for road racing, time trials, track, BMX, indoor cycling and para-cycling.
The UCI will duplicate the unified World Championships every four years before each Summer Olympic Games.
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The 2023 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships, August 2-12, will take place in two different venues - the mountain bike cross-country Olympic (XCO), cross-country marathon (XCM), short track (XCC), E-MTB, Team Relay will be held at Glentress Forest (Tweed Valley) and Fort William will host the mountain bike downhill events.
A total of 17 rainbow jerseys will be awarded across the disciplines. Junior, U23 and elite titles for men and women in XCO, elite men and women in XCM, XCC and E-MTB, junior and elite titles for men and women in downhill and one title for mixed relay.
Endurance and stamina are needed to claim the XCO titles raced on the 3.5km loop in Glentress Forest with elevation gains of 145 metres per lap. Riders have to strike the balance between skill and speed in the XCC event, testing the limits of their legs for an intense 20 minutes on each lap of the 0.9km course with an elevation gain of 33m per lap.
In the E-MTB event, riders will race 3.72-km laps with an elevation gain of 162 metres, a course similar to the XCO but with one big difference: these are part battery-powered bikes. There will be some additional technical sections that make use of this extra pedal-assisted juice. Top speeds are capped at 25 kilometres per hour and racers must finish on the same bike and the battery they started with.
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Teams of six riders line up for the XCR, where each rider takes turns to complete the laps. Riders will be pushed to their limit in the XCM as they chew through a 96.5km course with road, gravel, punishing climbs, and long descents with 3200m of elevation gain.
In the downhill event in Fort William, riders will take on jumps, bumps, berms and rock gardens at white-knuckle speeds of up to 80km/h on the 2.82km course with 555m in vertical drop, with an average gradient of 11% and max of 20%.
Laura Weislo is a Cyclingnews veteran of 20 years. Having joined in 2006, Laura extensively covered the Operacion Puerto doping scandal, the years-long conflict between the UCI and the Tour de France organisers ASO over the creation of the WorldTour, and the downfall of Lance Armstrong and his lifetime ban for doping. As Managing Editor, Laura coordinates coverage for North American events and global news.
