The Walmart UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships kick of rainbow jersey proceedings on 29-30 January, visiting the USA for the second time in the event’s 73-year history. Fayetteville, Arkansas, will welcome the world’s best cyclo-cross specialists nine years after Louisville (2013), where legends Sven Nys (BEL) and Marianne Vos ((NED), claimed their 2nd and 6th UCI World titles respectively.
Watch out for the test event for the team relay in Fayetteville, the day before the official UCI World Championships get under way.
Next up in the battle for the rainbow jerseys will be the participants in the second UCI Cycling Esports World Championships on 26 February. Both the men’s and women’s pelotons will compete on the Zwift platform’s New York Knickerbocker route, a fantasy world based on the American city’s Central Park in 100 years’ time. The challenging 54.9km course over rolling and steep terrain will see riders – all of whom had to qualify to participate – try to succeed reigning UCI World Champions Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (RSA) and Jason Osborne (GER).
Seventeen years after Paris, the UCI BMX Racing World Championships return to France, this time to Nantes, from 26 to 31 July. A new 450m track created in the city’s Parc des expositions especially for the occasion will welcome the athletes exactly one year after Niek Kimmann (NED) and Bethany Shriever (GBR) were crowned Olympic Champions in Tokyo (30 July 2021). Just three weeks later, the two went on to claim the rainbow jerseys in Papendal (the Netherlands). After a successful trial at the UCI World Cup for BMX Racing last year, Under 23 categories for both Men and Women will be introduced for the first time at World Championship level in Nantes.
The Canadian city of Baie-Comeau will host the UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships for the third time. After 2010 and 2013, the best para-cyclists in the world will again race alongside the St Lawrence River in the province of Quebec over four days of time trials and road races (11-14 August).
Meanwhile the Israeli city of Tel Aviv will welcome the UCI Junior Track World Championships. Tel Aviv’s new Sylvan Adams National Velodrome, also a host venue for the 2022 UCI Track Champions League, will welcome the Junior athletes from 16 to 20 August.
Five different formats will be on the programme of the 2022 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Les Gets (France) from 24-28 August. Rainbow jerseys will be awarded in the cross-country Olympic (XCO), cross-country relay (XCR), cross-country short circuit (XCC), downhill (DHI) and E-Mountain bike (E-MTB). Les Gets already hosted the UCI Worlds in 2004, as well as rounds of the UCI World Cup in 2019 and 2021.
But that is not all for the mountain bike discipline. Just three weeks after Les Gets, the Danish town of Haderslev will provide the stage for the UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships. The technically and physically challenging course through the forests around Haderslev was tested during the national Haderslev Challenge last September, and now awaits the best in the world on 17 September.
Just one day later, the UCI Road World Championships kick off Down Under in Wollongong, Australia (18-25 September). The courses in and around the New South Wales city were unveiled last December, including the announcement that, for the first time in the history of this event, the Men Elite and Women Elite individual time trials will be raced on the same day and over the same distance. A huge statement for gender parity.
After Roubaix last year, the Tissot UCI Track World Championships return to France, this time to the Vélodrome National de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines in Montigny-le-Bretonneux. It will be the second time they are held in October (12-16), with athletes not only vying for the rainbow jersey but also aiming to qualify for the second edition of the spectacular and prestigious UCI Track Champions League.
The Belgian city of Ghent will welcome cycle-ball and artistic cycling specialists for the UCI Indoor Cycling World Championships. These last UCI World Championships of the year will be staged from 4 to 6 November. It is necessary to go back to 1975 to find the last time this beautiful port city hosted indoor cycling’s leading event of the year. In 2022, they will take place in the magnificent Flanders Top Sports Hall, originally opened in 2000 for the European Indoor Athletics Championships.
Although the dates are still to be confirmed, the UCI Urban Cycling World Championships, which include BMX Freestyle (Park and Flatland) and trials, will take place in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) this year. Asia’s first UCI Bike City will also host this exciting young event in 2024.
There is plenty to look forward to in 2022, but that is not all. The venues and dates of the UCI World Championships for mountain bike eliminator and para-cycling track are currently being finalized and will be announced in the near future.