Yorkshire will host the 2019 Road World Championships, marking the return of cycling’s showcase event to Britain after a 37-year gap, with a £27m budget to include a £15m “transformational” investment in new facilities across the UK. Harrogate is one venue which is in the frame as a possible “hub” for the nine days of racing for five categories, junior men and women, elite men and women, and under-23 men.
To celebrate the arrival of what could be an even bigger event than the 2014 Tour de France start in Leeds, York and Harrogate, the First Direct Arena, the Trinity Leeds shopping centre and the Clifford Tower in York were set to be illuminated in rainbow stripes on Wednesday night, a nod to the rainbow jerseys which will be awarded during the 12 events.
Appropriately, the announcement came in the week that Yorkshire’s own world champion, Lizzie Deignan (née Armitstead) will defend her title in the women’s road race.
“We will use some of the Tour de France and Tour de Yorkshire routes, but it won’t be possible to go to every town, city and village in the region,” said Sir Gary Verity, head of Welcome to Yorkshire. “However, the objective is to visit every part of Yorkshire, north, east, west and south.” The region’s hosting of the Tour in 2014 has been followed by two successful editions of the three-day Tour de Yorkshire run by the Tour organisers ASO.
The Worlds has an extended format, with team time trials for trade squads on the opening weekend, followed by individual time trials until the Wednesday, and culminating with women’s and men’s elite road races on the final Saturday and Sunday. According to Verity, it is likely that the various events will start in different parts of Yorkshire, with a fixed finish location for all the races.
Harrogate has made its interest known, after its successful hosting of the Tour de France’s first stage finish in 2014, when the region was the venue for the Grand Départ of the Tour. “It’s not 100% confirmed, but they have the hotels and the conference centre, and they are in pole position,” said Verity.
Traditionally, the road races have tended to be on one circuit starting and finishing in the host town, but recently there has been a trend for a start a long way “off site”, with the circuit featuring later in the race. It seems likely that, for the men’s elite event at 260km, the opening half of the race could be a lengthy loop showcasing Yorkshire’s scenery and hills before a circuit of 16-20km tackled six or seven times.
The UK’s Road Worlds bid for central government funding saw some hard talking between the Treasury and the governing body, British Cycling, with Whitehall favouring a Yorkshire bid as part of the former chancellor George Osborne’s Northern Powerhouse, and British Cycling adamant there should be no done deal with other parts of the UK, including Scotland, also expressing interest.
One key sticking point was British Cycling’s insistence that there should be a legacy for the whole of the UK from a Worlds bid. This figures in the final announcement as a £15m pot of cash to go towards the construction of 27 off-road racing venues around the country, “to ensure that every part of Britain has close access to a closed road circuit, velodrome, BMX track or mountain bike trail,” as the chief executive, Ian Drake said.
The Road World Championships have been held twice in the UK since the second world war, at Mallory Park in Leicestershire in 1970, and at Goodwood in Sussex in 1982. Back then, however, the event was a different beast, with the track championships held in the same fortnight, and only men’s and women’s road races on the programme, as the junior events were held elsewhere.
“We’re hoping that this will cement our status as the No1 cycling area in Europe,” said Verity, adding that he is looking to get the Tour de France back into Yorkshire in the near future, and to expand the region’s eponymous Tour to a fourth day, with a second day for its accompanying women’s race.
