Next year’s UCI road world championships in Yorkshire will reportedly see the debut of a new event – a mixed team time trial that will feature both men and women.
The new race will replace the team time trial first introduced in 2012 but which is set to disappear after this September’s championships in Innsbruck-Tirol, reports the Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad
Men’s and women’s trade teams competed in that event, but the format was unpopular with team management, particularly of those that are weaker in the discipline.
Logistics have also been cited as a problem especially in years when the championships were held outside Europe.
Instead, Het Nieuwsblad says that the new team time trial format will be raced by national teams, comprising three male and three female riders.
It will operate as a relay, with the three men taking to the course first and the women then taking over, with the team posting the lowest cumulative time winning.
As yet, there is no news on how exactly the timings will be taken, or how the male riders will ‘hand over’ to their female team-mates.
In team time trials such as the one this afternoon on Stage 3 of the Tour de France, the time is taken when the fourth of the eight riders crosses the line – something that clearly would not apply here.
According to Het Niewsblad, no mention was made of the new format in the dossier comprising the Flanders region’s bid for the 2021 UCI Road World Championships, submitted last Friday.
However, the newspaper said that Tom Van Damme, the chairman of national cycling federation Belgian Cycling, is supportive of the idea.
“It provides a new angle and gives women's cycling a boost, too,'' he said.
The other thing about the changes in Paris is that it is just so much more pleasant than it was before. Not only is the air cleaner, but the...
Replace those flimsy shutters with steel security bars, or they could use both together with the security bars on the outside of the shutters. ...
Glad to see they haven't lost the plot on sustainably, oh, never mind...
She may have a disability and have the car through Motability. She may have recently lost her job and the car dates from more prosperous times. For...
I got myself a klickfix freepack sport with the seatpost mount about 15 years ago which does exactly the same with more distance between saddle...
Traffic lights should routinely be programmed to turn red where sensors show speeding drivers are approaching...
Mum shocked as driver crashes into Helston house in the night...
By my reckoning there are eight comments from cyclists who don't think it's necessary, five comments from cyclists who think it's good, four...
Well obviously they couldn't touch the central line because there was traffic coming in the opposite direction and so they had to pass you within...
What are left with, from among the individual builders listed here I wonder, how many are taking orders? https://www.framebuilding.com/custom_uk...