The field under neutral conditions on the way out of Innsbruck (Image credit: Mario Stiehl)
2015 Richmond Women's Elite TT podium(Image credit: Tim de Waele)
Newly crowned world champion Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo)(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
The peloton and the Doha skyline(Image credit: AFP)
The new UCI logo(Image credit: UCI)
The Austrian city of Innsbruck has been awarded the 2018 UCI Road World Championships, according to French website DirectVelo. Innsbruck had previously bid for the 2017 event and its interest in the 2018 Worlds was confirmed last month.
Innsbruck was up against the British region of Yorkshire and a bid from Colombia, who had also applied for the 2017 event.
According to DirectVelo, the Innsbruck course will be one for the climbers and will contain an eight-kilometre climb around 20km outside of Innsbruck. It reports that the there will be somewhere between 4,000 and 4,500 metres of altitude gain across the elite men's course. The time trials could also feature some steep ascents.
Kitzbühel, Kufstein and other cities in the Tirol region, where Innsbruck is the capital, may also be used.
Austria have hosted the World Championships on two previous occasions, the first in Villach in 1987 – where Stephen Roche won the road race – and then in 2006 in Salzburg – won by Paolo Bettini. Richmond, Virginia hosted this year's Worlds, while Doha (Qatar) and Bergen (Norway) are set to host them in 2016 and 2017 respectively.
Cyclingnews contacted the UCI, who said, "We are in discussions with potential organisers of the 2018 UCI Road World Championships but are unable to confirm anything at this stage. We should be in the position to announce the event’s host in the weeks to come."
An exact date for the announcement has not been decided.
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