UCI confirms gravel worlds in Italy in October, four new events on Women's WorldTour

The first UCI-sanctioned world championship for the rainbow stripes in gravel will be in Italy in October.

The UCI confirmed Thursday the Veneto region in the northeast Italy will host the first UCI gravel worlds October 8-9.

Italy will also host the UCI’s gravel worlds in 2023. The host cities will be announced later, officials said.

Four new events on Women’s WorldTour

The UCI also confirmed four new events on the Women’s WorldTour.

Four new events will join in 2023: The Women’s Santos Tour Down Under, which had UCI ProSeries status in 2020 then was cancelled in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic; the UAE Tour, a new event which joins the existing men’s competition; the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, which moves from UCI ProSeries status to UCI Women’s WorldTour status; and the Tour de Suisse, also moving from UCI ProSeries status to UCI Women’s WorldTour status.

Gree-Tour of Guangxi canceled

Races at the Gree-Tour of Guangxi in October are canceled for 2022.

The race was scheduled for October 13-18, and it marks the third year in a row the event is canceled due to the world pandemic. A women’s race is also canceled.

That means the UCI’s final men’s WorldTour event will be Il Lombardia. The 2022 UCI Women’s WorldTour will end on 15 October, the last day of the Tour of Chongming Island, China, which is still on the schedule.

The UCI Management Committee also confirmed that the date of the end of the 2022 road season remains 18 October. This is the date of the last day of the Tour de Langkawi (UCI ProSeries), which will take place in Malaysia from October 11-18.

With the men’s WorldTour licenses up for grabs, the Langkawi tour could see a stellar field of teams desperate to chase points.

RideLondon Classique put on notice

The UCI put organizers of the RideLondon Classique (Great Britain) on notice after not providing required live TV coverage of each stage, but only of the last stage.

This constitutes a breach of the UCI Regulations and of the specifications that every organizer of the UCI Women’s WorldTour is required to respect, the UCI said Thursday.

The event’s place on the 2023 calendar is conditional to the presentation of firm commitments concerning the live TV broadcasting of all the stages.

In the meantime, the Management Committee has taken the decision to register the RideLondon Classique in the UCI ProSeries class for the 2023 season.

For the UCI, daily live TV coverage of the UCI Women’s WorldTour events “is fundamental to ensure its continued international development,” a statement read. A final decision on the status of this race will be taken at the UCI Management Committee meeting in September.