The 2014 UCI Road World Championships took place in
Ponferrada
Ponferrada () is a city of Spain, located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Ponferrada, the second most populated municipality of the Province of León, is also the capital city of El Bierzo, the only Comarcas of Spain, ''comarca'' ...
, Spain, from 21 to 28 September 2014. The cycling championships consisted of 12 events for elite, under-23 and junior cyclists. It was the 81st
UCI Road World Championships
The UCI Road World Championships are the annual world championships for bicycle road racing organized by the (UCI). The UCI Road World Championships consist of events for road race and individual time trial, and , a UCI Road World Championships ...
The UCI announced on 4 April 2011 that the city of Ponferrada had the best candidature file to host the Championships. The candidature file of Ponferrada had the best score on the important sporting and economic elements. Ponferrada had unsuccessfully bid for the 2013 World Championships, which were awarded to Tuscany. Other candidates for the 2014 Championships were Hooglede-Gits in Belgium, Chihuahua in Mexico and the
Vendée
Vendée () is a department in the Pays de la Loire region in Western France, on the Atlantic coast. In 2019, it had a population of 685,442.
Unpaid volunteers will perform a variety of tasks before and during the Championships. A target of 1000 volunteers was set with a maximum of 1400. When recruitment started begin April 2014, 200 applications were received within the first day. As of 16 September 1186 volunteers were recruited.
On 11 July the official anthem of the Championships was announced titled ''Song-G Ponferrada 2014'' written by Bierzo band Rapabestas. Tickets for the Championships to sit near the finish line could be bought in advance. Day passes were available for €60–80 and special packages were available for more days. The Italian company Erreà was made responsible to develop and distribute the official merchandising, from which a percentage of sales will go towards funding the event.
Costs
The city council of
Ponferrada
Ponferrada () is a city of Spain, located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Ponferrada, the second most populated municipality of the Province of León, is also the capital city of El Bierzo, the only Comarcas of Spain, ''comarca'' ...
estimated that at the end of April, €12.42 million had been spent on organizing the championships, an amount that could reach €14 million by the end of September. About €4.8 million comes from sponsors, merchandising and contributing hotels and several more millions will come from other contracts. The organization of championships has an overall budget of €11 million; organisers have to pay €5 million to the UCI for organizing the championships and €6 million are used for the organization and logistics. The Provincial Council of León invested €323,181 to upgrade Ponferrada and make the city ready for the championships.
According to media reports in March 2015, the championships failed to make a profit, with estimates for losses ranging from €2.7 to €9 million.
Qualification
Main qualification was based on performances on the UCI events during 2014. Results from January to the middle of August counted towards the qualification criteria, with the rankings being determined upon the release of the numerous tour rankings on 15 August 2014.
Participating nations
Cyclists from 68 national federations competed. Apart from these nations, one rider from Namibia competed in the men's team time trial. Rider from the Dominican Republic and Turkmenisten were registered but did not compete.
The number of cyclists per nation that competed, excluding riders in the team time trials, is shown in parentheses.
Schedule
All events will start and finish in
Ponferrada
Ponferrada () is a city of Spain, located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Ponferrada, the second most populated municipality of the Province of León, is also the capital city of El Bierzo, the only Comarcas of Spain, ''comarca'' ...
. All times are in
Central European Time
Central European Time (CET) is a standard time of Central, and parts of Western Europe, which is one hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
The UTC offset, time offset from UTC can be written as UTC+01:00.
It is used in most parts of Eur ...
(
UTC+1
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*Central European Time
* West Africa Time
* Western European Summer Time
**Brit ...
).
Events summary
Elite events
Under-23 events
Junior events
Medal table
Courses
Team time trial
The course for the Women's Race is and for the Men's Race. The team time trial starts in the centre of
Ponferrada
Ponferrada () is a city of Spain, located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Ponferrada, the second most populated municipality of the Province of León, is also the capital city of El Bierzo, the only Comarcas of Spain, ''comarca'' ...
and will go via La Martina, Posada del Bierzo, Carracedelo and Cacabelos back to Ponferrada. The total incline of the women's course is . A few kilometres before the finish there is a climb with an elevation of over and a maximum inclination of 7%. The men face a few small climbs during the course with a total of of climbing and a maximum incline of 10%.
Individual time trial
The initial plan was to have a time trial finishing uphill. This idea was discarded because it was required to have two finish sections which was not possible from a logistical and financial point of view.
The length of the individual time trials varies between for junior women and for elite men. All courses will start and finish in Ponferrada and will run through La Martina, Posada del Bierzo and Carracedelo. A short stretch before riding into Ponferrada was made for the championships. Except for the elite men's course, all courses are quite flat until a steep climb a few kilometres before the finish with an incline of over and a maximum inclination of 7% a few kilometres before the finish line.
The total elevation over the elite men's course is with a few hills in the last with a maximum inclination of 10%. The course starts with a flat section of through the valley of Bierzo, before the parcours goes slightly up. In a little under the riders rise from to an altitude of . The ascent overlaps partly with the road race for men, which means the steepest part has a negative gradient of 16%. After there is another climb. In a few kilometres the riders will reach the highest point in the route, located at after . The rest of the course is going downhill.
Road race
The road races of all events will be on the same circuit. The circuit is and includes two hills. The total climbing is per lap and the maximum incline is 10.7%.
The first are flat, after which starts the climb to Alto de Montearenas with an average gradient of 8%. After a few hundred metres the ascent flattens and the remaining are at an average gradient of 3.5%. Next is a descent, with the steepest after with a 16% negative gradient.
Alto de Compostilla is a short climb of , at an average gradient is 6.5% with some of the steepest parts are 11%. The remaining distance of is almost completely going down.
Prize money
The UCI assigned premiums in all of the twelve events, with a total prize money of
€
The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...
179,805. In the individual time trials and road races the top 3 finishers win prize money and in the team time trials the top 5 teams.
The prize money in the road races is about twice as high as in the time trials for each category. About 60% of the prize money goes to the three elite men events and 28% to the elite women's. 61% of the prize money is awarded in the team time trials, 26% in the road races and 13% in the time trials.
Broadcasting
*Africa (French speaking):
BeIN Sports
beIN Sports ( ) is a Qatari multinational network of sports channels owned and operated by the media group beIN. The network has played a major role in the increased commercialization of Qatari sports. Its chairman is Nasser Al-Khelaifi, and its ...
*Andorra:
BeIN Sports
beIN Sports ( ) is a Qatari multinational network of sports channels owned and operated by the media group beIN. The network has played a major role in the increased commercialization of Qatari sports. Its chairman is Nasser Al-Khelaifi, and its ...
*Australia:
SBS Australia
The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) is an Australian hybrid-funded public service broadcaster. About 80 percent of funding for the company is derived from tax revenue. SBS operates six TV channels ( SBS, SBS Viceland, SBS World Movies, SBS ...
RTBF
The ("Belgian Radio-television of the French Community"), shortened to RTBF (branded as rtbf.be), is a public broadcasting, public service broadcaster for the French Community of Belgium, French-speaking Community of Belgium. Its counterpart i ...
SportKlub
Sportklub, formerly rendered as Sport Klub, is a subscription sports television service which is broadcast in Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2006, Croatia from 2007 and North Macedonia from 2011. A different version of the channel al ...
*Brazil:
Globosat
Globosat, was a Brazilian pay television content service, part of Grupo Globo. Established in 1991, after the Cable Television in Brazil, creation of subscription television services in Brazil, with 29 channels and over 1,000 employees, it is ...
Rogers Sportsnet
Sportsnet is a Canadian English-language discretionary sports specialty channel owned by Rogers Sports & Media. It was established in 1998 as CTV Sportsnet, a joint venture between CTV, Liberty Media, and Rogers Media. CTV parent Bell Globe ...
*Croatia:
SportKlub
Sportklub, formerly rendered as Sport Klub, is a subscription sports television service which is broadcast in Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2006, Croatia from 2007 and North Macedonia from 2011. A different version of the channel al ...
BeIN Sports
beIN Sports ( ) is a Qatari multinational network of sports channels owned and operated by the media group beIN. The network has played a major role in the increased commercialization of Qatari sports. Its chairman is Nasser Al-Khelaifi, and its ...
*Germany:
Das Erste
Das Erste (; "The First") is the flagship national television channel of the ARD (broadcaster), ARD association of public broadcasting corporations in Germany. ''Das Erste'' is jointly operated by the ARD (broadcaster)#Institutions and member org ...
RAI
(), commercially styled as since 2000 and known until 1954 as (RAI), is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many terrestrial and subscription television channels a ...
*Japan:
NHK
, also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee.
NHK ope ...
*Kosovo:
SportKlub
Sportklub, formerly rendered as Sport Klub, is a subscription sports television service which is broadcast in Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2006, Croatia from 2007 and North Macedonia from 2011. A different version of the channel al ...
SportKlub
Sportklub, formerly rendered as Sport Klub, is a subscription sports television service which is broadcast in Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2006, Croatia from 2007 and North Macedonia from 2011. A different version of the channel al ...
SKY México
Sky México, a trading name of Corporacion Novavision S. DE R.L. DE C.V., is a company that operates a subscription television service in Mexico, Central America and Dominican Republic. It produces TV content, and owns several TV channels. It ...
*Middle East:
Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN; , ) is a private-media conglomerate headquartered in Wadi Al Sail, Doha, funded in part by the government of Qatar. The network's flagship channels include Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English, which pro ...
*Monaco:
BeIN Sports
beIN Sports ( ) is a Qatari multinational network of sports channels owned and operated by the media group beIN. The network has played a major role in the increased commercialization of Qatari sports. Its chairman is Nasser Al-Khelaifi, and its ...
*Montenegro:
SportKlub
Sportklub, formerly rendered as Sport Klub, is a subscription sports television service which is broadcast in Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2006, Croatia from 2007 and North Macedonia from 2011. A different version of the channel al ...
Direct TV
DirecTV, LLC is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. It also provides tradit ...
*Poland:
Polsat
Polsat is a Polish free-to-air television channel that was launched on 5 December 1992 by Zygmunt Solorz-Żak. , it is the most watched television channel in Poland with a market share of 11.30%
Polsat belongs to Grupa Polsat Plus ( WSE: CP ...
Pro TV
PRO TV (, often stylized as PRO•TV since 2017) is a Romanian free-to-air television network, launched on 1 December 1995 as the fourth private TV channel in the country (after TV SOTI, Antena 1, and the now-defunct, but online Tele7ABC). It is ...
*Serbia:
SportKlub
Sportklub, formerly rendered as Sport Klub, is a subscription sports television service which is broadcast in Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2006, Croatia from 2007 and North Macedonia from 2011. A different version of the channel al ...
SportKlub
Sportklub, formerly rendered as Sport Klub, is a subscription sports television service which is broadcast in Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2006, Croatia from 2007 and North Macedonia from 2011. A different version of the channel al ...
*Spain: TVE (international broadcast signal)
*Sweden: Viasat
*Switzerland:
SRG SSR
The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (; ; ; ; SRG SSR) is the Swiss public broadcasting association, founded in 1931, the holding company of 24 radio and television channels. Headquartered in Bern, the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation is a non-pro ...
*United Kingdom:
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It p ...
UCI Road World Championships
The UCI Road World Championships are the annual world championships for bicycle road racing organized by the (UCI). The UCI Road World Championships consist of events for road race and individual time trial, and , a UCI Road World Championships ...
UCI Road World Championships
The UCI Road World Championships are the annual world championships for bicycle road racing organized by the (UCI). The UCI Road World Championships consist of events for road race and individual time trial, and , a UCI Road World Championships ...