1. The purpose of this Technical Note is to provide Elected Members with an update on the proposed UCI World Championship Cycling (Road Race) Event scheduled for August 2023.
2. The 2023 UCI Cycling World Championship is being billed as the biggest cycling event in history. The overall event will combine 13 previously separate world championships into one mega event for the first time.
3. The event will see 2,600 elite able bodied and para athletes from 120 countries take part and will be one of the world top ten most watched sporting events. The new combined event will take place every four years, one year ahead of the Olympics.
4. The event organisers are predicting that the overall event will have a global television audience of over one billion viewers across 160 broadcast markets. In addition, one million spectators expected to visit over the ten days of the championships.
5. The Council has been in discussion with the event organisers who have requested that the Road Race Route passes through East Dunbartonshire in August 20023.
6. The route has yet to be confirmed, but the organisers will be announcing and providing an update on the overall championship with some details on events and dates.
7. It is proposed that there are three road races covering the Men’s, Women’s and Under 23’s road races on Sunday 6th, Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th August 2023 with the specific route and times to be confirmed.
8. The Council has previously been involved in the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the 2018 European Championships. During both of the previous events, the cycling routes passed through East Dunbartonshire.
9. The Council has expressed an interest in being involved subject to further detailed discussions and the signing for a formal binding legal agreement outlining the roles and responsibilities of the various Council Services.
10. The Council will continue to engage with the organisers and provide updates, as more information is agreed/released.