July 7/20 10:11 am - Les Gets MTB World Cup Leads Long List of Event Cancellations

Posted by Editoress on 07/7/20
 

The UCI has released the latest update to events affected by the pandemic, and it spans Mountain Bike, Track, BMX, Para and Road. Some of these event cancellations have been previously announced.

The UCI has said that where world championships cannot be held in a discipline, the current (2019) world champion will continue to wear the rainbow jersey.

Mountain Bike
The Les Gets, France, round of the Mountain Bike World Cup, scheduled for September 19-20, becomes the latest World Cup to be cancelled, joining Lenzerheide (Switzerland) and Val di Sole (Italy). This leaves only Nove Mesto (Czech Republic) for a double Cross-country/Short Track (September 29 - October 4) and double Downhill rounds in Maribor (Slovenia) and Lousa (Portugal). At this point, the Cross-country/Downhill/Pump Track world championships in Leogang, Austria, are still a go for October 5-11, as are the Eliminator Worlds in Leuven (Belgium) on August 23rd and the Marathon Worlds  in Sarkarya, Turkey on October 24-25..

Other mountain bike events are cancelled, including the Masters and Four-Cross Worlds, as have the remaining three rounds of the E-MTB World Cup.

Road
The UCI says that the Road Worlds, scheduled for September 20-27 in Aigle, Switzerland, are still a go, despite the cancellation of another major event in Switzerland - the Lenzerheide MTB World Cup - due to not meeting physical distancing and crowd size restrictions. A source at the UCI said to us that the UCI has 'taken notice' of the Lenzerheide cancellation, but that the Swiss federal government has left it to the individual Cantons [provinces] to make their own decisions. Lenzerheide was in the canton of Grisons, while the Road Worlds are in Vaud and Valais. Our contact pointed out that the cantons are partners in the Road Worlds, so have a strong interest in it going forward.

BMX
The BMX Racing Worlds, scheduled for Houston, Texas, have been cancelled - no surprise given the rapidly increasing coronavirus outbreak in Texas. Therefore, there will be no BMX Racing Worlds in 2020. The World Cup in Rock Hill (USA) on November 6-7 is still scheduled to take place (although it is hard to imagine anyone from outside of the U.S. will travel there). All rounds of the BMX Freestyle Park and Flatland World Cup have been cancelled.

Trials
Three of five rounds of the Trials World Cup have been cancelled, as have the Urban world championships - Trials, BMX Freestyle Park and Flatland.

Para
The Para Road Worlds and both rounds of the Para Road World Cup have been cancelled.

Track
The Junior Track Worlds, due to take place in Cairo, Eygpt, on August 16-21, have been cancelled. The same organizers will host the 2021 edition, while the 2021 organizer - Tel Aviv, Israel - has agreed to take the 2022 edition instead.

There is no more Track World Cup, with the complete rearrangement of the track season, but no word on how the proposed Nations Cup will fit with the postponement of the Olympics to next year. At this point, there are no major international track events until sometime next year.