You’ll never guess how many world championship medals the UCI hands out each year

It was another thrilling year in cycling. Road world championships delivered the magic of the peloton. Mountain bike world championships thrilled with shoulder-to-shoulder racing and the extreme of downhill. Track worlds brought drama and wild sprints to the world of turning left. Cyclocross worlds are shaping up to be an epic battle. Then there was the first-ever gravel world championships. BMX is always exciting. And cycle-ball worlds were …. uh, wait a second. Just how many world championships are there? And how many individual world champions are crowned every single year?

Well, after spending way too long on the Union Cycliste International (UCI) website, which is not at all the world champion of websites, we found out that cycling’s governing organization is quite the busybody. There are hundreds of world championship medals handed out every year.

Here’s a complete list of every world championship event, and the total number of world champions, crowned each and every year by the UCI. Here’s hoping they order those medals in bulk.

World Championships

In 2022, there were 18 separate world championship events in different disciplines: road, two track events (elite and junior), mountain bike, mountain bike marathon, BMX, indoor, gravel, fondo, pumptrack, eSport and the combined Urban Cycling event (BMX freestyle and trials). Para-athletes also compete in separate road and track world championship events. Masters account for another four (track, mountain bike, mountain bike marathon and cyclocross).

Many of these will be combined for 2023 at the first UCI cycling world championships in Glasgow, Scotland.

World champions

With 18 different world championships, there are a lot of world champions. Here’s every single event where the UCI gives out a jersey, broken down by discipline.

*We’ve abbreviated men (M) and women (W) where events are equal as well as under-23 (U23) and time trial (TT). That’s about it.

Road

(Sept 18-25, Wollongong, Australia)

Time Trial: M/W Elite, M/W U23, M/W Junior, Mixed Relay (6 rider teams)
Road: M/W Elite, M/W U23, M/W Junior
(13 total events)

Mountain bike

(Aug/Sept 2022, Les Gets, France)

XC: M/W Elite, M/W U23, M/W Junior, Team Relay
DH: M/W Elite, M/W Junior
eMTB: M/W Elite
XCC: M/W Elite
(15 total events)

Cyclocross

(2023 Hoogerheide, Ned)

M/W Elite, M/W U23, M/W Junior, Team Relay
(7 events total)

MTB Marathon

(Haderslev, Den – Sept. 17)

Elite Men, Elite Women
(2 events total)

Track

Junior (Aug 23-27 Tel Aviv, Isr.)
M/W – Elimination, Scratch, Madison, Points, Ind. Pursuit, Omnium, Team Pursuit, Team Sprint, TT, Keirin, Sprint
Elite – (Oct. 12-16 Saint Quentin en Yvelines Fra.)
M/W – Elimination, Scratch, Madison, Points, Ind. Pursuit, Omnium, Team Pursuit, Team Sprint, TT, Keirin, Sprint
(44 events total)

BMX (Race)

(July 26-30, Nantes, Fra.)
– M/W Elite, M/W U23, M/W Junior
(6 events total)

Gravel

Veneto, Ita. (Oct 8-9, 2022)

Men Elite, Women Elite
(2 events total)

eSports

Zwift – Feb 22, 2022

Men Elite, Women Elite
(2 events total)

Urban Cycling World Championships

Urban Cycling World Championships (Nov. 9-13 Abu Dhabi, UAE)

Trials

Men Elite 20″, Men Elite 26″, Men Junior 20″, Men Junior 26″, Women’s Elite, Team
(6 events total)

BMX

Flatland (Men Elite, Women Elite)
Freestyle (Men Elite, Women Elite)
(4 events total)

Indoor cycling

(Nov 4-6, 2022 – Gent, Belgium)

Men’s Cycle-Ball
Artistic Cycling (M1, M2, Open4, W1, W2, Open 2)
(7 events total)

Pumptrack

(Nov 19 – Santiago, Chile)

Men’s Elite, Women’s Elite
(2 events total)

Para Cycling

Road – Baie-Comeau, Que. – Aug. 11-14
Road – 26 events across men’s and women’s racing in C1-C5 categories
TT – 25 events across men’s and women’s racing in C1-C5 categories
Relay – Mixed Elite
(52 events total)

Track  (Oct. 20-23 Saint Quentin en Yvelines FRA)
Sprint, Scratch, Omnium, TT, Individual Pursuit, Tandem
Men’s and women’s C1-C-5 categories
(48 events total)

Masters

UCI uses five-year age categories for masters racing, so there is a separate world champion for every five-year grouping. Some disciplines use larger groupings when there are team entries or smaller fields. Gran Fondo world championships stand in as road world championships.

Gran Fondo (15-18 Sept. Trento, Ita)

TT – (21)
Team – (1)
Gran / Media Fondo (20)
(42 events total)

Cyclocross (Dec. Suffolk, U.K)

Men’s and women’s events divided into 5 year age categories.
(18 events total)

Track  (Sept. 24-29 – L.A., U.S.A.)

Men’s and women’s events in:

Pursuit (19)
Scratch/Points (32)
Sprint (20)
Team Pursuit (6)
Team Sprint (7)
TT (20)
(104 events total)

Mountain bike

Two masters mountain biking world championships were held in 2022. One was a marathon event in Italy with men’s and women’s events in roughly five-year categories. Cerro Bayo, Argentina held worlds for XC and Downhill in 2022 and will again in 2023.

XCM Masters – Italy
Cross country marathon (14)
Masters mountain bike world championships (Cerro Bayo – Argentina April 20-23, 2023)
Cross country  (16)
Downhill (14)
(44 events total)

A legion of world champions

All together that is 418 world championship events contested annually. 210 events in Elite and Para cycling and another 208 masters world championship events. That’s a lot of champagne!

Who doesn’t get to be a world champion?

Despite UCI handing out medals in a staggering 418 events, there are still some popular cycling disciplines that don’t get a chance to be world champion.

Enduro is now governed by the UCI but still awards a series winner instead of a single-event world champion. Slopestyle mountain biking is governed by the FMBA, not the UCI. Four-cross and XC Eliminator are World Cup events but no longer included in world championships.

In track cycling, the list of world championship events changes with some regularity.

Indoor cycling and Urban cycling are both still lacking gender equality in events. Several other disciplines only award elite titles, with no separate masters, junior or under-23 events. So there could, somehow, be even more world champions in the future.