The UCI World Cycling Tour 2015 is over halfway its season with 8 events who already took place and 6 events to go before the UWCT Final in Aalborg-Denmark between 3 and 6 September 2015.
A season with a lot of events scoring new records: the Amy’s Granfondo, held in Lorne, Australia last year September had scored a new participants record with over 5200 starters. The same counted for the Granfondo Golfe de Saint-Tropez with 1500 starters, Perth with 525 starters and Copenhagen Granfondo with 1600 riders at the start.
Also new events were very successful. The Amashova Durban Classic in Durban, South Africa was included for the first time as qualifier event and welcomed 10500 participants at the start line, a new record in the 5 years of the UCI World Cycling Tour.
Dubai Granfondo was organized for the first time in this iconic city in the Middle East and had riders from 45 different nationalities at the start which is also a new record in the UWCT-history.
The calendar is traditionally very loaded in the months of May and June with upcoming events in Brazil (Road Brazil Ride), UK (Tour of Cambridgeshire) and Slovenia (Maraton Franja who organized a very successful Final last year). Later in July and August, two last opportunities to qualify for the World Championships will take place in Trento (Italy) and Sankt Johann (Austria).
The Final this year in Hobro and Aalborg early September will have a much more prestigious concept as all riders are obliged to wear the national team outfit of their country. The UCI World Cycling Tour decided to make the national jersey mandatory after a survey which was done after the last World Championships last year in Slovenia where more than 70% of the riders asked to make it mandatory while only 10% opposed against it. Riders will even have more the feeling to be in a real World Championships compared to all previous years where lots of riders were still competing in their club jersey.
Meanwhile the date of the 2016 Final, awarded to Perth, Australia, has been set to 1-4 September 2016. The new Granfondo course as tested during the last qualifier event in March will be extended with a longer loop to make the race a bit harder. Also the time trial course will most likely be changed.
2015 Calendar UCI World Cycling Tour
14 September 2014 Amy’s Granfondo Lorne Australia
12 October 2014 Amashova Durban Classic Durban South Africa
20-21 March 2015 Dubai Granfondo Dubai UAE
27-29 March 2015 UWCT Perth Perth Australia
12 April 2015 GF Golfe de Saint Tropez Saint Tropez France
14-16 May 2015 Copenhagen Granfondo Elsinore Denmark
22-24 May 2015 Grey County Road Race Blue Mt Village Canada
22-24 May 2015 Skyros Cycling Challenge Skyros Greece
4 June 2015 Road Brazil Ride Botucatu Brazil
6-7 June 2015 Tour of Cambridgeshire Peterborough United Kingdom
12-14 June 2015 Maraton Franja BTC City Ljubljana Slovenia
17-19 July 2015 La Leggendaria Charly Gaul Trento Italy
22-26 August 2015 Radweltpokal Sankt Johann Austria
3-6 September 2015 World Championships Aalborg-Hobro Denmark
Qualifier events for the 2016 World Championships
13 September 2015 Amy’s Granfondo Lorne Australia
18 October 2015 Amashova Durban Classic Durban South Africa
1-4 September 2016 World Championships Perth Australia
More information www.uciworldcyclingtour.com.
