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Glasgow World Championships viewer’s guide

Your one-stop guide to the big events at the Cycling World Championships in Glasgow, including road, track and MTB.

Victor Campenaerts (Belgium) on his way to ITT victory at the 2018 European Championships in Glasgow, Scotland. Photo: © Cor Vos

Kit Nicholson
by Kit Nicholson 03.08.2023 Photography by
Cor Vos
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At this point in the season, we’re usually taking a deep breath before the build-up to the Vuelta a España, but this year, we have the first edition of the UCI Cycling World Championships to look forward to.

Starting Thursday, August 3 and spanning 11 days, this super-sized Worlds incorporates 13 usually disparate disciplines into one mega event including road, track, mountain bike, BMX, artistic cycling, everything except cyclocross. Para-cycling road and track World Championships will be held concurrently.

There’s a lot going on, spread over a great swathe of Scotland. We’ll have more detailed previews of the road and mountain bike XC events in the coming days, but for now here’s a quick guide to when the major events are happening and how to watch. The schedule is … a lot, given the presence of pretty much every discipline except cyclocross. But, us being the helpful folks we are, we’ve condensed some of the most notable events into this handy cheat sheet.

The fine print: Start times here are local, UK time and taken from the UCI and Tissot’s own official schedule. TL;DR – these may change slightly, and if you start your women’s sprint stream at precisely 18:33, don’t blame us if it’s already over. Also: this chart reflects only elite track and elite, junior, and U23 road and mountain bike racing. For track racing, only finals/medal rounds are listed; for events like pursuit, sprint, and keirin, there are qualifying rounds that are not listed. For those, and for other categories and disciplines that will feature at the World Cycling Championships, please check the official schedule.

August 3August 4August 5August 6August 7August 8August 9August 10August 11August 12August 13
Track
Women Individual Pursuit 19:50Women 500M TT 19:16Men Team Pursuit 18:44Women Elimination Race 18:34Men Elimination Race 18:28Men 1KM TT 17:25Women Sprint 18:33
Women Team Sprint 20:19Women Scratch Race 20:01Women Team Pursuit 20:28Men Individual Pursuit 19:01Men Sprint 18:55Women Points Race 18:42Men Points Race 19:15
Men Scratch Race 20:27Men Team Sprint 20:33Women Keirin 19:57Women Madison 19:34Men Madison 19:44Men Keirin 20:11
Men Omnium Scratch 14:41 Tempo Race 18:22 Elimination 19:16 Points 20:12Women Omnium Scratch 17:38 Tempo 18:19 Elimination 18:58 Points 20:21
Road
Junior Women RR 10:00Elite Men RR 9:30Team Time Trial Mixed Relay 13:00U23 Men ITT 14:30Junior Women ITT 11:15Junior Men ITT 10:00U23 Men RR 11:30Elite Women RR 12:00
Junior Men RR 13:00Elite Women ITT 14:00Elite Men ITT 14:35
 MTB
Junior Women DH 14:30Elite Women DH 12:30Elite Men Marathon XC 09:00Mixed Team Relay 12:30Junior XC Women 11:00 Men 14:00U23 Men XC 11:30Elite Women XC 11:30
Junior Men DH 15:30Elite Men DH 14:00Elite Women Marathon XC 09:30Elite XCC Men 17:45 Women 18:30U23 Women XC 15:30Elite Men XC 15:30End of racing
Note: only final/medal rounds are listed.
Time zones: All times local (UK time). Noon/12:00 in Glasgow is 13:00 Central European time, 07:00 Eastern US, and 21:00 Eastern Australia time.

Where to watch

Can’t find your country listed? Here’s the UCI’s “broadcast intentions” PDF.

Road cycling

Road races:

The road races all end on what is essentially a particularly tricky criterium loop, complete with somewhere in the region of 40 corners on Glasgow’s grid-like streets, and features some very steep ramps. While the juniors are on the laps from the start, the elite women and U23 men start at Loch Lomond, and the elite men ride out from Edinburgh.

Team Time Trial Mixed Relay — Glasgow > Glasgow:

Individual Time Trials — Stirling > Stirling:

Kirsten Wild swept to the European Omnium title at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in 2018.

Track cycling

All track events are taking place between 3-9th August at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow. There will be racing throughout every day, but the medal events are as follows. Full schedule, including all qualification events, can be found here, and bear in mind that the exact times are likely to fluctuate with delays between races, crashes, etc.

MvdP on his MTB at the European Championships in 2018.

Mountain bike

Downhill

There’s only one place the Downhill events could possibly be happening and that’s the iconic World Cup venue of Fort William, about 100 miles north of Glasgow. The 2.8-kilometre run drops 550 metres and it’s a technical, rocky, and challenging descent. Full schedule here.

Cross-country

All cross-country events, including Marathon, are taking place in Glentress Forest south of Edinburgh, a Mecca for British mountain bikers who seek out its varying terrain, punishing climbs and long, grippy descents. Full timing schedule can be found here.

Marathon

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