The Tour de France may have been and gone this year but the wonderful sport of cycling continues to move forward, with another major event set to take place very soon. Not only that, but it is happening in the UK too.
The UCI Road World Championships is a hugely prestigious event and in 2019 it is heading back to our shores for the first time in almost 40 years.
Nine days of cycling
Harrogate will be the main host town of the competition when it gets underway towards the end of September, with a full week of cycling set to take place across Yorkshire as a whole. For many, the key event to look out for is the road race and cycling betting experts have revealed how the likes of Mathieu Van Der Poel, Peter Sagan and Julian Alaphilippe could well be the ones to watch as it draws ever nearer.
WORLDCHAMPION 🌈 pic.twitter.com/5XkHDKuyAw
— Mathieu Van der Poel (@mathieuvdpoel) 3 February 2019
The UCI Road World Championships in Harrogate will be the 92nd edition to be held, although it marks just the fourth time that the event has actually taken place here in the UK. However, while it is undoubtedly good to see the event back over here, is there a reasonable argument that Liverpool should, in fact, have been considered as the host instead?
A fitting move
In terms of pure historical reasons, it is fair to say such a move could have been fairly fitting. After all, Liverpool hosted the event almost a century ago in 1922 when it was taking place for just the second time, with British competitor David Marsh coming out on top. Almost 100 years on, wouldn’t it have been great to see the sport acknowledge its roots by celebrating Liverpool’s links to the competition?
Furthermore, there is also the fact Liverpool has taken huge strides towards developing its cycling credentials in recent times. For example, British Cycling has promoted the fantastic Tour de Liverpool route around the city which takes in everything from the Albert Docks to the National Trust property of Speke Hall. In addition, there has been the work of the city’s cycling champion Simon O’Brien, whose efforts recently led the council to invest £2 million into improving cycling and walking routes across the area.
Time to return?
While they may both be compelling reasons why Liverpool could have been considered as a UCI Road World Championships host, sadly at this point it looks unlikely that the event will be returning to the city anytime soon. It is set to be held in Switzerland close to the UCI headquarters next year, while in 2021 it will celebrate its centenary in the Flanders region of Belgium.
However, hopefully the growing interest in cycling in Liverpool and the North West region as a whole will soon capture the attention of the organisers. While it is great to see top cycling returning to the UK once again, we should keep our fingers crossed that hopefully next time it will be in our glorious city.