Montreal to host cyclocross World Cup event during 2015-16 season

On Friday, the UCI announced that Montreal will host a cyclocross World Cup event during 2015-16 season. On Sept. 19, 2015, the city will hold the first cyclocross World Cup event ever in Canada.

“I’m delighted the second round of the 2015-2016 UCI cyclocross World Cup will be taking us to Montreal,” said UCI President Brian Cookson. “It shows that cyclocross is becoming more international after Louisville hosted the UCI world championships for the first time in 2013. A new phase has now begun in North America with the first round of the UCI cyclocross World Cup to ever be organized in Canada. With Montreal following Las Vegas to open the season, these events are pushing back the discipline’s geographic boundaries.”

Gestev, the organization behind the mountain bike World Cup at Mont-Sainte-Anne will be behind the Montreal World Cup. The location of the course has not been settled upon yet, but they are looking at a downtown location. “Gestev is known for bringing the mountain to the city,” said Marie-Michelle Gagné, the company’s media relations manager.

CrossVegas has been running since 2007. Since then, it has risen to C1 status and has attracted such stars of ‘cross as Sven Nys and Lars van der Haar. It will likely see those racers again in 2015, and more from the European circuit.

Current Canadian elite men’s cyclocross champion Mike Garrigan spoke to Canadian Cycling Magazine hours before the announcement was made official. While the pro racer is excited that the world-class race will run in his country, he hopes North American fans, who are usually racers themselves, don’t feel excluded. “The only thing I’m a little bit worried about, I guess, is there are a ton of racers who’d like to go to those events, but won’t be allowed to participate,” he said. “That’s something that often people don’t think about. If you are ranked top 50, you are going to the race; or if you are invited by your nation, you’re going to the race. But if you are not in the event, will you go and watch? That’s a question mark for me. I’m curious to see if people who don’t get to participate will go and watch. We’ve got very different audiences in North America compared to Europe.” In Europe, the sport of cyclocross has a fan base that doesn’t necessarily participate in the sport. In North America, however, the fans watching the elites are often amateur racers who competed earlier in the day.

Happy to have Montréal in The world cup next year. Cyclocross is going global!

— Sven Nys (@sven_nys) January 30, 2015