Following last week's meetings of the Professional Cycling Council (PCC) and the UCI Management Committee in Lavey-les-Bains, Switzerland, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) is pleased to reveal the 2020 calendars for the UCI WorldTour and UCI Women's WorldTour.
Due to the Tokyo Olympic Games taking place from 24 July to 9 August 2020, the dates of several events have been adapted, as is the case every four years, so that they do not take place during the Games. Accordingly, the UCI WorldTour will see the Tour de France begin one week before its traditional date, and the Tour de Pologne will take place in July instead of August as in previous years. Similarly, the Prudential RideLondon Surrey Classic will be organised slightly later than usual, after the Olympic Games. Concerning the UCI Women's WorldTour calendar, all the events organised from the month of May onwards will take place one week earlier, enabling the best riders to participate and also represent their country at the Olympic Games.
Next year, the UCI WorldTour, the leading series of men's professional road cycling, will comprise 37 events, starting in the second half of January in Australia and finishing at the end of October in China. During the nine months of competition, the UCI WorldTour will take the world's best teams and their riders to 14 countries on four continents.
Moreover, the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey will not be registered on the 2020 UCI WorldTour calendar. This decision was taken due to the number of UCI WorldTeams taking part in the last two years being less than the minimum of 10 required by the UCI Regulations (2.15.192). Given the quality of the organisation and the importance of the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey for the development of cycling, the UCI is nevertheless open to the registration of the event in another class, such as the UCI ProSeries which will be launched in 2020.
As a reminder, La Vuelta Ciclista a España will include an extra day in 2020 due to the organisation of its Grand Départ in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
2020 UCI WorldTour Calendar:
21 - 26 January: Santos Tour Down Under (Australia)
2 February: Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race (Australia)
23 - 29 February: UAE Tour (United Arab Emirates)
29 February: Omloop Het Nieuwsblad Elite (Belgium)
7 March: Strade Bianche (Italy)
8 - 15 March: Paris-Nice (France)
11 - 17 March: Tirreno-Adriatico (Italy)
21 March: Milano-Sanremo (Italy)
23 - 29 March: Volta Ciclista a Catalunya (Spain)
25 March: AG Driedaagse Brugge-De Panne (Belgium)
27 March: E3 BinckBank Classic (Belgium)
29 March: Gent-Wevelgem in Flanders Fields (Belgium)
1 April: Dwars door Vlaanderen - A travers la Flandre (Belgium)
5 April: Ronde van Vlaanderen - Tour des Flandres (Belgium)
6 - 11 April: Itzulia Basque Country (Spain)
12 April: Paris-Roubaix (France)
19 April: Amstel Gold Race (the Netherlands)
22 April: La Flèche Wallonne (Belgium)
26 April: Liège-Bastogne-Liège (Belgium)
28 April - 3 May: Tour de Romandie (Switzerland)
1 May: Eschborn-Frankfurt (Germany)
9 - 31 May: Giro d'Italia (Italy)
10 - 16 May: Amgen Tour of California (United States)
31 May-7 June: Critérium du Dauphiné (France)
6 - 14 June: Tour de Suisse (Switzerland)
27 June-19 July: Tour de France (France)
5 - 11 July: Tour de Pologne (Poland)
25 July: Donostia San Sebastian Klasikoa (Spain)
14 August - 6 September: La Vuelta Ciclista a España (Spain)
16 August: EuroEyes Cyclassics Hamburg (Germany)
16 August: Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic (Great Britain)
23 August: Bretagne Classic - Ouest-France (France)
31 August – 6 September: BinckBank Tour
11 September: Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec (Canada)
13 September: Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal (Canada)
10 October: Il Lombardia (Italy)
15 – 20 October: Gree - Tour of Guangxi (China)
The registration of these events on the 2020 UCI WorldTour calendar guarantees their presence in the series for the next three years, on condition that they respect the regulations and requirements in force.
Concerning the introduction of the new organisation of men's professional road cycling adopted by the PCC last September in Innsbruck (Austria), the UCI has agreed that UCI WorldTeams have the possibility to manage a development team registered as a UCI Continental Team. The two teams, which will still not be able to take part in the same race, will share a certain number of elements (for example team name and jersey design) and will be able to exchange riders during the season according to provisions that are to be defined.
Moreover, a minimum required allowance for stagiaires will be introduced from 1 August 2019.
Finally, as is already the case for women's teams, all members of UCI WorldTeams (riders and staff members) will have to sign a declaration of acknowledgement of the ethical principles to be respected concerning the treatment of team members.
As for the 2020 UCI Women's WorldTour, this will comprise 22 events, whose organisers have all approved the new criteria for the leading series of women's professional road cycling. It will start at the beginning of February in Australia and draw to a close in China at the end of October. During the nine months of competition, the best women cyclists in the world will compete on the roads of 11 countries on four continents.
New to the series in 2020 will be the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race Women, an event which is currently registered on the UCI International Road Calendar as a 1.1 race. This will now open the women's professional road cycling season.
Meanwhile the status of the Prudential RideLondon Classique will be modified: on the recommendation of the UCI Road Commission and the UCI Women's WorldTour Committee, it has been decided not to register the event on the UCI Women's WorldTour calendar next year. This decision is based on the fact that the race organiser would like to modify the date next year. The requested change means the race would take place during the Ladies Tour of Norway, a well-established event in the leading series of women's professional road cycling which offers television coverage that fully complies with the organisers' specifications. The UCI wishes to avoid an overlapping of events that could lead to logistical difficulties for teams wishing to participate in all UCI Women's WorldTour events: this is one of the fundamental principles of the series' calendar. Due to the popularity of the event and the quality of its organisation, the UCI hopes that conditions will allow the Prudential RideLondon Classique to return to the UCI Women's WorldTour in future years.
2020 UCI Women's WorldTour Calendar:
1 February: Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race- Elite Women's Race (Australia)
7 March: Strade Bianche (Italy)
15 March: Ronde van Drenthe – UCI Women's WorldTour (the Netherlands)
22 March: Trofeo Alfredo Binda – Comune di Cittiglio (Italy)
26 March: AG Driedaagse Brugge – De Panne (Belgium)
29 March: Gent – Wevelgem in Flanders Fields (Belgium)
5 April: Ronde van Vlaanderen / Tour des Flandres (Belgium)
19 April: Amstel Gold Race Ladies (the Netherlands)
22 April: La Flèche Wallonne Féminine (Belgium)
26 April: Liège – Bastogne – Liège Femmes (Belgium)
7 – 9 May: Tour of Chongming Island UCI Women's World Tour (China)
14 – 16 May: Amgen Tour of California Women's Race empowered with SRAM (USA)
8 – 13 June: OVO Energy Women's Tour (Great Britain)
26 June – 5 July: Giro d'Italia Internazionale Femminile (Italy)
10 July: La Course by Le Tour de France (France)
8 August: Postnord UCI WWT Vårgårda West Sweden TTT (Sweden)
9 August: Postnord UCI WWT Vårgårda West Sweden RR (Sweden)
13 – 16 August: Ladies Tour of Norway (Norway)
22 August: GP de Plouay – Lorient Agglomération Trophée WNT (France)
25 – 30 August: Boels Ladies Tour (the Netherlands)
5 – 6 September: Ceratizit Madrid Challenge by La Vuelta (Spain)
20 October: Tour of Guangxi – UCI Women's WorldTour (China).
The full 2020 UCI International Road Calendar, including men's and women's events in the UCI ProSeries, Class 1 and Class 2, will be published in September after the UCI Management Committee meeting taking place in Yorkshire (Great Britain) during the UCI Road World Championships.
