2014 Road Worlds could be withdrawn from Ponferrada
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The GreenEdge-AIS and Specialized - lululemon riders kept control at the front of the bunch on the very fast return to Doha(Image credit: CJ Farquharson)
The Tour of Qatar peloton during stage 4.(Image credit: ASO)
Mark Cavendish isn't feeling tip top, but is racing in Qatar (Image credit: AFP Photo)
Qatar has been awarded the 2016 UCI Road World Championships, it was announced Wednesday. Cyclingnews first revealed in August that the bid was on track, with this year’s Worlds in Valkenburg named as the location for the Qatar announcement. No dates have yet been announced.
At the London Olympic Games a source close to the UCI told Cyclingnews that Qatar was the only bid left in the race and that the Qatari delegation pressed for an exclusive agreement that would rule out any competition.
"There is no other candidate for 2016, only Qatar," the source said. "Qatar and the UCI agreed to secure an exclusive application. The date might be delayed to avoid the heat but it's moving ahead."
Today's announcement broke when the Qatar Olympic Committee Tweeted, "The #Qatar #WRCC2016 announcement came in the final day of the Board of Directors Session of @UCI_cycling Union in #Limburg".
The UCI later sent out a press release with the UCI Sport and Technical Director Philippe Chevallier saying: "The management of the Qatar candidature presented an extremely interesting project which incorporated innovative solutions which allowed for the designing of a technically interesting course , we are greatly looking forward to working with them."
2016 will be the first time the road Worlds are held in the Middle East.
However, doubts remain over the 2014 Worlds. The UCI statement read, "Concerning the UCI Road World Championships 2014, the Management Committee decided to grant the organizers of the Ponferrada (ESP) event 30 days to meet contractual commitments, after which time if these had not been met the event would be withdrawn from them."
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Daniel Benson was the Editor in Chief at Cyclingnews.com between 2008 and 2022. Based in the UK, he joined the Cyclingnews team in 2008 as the site's first UK-based Managing Editor. In that time, he reported on over a dozen editions of the Tour de France, several World Championships, the Tour Down Under, Spring Classics, and the London 2012 Olympic Games. With the help of the excellent editorial team, he ran the coverage on Cyclingnews and has interviewed leading figures in the sport including UCI Presidents and Tour de France winners.
