Cycling World Championships 2023: Glasgow and Scotland chosen to host historic first event

Glasgow will host the first edition of the new-look Cycling World Championships in 2023. The city will be the focal point for the event in Scotland which will bring together 13 different cycling disciplines in one region for the first time, including the road and track world championships.

The move is the fruition of a plan by the sport’s governing body, the UCI, to effectively create a World Cup of cycling with all the world’s top riders in one place every four years, always occurring in a pre-Olympic year.

Alongside the blue-riband events like road and track world title races, the Championships will also host para-cycling, mountain biking and BMX, which will all have the prize of the world champion’s traditional rainbow jersey on the line.

Glasgow’s Sir Chris Hoy velodrome will host the track events while the wider Scotland region will also put on some of the Championships.

UCI president David Lappartient said: “The creation and the implementation of this event was one of the commitments I had made during my campaign for UCI presidency and I am proud to have fulfilled it.

“Glasgow and Scotland have a great deal of experience in the organisation of major sporting events, notably multi-sports, such as the first edition of the European Sports Championships that it organised in 2018. I am convinced that the UCI Cycling World Championships will be a great success, and I look forward enormously to preparing them with our Scottish partners.”

Glasgow city councillor David McDonald said: “Our city is one of the top five sporting cities in the world, and events like the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships will help us continue to climb these rankings and realise our big aspirations. This event will be the biggest event staged in the city, and indeed the country, in the coming years – and we cannot wait to welcome athletes, officials, and spectators from around the world to Glasgow.”