2021 UCI Gran Fondo World Championships move to Sarajevo in October

Istocno Sarajevo (East Sarajevo) in Bosnia and Herzegovina will be the host city of the 2021 UCI Gran Fondo World Championships and will move to 6-10 October 2021 due to COVID19

The difficulties that most organisers still face in these early months of 2021 in respect with the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in a big update of the 2021 UCI Gran Fondo World Series calendar, including the location and date of the 2021 UCI Gran Fondo World Championships.

2021 UCI Gran Fondo World Championships

Istocno Sarajevo (East Sarajevo) in Bosnia and Herzegovina will be the host city of the 2021 UCI Gran Fondo World Championships and will move to 6-10 October 2021 after many qualifier events were urged to move to later in the season and early September was a big risk in the crowded city center of Banja Luka, where the event was first scheduled.  This move to later in the season will also be better for the many travel restrictions that currently exist.

The program of these World Championships will also be slightly different from previous years with time trial on Wednesday, team relay on Thursday evening, the short mediofondo distance on Saturday and long granfondo distance on Sunday.

The time trial is 20km long and takes place in Pale, not far from Sarajevo.  It’s an out-and-back loop on the same road with 270m of elevation.

The team relay is on a 2km course while the granfondo and mediofondo courses are challenging with quite some elevation.  Both races start on the outskirts of the city for a first 30km flat around the airport before going on a local circuit of 37km that needs to be done 1,5 times for the mediofondo and 2,5 times for the granfondo before heading to the finish on an altitude of 1590m in Jahorina where the 1984 Winter Olympics took place.  Total elevation for the mediofondo is 2470m over a distance of 99km while the granfondo has 3420m of elevation over a distance of 136km.

Sarajevo will also host a qualifier event on the same courses on 13-15 August.

2021 UCI Gran Fondo World Series Calendar

Also the calendar of the qualifier events will have important updates with 9 events moving to July, August or September.  Ale Granfondo Istocno Sarajevo replaces Gran Fondo Banja Luka on the courses of the World Championships in August.

Granfondo Coimbra Region and Granfondo Antalya will move to October and November and count for the 2022 UCI Gran Fondo World Series.  Granfondo Cyprus had already decided earlier to skip 2021 and organize again in 2022.

The new 2021 UCI Gran Fondo World Series calendar