Renu Cenci

The only possible way to fix the lack of a new generation of top level competition with the next season will be for both the UCI and the WCC to join forces and make a new World Championships in Flanders, Belgium. As both cycling unions are not keen on the idea, it has been suggested that a new World Cup be held in another country. Unfortunately for us, we are already seeing developments that would render the proposal useless.

In January, the UCI, in coordination with the WCC will take the decision to move the World Championships to the Czech Republic. Although a country like Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, all parts of the Central European region, would never have made it in the WCC, it seems unlikely that such a move will go ahead. In this case, it is simply not in the interest of the governing authorities for European cycling to increase the number of teams, and it is likely that a WCC based in a country that is far away and relatively well known for the success that there is in their national cycling may be less appealing to teams from the rest of the continent.

It is hard to know, that this could be a one-off, given that the next World Championships will be in Flanders in 2023 and the existing championships will remain valid even though they are not part of the UCI Cup cycle. It has to be noted, that this will not be the end of the WCC cycle for some time to come either, as other cycling associations, like the U23 national championships, are still being celebrated.

What would it take to change the race format from a round robin to a World Championships format? It would take a revolution to bring back a World Championships, and we can only imagine the uproar that would erupt from various cycling associations. However, there are some possible solutions that have also been suggested. We have a few suggestions of our own.

There are two possible solutions suggested. These would eliminate the WCC, and replace it with a single championship in one of the cycling unions.

The first of these is the World Championship format implemented in Australia and New Zealand. Since 1996, all the World Championships have been a single season. In 2000, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa announced the World Championships would run in 2003, 2004 & 2005, while the others will hold the event in 2006, 2007 and 2008 and then hold a World Race