2020 World Championships in Switzerland to go ahead September 20-27
UCI Road Race, UCI Time Trial and Swiss National Championships approved as sporting events are allowed to resume in the country
The 2020 World Championships will go ahead as planned in Switzerland, the organisers of the Aigle-Martigny 2020 Worlds confirmed that the iconic week of racing will be run as scheduled from September 20-27.
The Worlds will go ahead with restrictions in place, "After examining the health measures and national restrictions imposed by the Swiss government, the organising committee, in consultation with the UCI, the cantons of Vaud and Valais and the municipalities of Aigle and Martigny, has decided to continue organising the World Championships.”
The Swiss national championships will be held on the same circuit to ensure the Worlds can go ahead safety.
Switzerland has begun easing quarantine restrictions, public gatherings including sports events are allowed to resume from August.
The elite men’s time trial and road race will probably take place later in the week to allow riders to finish the re-scheduled Tour de France and compete for the rainbow jerseys.
The road races – at all levels – will include the climb of the Côte de la Petite Forclaz, just outside the city of Martigny, which is four kilometres long, with an average gradient of 10.2 per cent, with a maximum of 14.5 per cent, mid-way up the climb, and which has 478 metres of elevation, topping out at 909m.
The climb will feature mid-way through each 20km finishing circuit, which will be raced seven times in the elite men's road race, five times by the under-23 men, three times by the elite women and junior men, and once by the junior women.
All road races will start in Aigle, with the 244km elite men's race also taking in extra loops up to Villeneuve, on the edge of Lake Geneva to the north, and, later on the course, out to Sion in the north-east, before joining the Martigny finishing circuit. In total, the men's road race features 4,384m of elevation gain.
Most of the time-trial routes follow a similar course to the road race, albeit over a shorter, more direct route from Aigle to Martigny, with the 22km junior women's and 27km junior men's TT courses starting from Saint-Maurice, south of Aigle.
For more information, please visit: https://www.aigle-martigny2020.ch/en