“It was important for us to get this organized. It’s quite a symbol”declared the mayor of the City of Brussels Philippe Close (PS). The UCI has therefore not remained indifferent to the fact that our country will celebrate the bicentenary of its existence in six years. The fact that Remco Evenepoel is the ambassador of this candidacy submitted in 2023 undoubtedly played a role, too.
Brussels for a beautiful rainbow: the UCI must formalize the 2030 World Cup this Friday in the Belgian capital
Even if setting up such an event is very expensive (Editor’s note: between 25 and 30 million euros), the benefits will go beyond the scope of sport. In 2021, the Worlds attracted more than a million visitors.
guillementWe want to organize the best world championships in history.
Tomas Van den Spiegel, CEO of Flanders Classics, does not hide his ambition: “We want to organize the best world championships in history.”. “It’s still incredible to be able to bring back this event, barely nine years after its last visit with us.”adds Wouter Vandenhaute, the other strong man at Flanders Classics. “We want to involve many cities, towns and regions in this story.”explains Van den Spiegel again.
As far as the route is concerned, certain paths are already emerging. “It’s still a long way off but we already have an idea about the local circuit in Brussels. But it still needs to be validated.” According to certain sources, the race would not be limited to the nineteen municipalities of the capital, because it is unimaginable to block access for a week.
Copenhagen should host the 2029 edition and the Trent region that of 2031. As a reminder, the 2025 world championships will take place in Kigali (Rwanda), those of 2026 in Montreal, those of 2027 in Haute-Savoie and those of 2028 in Abu Dhabi.
Namur, the world cyclocross event eight years after the Euro
The awarding of the 2030 World Championships to Brussels is not the only good news for Belgium coming from Zurich. Namur has, in fact, been chosen as host of the 2030 Cyclocross Worlds. In 2022, the capital of Wallonia organized the European championship in the discipline.
“Every year, the Citadelle cross is one of the most difficult of the season, but also the most atypical course with the most meters of positive altitude difference“, explains Golazo, its organizer. Runners such as Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert, Sven Nys and Niels Albert won there.
Finally, to top it all off, Heusden-Zolder is the big favorite to host the Track Cycling Worlds in 2030. Obviously.
