Yorkshire confirms bid to host 2019 Road World Championships

Yorkshire has confirmed that it has put forward a £24m bid to host the 2019 Road World Championships.

A decision on whether or not the county has been successful will be made at the UCI’s annual congress in Doha this October, during the Qatar World Championships.

If successful, it will be the fourth time Britain has hosted the Worlds, and the first since Goodwood did in 1982.

Welcome to Yorkshire, the would-be organisers of the event who also brought the Tour de France Grand Départ to the county in 2014 and the subsequent Tour de Yorkshire race, said that vents across the eight-day programme would take place in the north, east, south and west of the county.

CW understands that neighboring Greater Manchester has also been put forward as a potential host for the time trial events.

>>> Yorkshire misses out on hosting September’s European Road Championships

Welcome to Yorkshire Chief Executive Sir Gary Verity said: “It would be an absolute honour to host the 2019 UCI Road World Championships.

“Yorkshire has everything a bike race could wish for. We can promise a gruelling but spectacular range of routes, huge crowds and the very warmest of welcomes. We are sure the world’s best riders will find our beautiful roads both challenging and exhilarating in equal measure.

“Yorkshire is ready to embrace the Championships. We’ve turned the county yellow once before, and now we want to see it swathed with those coveted rainbow bands.”

Long since a key proposal in the Government’s Northern Powerhouse project, Whitehall has agreed to fund the entire event, with backing from UK Sport and British Cycling.

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Therasa May, the Prime Minister, told the Yorkshire Post that the bid had her full backing.

She said: “The Government will underwrite the event and back it with £24m of investment so that we can get even more people to visit the region."

Additionally, she pledged more than £15m would go towards cycling facilities, up from the initial £10m that is believed to have been below British Cycling's demands.

“Our backing will include £15m for cycling infrastructure projects, to encourage even greater participation in the sport and continue the proud legacy that has seen our athletes excel at the Rio Games," she added.

The announcement comes after Yorkshire missed out on hosting this September’s rescheduled European Road Race Championships, which instead went to Brittany.

This year’s Worlds take place in Qatar in October, with Bergen and Innsbruck the respective 2017 and 2018 hosts.