Everything You Need to Know About UCI Cycling Championships 2021: Rules, Prize Money, Participants

The 2021 UCI Cycling Championships are just around the corner. The competition will take place from September 19th to September 26th. Moreover, Belgium is the host for the competition as a result of being a founding member. Despite the problems related to the pandemic, the country is flooded with cycle enthusiasts as they look forward to the event. The race is set to take place in Flanders and this is the 10th time the country is hosting the competition.

Road Races and Time Trails

The competition consists of two races, Road Race and Time Trials.

There are two circuits this time in the road races. One starts from the industrial port city of Antwerp and finishes in Leuven. Notably, there is a 15km loop through the city, four-shot categorized climbs, and 20 tight corners in the circuit. The second circuit is the ‘Flandrien loop’ as the circuit starts from Smeysberg and joins in the Leuven circuit. The total distance of the circuit adds up to 267 km.

Meanwhile, the elite women’s circuit is a total of 157.7 km long.

The time trials, on the other hand, are held in the north side of the country. The cyclists start from Knokke-Heist and move past through the North Sea coast by the Dutch border, and finish in the centre of the historic city of Bruges. The elite men will cover a total of 43.4 kilometers while the women cover 30.3 kms.

Moreover, there will be the return of the Mixed Time trial event which made its debut in 2019. Both men and women take part together with two back-to-back team time trials where the total is taken by the team’s best time. The men’s trio will race down 22.5km from Knokke-Heist to Bruges. After that, women cyclists tag themselves in and ride a 22km loop up to Damme and back to Bruges.

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The best contenders at UCI Cycling Championships

In terms of the favorites to win the racing competitions, Wout van Aert is an incredibly versatile rider. His sensational performances in the Tour de France remain fresh in everyone’s memory after winning the time trial, bunch sprint, and the high-mountain stage. Likewise, he won the Tour of Britain and will be the main favorite, once again.

Richard Carapaz, Remco Evenepoel, and Julian Alaphilippe are some other contenders for the elite men’s race. Sonny Colbrelli comes into the competition in great form after his European Championships victory. Tadej Pogača, Primož Roglič, aMatej Mohorič, Mads Pedersen, Kasper Asgreen, and triple Vuelta stage winner Magnus Cort are some of the other talented riders.

As for the women’s events, Anna van der Breggen, Annemiek van Vleuten, Chantal van den Broeck-Blaak, and Marianne Vos are the famous Dutch riders who are once again expected to win the races. Apart from the famous women from the Netherlands, hometown hero Lotte Kopecky is another major contender for the title.

Prize Money for the Championships

Significantly, both men and women have the same prize in all International Cycling Union (UCI) World Championship events. There are no official reports of prize money to be distributed for the races. However, during the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships, first place received €20,000, silver medalist earned €10,000 while the third-place winner got €7,000.

The prize money increased to (€71,000) for the year 2020-21 for men’s competition while it will reach up to (€81,105) for the upcoming season 2021-22.

The UCI Cycling Road Championships will be a fantastic race to watch with talented riders battling it out against each other. Fans are set to welcome all the riders to Belgium for a fantastic tournament.

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