The 2012 UCI Road World Championships

UCI Road World Championships

The UCI Road World Championships are the annual world championships for bicycle road racing organized by the Union Cycliste Internationale...

will take place in Limburg

Limburg (Netherlands)

Limburg is the southernmost of the twelve provinces of the Netherlands. It is located in the southeastern part of the country and bordered by the province of Gelderland to the north, Germany to the east, Belgium to the south and part of the west, andthe Dutch province of North Brabant partly to...

, the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

, between 15 and 23 September 2012. The event consists of a road race and a time trial for men, women and men under 23. It will be the 79th Road World Championships. Castelfidardo

Castelfidardo

Castelfidardo is a town and comune in the province of Ancona, in the Marche region of central-eastern Italy.It is particularly remembered for the Italian victory over a "volunteer" army defending the Papal States, on September 18, 1860...

 near Loreto

Loreto (AN)

Loreto is a hilltown and comune of the Italian province of Ancona, in the Marche. It is mostly famous as the seat of the Basilica della Santa Casa, a popular Catholic pilgrimage site.-Location:...

 in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 was also a candidate, but Italy had held the UCI Road World Championships in Varese

Varese

Varese is a town and comune in north-western Lombardy, northern Italy, 55 km north of Milan.It is the capital of the Province of Varese. The hinterland or urban part of the city is called Varesotto.- Geography :...

 in 2008. The Netherlands last hosted the Road World Championships in 1998 in Valkenburg aan de Geul

Valkenburg aan de Geul

Valkenburg aan de Geul is a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands.-History:Siege and conquest were characteristic of the history of Valkenburg. Each event is withheld, followed by subsequent restorations. This most definitely holds for the castle perched atop of a hill in the middle of the...

 and will be the sixth time in total that the country has hosted the championships.

The 2012 championships sees a number of changes compared to recent years. A team time trial is set to be reintroduced. This was last competed as a world championship event in 1994

1994 UCI Road World Championships

- Events summary :...

 between nations. The reintroduction will see trade teams compete, similar to the Eindhoven Team Time Trial

Eindhoven Team Time Trial

The UCI ProTour Eindhoven Team Time Trial was an annual road bicycle race held in Eindhoven, Netherlands. It was approximately . Each team had six riders. In 2006, team size expanded to eight....

 held between 2005 and 2007. The Junior championships also reappear on the programme. These were last held as part of the main championships in 2004

2004 UCI Road World Championships

The 2004 UCI Road World Championships took place in Verona, Italy, between September 27 and October 3, 2004. The event consisted of a road race and a time trial for men, women, men under 23, junior men and junior women.- Events summary :...

 and since then have been held as a separate championships. With the extra events, the championships will be held over two weekends (nine days) and will also include an opening ceremony and a cyclosportive

Cyclosportive

A cyclosportive, or often simply sportive, is a short to long distance, organised, mass-participation cycling event, typically held annually....

event.