UCI World Road Championships 2011
World Road Cycling Championship started in 1927 as it was held in Germany and the Italian cyclist Alfredo Binda won the event while his countrymen Costante Girardengo and Domenico Piemontesi won the silver and bronze medals in the event. The best sprinters
or the climbers are likely to succeed in the event depending upon the track which is usually hilly or flat.
Alfredo after winning the very first Championships bounced back in 1930 as he won the gold medal at Liege and again in 1932 he won his third Championships gold medal at Rome. Rik Van Steenbergen of Belgium, Oscar Freire of Spain and Eddy Merckx of Belgium
are the only other riders who have won the event three times each.
Georges Ronsse, Rik Van Looy, Briek Schotte and Freddy Maertens are the four Belgian cyclists who have won the World Championships two times each while Greg Lomond of USA, Gianni Bugno and Paolo Bettini of Italy have all won the gold medal twice at the Championships.
UCI Road World Championships 2011 are starting from next week and teams are busy in finalising their final roster for the most highly ranked event in the cycling world. The winner of the event is awarded with a rainbow jersey which he can wear in road or
stage races throughout the year. Similarly the UCI Road World Time Trial Winner is considered as the World Time Trial Champion and has the right to wear the rainbow jersey at the individual time trial events.
Road World Championships are divided into different categories including Junior Women time trial, Under-23 Men time trial, Junior Men time trial, Elite Women time trial, Elite Men time trial, Junior Women road race, Under-23 Men road race, Junior Men road
race, Elite Women road race and Elite Men road race.
Belgium is at the top of the chart as they are leading with a total of 47 medals including 25 Gold, 11 silver and 11 bronze medals to their credit. Italy has a total number of 55 medals but sits on the second position as they are 6 medals behind Belgium
in the Gold section with 19, 20 silver and 16 bronze medals Italy secures a second slot at the chart.
France is at third position having 8 gold, 11 silver and 15 bronze medals, securing a total of 34 medals. The Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland are at 4th, 5th and 6th positions respectively. United States is at 7th
position with 3 gold medals while Germany has secured 2 gold medals so far as they sit on the 8th position at the UCI World Championship rankings. Ireland, Australia, Latvia, Norway and United Kingdom shares one Gold medal each amongst themselves
while Denmark, Russia, Luxembourg, Poland, Canada and Slovenia has yet to win a gold medal at the Championships.
The 2011 World Championships are starting from September 19 as the event will conclude on September 25
and most of the teams are busy in finalising their teams. Australia have announced their team for the coming event as Australian riders to compete at the World Championships are Baden Cooke, Simon Gerrans, Mathew Hayman, Stuart O’ Grady, Simon Clarke
and Michael Rogers. Chris Sutton and Heinrich Haussler will be the debutants for the team Australia in the coming event.
With less than a week to go in the UCI World Road Race Championships it will be interesting to see how the event unfolds as we proceed towards the cycling saga at Copenhagen.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
Tags: