This Thursday, August 3, began to appear among the memorable dates of cycling, with the start of a unique, innovative and spectacular Cycling World Championship, in Glasgow, Scotland, which for the first time brings together from today until August 13 most cycling disciplines, with the exception of cyclocross.
It is a super World Cup that will feature the main stars of the cycling firmament, although it is also true that due to the characteristics of the routes, and their location on the calendar, some cyclists will be missed, especially road ones, such as the winner of the 2023 Giro d’Italia, the Slovenian Primoz Roglic and the Danish Jonas Vingegaard, champion of the Tour de France a few days ago.
This will be a cycling World Cup that will mark a before and after in the history of this sport, as pointed out by the president of the International Cycling Union (UCI) David Lappartient, when presenting the event and highlighting that “they will be held for the first time in the same days and in one place from now on every four years”, which is undoubtedly an ambitious and different bet.
Among the figures disclosed for the event, it was announced that 58 million euros have been invested, which will generate an economic return of 19.7 million. It is expected that more than 8,000 amateur and elite cyclists from at least 120 countries in 13 disciplines or modalities will attend to crown more than 190 world champions.
In addition, the UCI has ensured that the global television audience will be more than one billion, which will make the World Cup one of the ten most watched sporting events in the world.
The temperature of the World Cup will go from less to more, although this Sunday one of the highlights will already be played: the men’s long-distance road race in which the current world champion, the Belgian Remco Evenepoel, the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar will face each other. , the Belgian Wout Van Aert and the Dutch Mathieu Van der Poel, among others.
The Elite women’s road race will be on August 13, with figures such as the Dutch Demi Vollering, winner of the 2023 Tour de France, or Van Vleuten, winner of the Giro and La Vuelta this year.
Road cycling will put five world champion titles at stake and will serve as a qualifier for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games as in the other disciplines.
The discipline that kicks off the World Cup starting this Wednesday was the track. The best specialists will meet at the Chris Hoy velodrome in Glasgow, such as the Dutch Olympic champion Harrie Lavreysen, who will seek his fifth consecutive world title, the German Lea Friedrich, the British Ethan Hayter, double world champion in omnium, or the Italian Filippo Ganna, who is vying for his sixth world title in the individual pursuit.
And the many mountain bike competitions will take place in the Glentress forest, in the Tweed valley, with the hopes set on David Valero from Granada in cross country –silver in the last World Cup and bronze in the Tokyo Games–, where the big star is the Swiss Nino Schurter with his 15 world titles in total.