September 22/21 21:11 pm - UCI Announcements at Road Worlds - Adds Short Track World Cup, Gravel Worlds & More!

Posted by Editoress on 09/22/21
 

The UCI holds their Congress at the Road World Championships every year, when many projects are approved by the Management Committee and announced. Some are more in the nature of confirmations of programs already underway, while others introduce entirely new projects. Here is the list (so far) for this Worlds:

MTB
The Short Track (XCC), which had the first world titles awarded this year, will become a standalone World Cup series beginning next year. It will still serve in its role of determining the start position for the front rows of the XCO and points will continue to be applied to the XCO series, but there will be an individual ranking for the XCC and titles will be awarded in this discipline. It makes sense, with the addition of the world titles.

Gravel
You knew it was coming ... the UCI has entered the gravel world officially, with a world championships and a UCI Gravel World Series. This could either be the making or destroying of gravel racing - the UCI has done both (anyone remember the UCI Golden Bike Grand Fondo Series...). Stay tuned for more details.

Cyclo-cross
Cyclo-cross becomes the latest discipline to add the Team Relay to the world championships. The 2022 edition in Fayetteville, USA, (January 29-30) will be the test case.

Snow Bike
They've been working on this one for a while, and now say that they hope to have a World Cup and world championships on the calendar for 2022-2023. Further details to come in January. No, it is not April 1st....

Women's Road
The UCI has been working over the past few years with a number of initiatives to expand and improve women's cycling at the WorldTeam level. Among the announcements:

• neo-professionals will be introduced to WorldTeams. Similar to the Stagiaire in the men's WorldTour, this will allow WT teams to offer short term contracts to first time under-23 riders at this level.
• Minimum salaries are scheduled to advance for the top level teams over the 2023-2025 (including neo-pros). UCI ProTeams (men) and WorldTeam (women) will have the same minimum salaries as of 2023, and it will continue to increase until it matches the men's WorldTour minimum. It's still not there, but this is encouraging.
• With the coming salary requirements, women's WorldTeams will start to become subject to the same stringent financial (and other) requirements as men's WorldTour teams by 2026. This should (hopefully) protect the financial interests of riders.
• The WorldTour, Tour of Romandie will add an equivalent women's event for 2022.

Calendars

While many 2022 provisional calendars have been announced, the official versions have now been approved and will be published October 1st. Canadian international events that are already known include the Mountain Bike World Cup returning to Mont Ste Anne on its traditional date in early August, and the GP Cycliste Quebec and Montreal WorldTour events in September.