Richmond 2015 world championships courses unveiled

Organizers of the 2015 UCI elite road world championships unveiled the routes for the races to be held from Sept. 19-27 in Richmond, Va. The announcement was made on Tuesday at the Greater Richmond Convention Center.

The elite men’s and women’s road courses will be held on a 16.5-km circuit throughout downtown Richmond and along the James River. The final kilometres of the circuit include the city’s notorious cobbled Libby Hill Park, 23rd Street climb and Governors Street climb, followed by 680 m to the finish line. The men will complete 16 laps for a total of 264 km and the race is expected to favour riders such as Philippe Gilbert and Peter Sagan.

The elite men will race on a 53.1-km time trial course that starts in the Kings Dominion amusement park, travels along flat and rural roads, and ends downtown. The elite women will compete on a 15.5 km course around downtown.

The team time trial course will travel along flat, rural roads and through the Richmond National Battlefield Park before finishing in downtown Richmond. The men will race 35.5 km, and the women, 24 km.

The elite world championships were last held in the U.S. in 1986 in Colorado Springs, Colo.

In 2007, Richmond hosted the U.S. Open of Cycling Championships, a point-to-point race that finished on gruelling cobbled circuits in the downtown area. Canada’s Svein Tuft won the Classics-style event while racing for Symmetrics ahead of Pat McCarty from the U.S. and Alejandro Borrajo from Argentina.

UCI president Brian Cookson said that the event will not only decide the year’s world champions, but also act as a qualifier to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.