BY RIZWAN REHMAT
DOHA: The Qatar Cycling Federation (QCF) yesterday unveiled the event route and the logo of the UCI Road World Championships 2016 which will be held in Doha next year.
QCF President Sheikh Khalid bin Ali Al Thani was joined by cycling legend Eddy Merckx, John Lelangue and Amani Al Dosari at the unveiling ceremony.
The event will start on October 9 with trade team time trials and conclude on October 16, Sheikh Khalid announced.
“It is a great honour and pleasure for me to announce the details of the World Championship,” he said.
“Since 1921, the UCI has been organising the Road World Championships. It is an annual event staged in one of the world’s cities chosen by the international institution through a bidding process similar to the process of choosing the host of the Olympic Games,” Sheikh Khalid said.
“The first edition in 1921 was hosted by Denmark. Since then, no country from the Middle East had been selected to host the championships.
“Qatar will be the first country in the Arab World and the Middle East to host the championships in 2016. It will also be the second country in Asia after Japan, which hosted it in 1990,” he added.
Lelangue said the road races for the elite athletes would be staged on an 80km loop in the desert.
A special 19km circuit will snake through Katara — the city’s cultural centre — all the way to The Pearl, Lelangue said.
The Katara route will include cobblestones, he added.
“It will look nice. Nothing like Paris-Roubaix or the Tour of Flanders, but we will have everything in place,” he said.
The route map has already been shown to world body UCI, Lelangue said.
“Being the first Arab and Middle East country, is a great honour, but also a huge responsibility for Qatar to host the UCI Road World Championships 2016,” Sheikh Khalid said.
“With the participation of more than 1,000 athletes from 75 countries, 450,000 spectators, and millions of TV viewers all over the world, this will be an event to remember,” he added. “This will be another precious opportunity for Qatar to consolidate its image as a sport hub and further prove its ability and competence with regard to its long experience and knowhow in successfully organising top events,” he said.
Lelangue said the time trial courses of the Doha event will be presented at this year’s Worlds in Richmond.
“We don’t want to reveal all plans. Let’s wait until September,” he said.
Sheikh Khalid later launched the event website.
THE PENINSULA
