New mixed team time trial race for 2019 UCI Road World Championships in Yorkshire

Next year’s UCI road world championships in Yorkshire will reportedly see the debut of a new event – a mixed team time trial that will feature both men and women.

The new race will replace the team time trial first introduced in 2012 but which is set to disappear after this September’s championships in Innsbruck-Tirol, reports the Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad

Men’s and women’s trade teams competed in that event, but the format was unpopular with team management, particularly of those that are weaker in the discipline.

Logistics have also been cited as a problem especially in years when the championships were held outside Europe.

Instead, Het Nieuwsblad says that the new team time trial format will be raced by national teams, comprising three male and three female riders.

It will operate as a relay, with the three men taking to the course first and the women then taking over, with the team posting the lowest cumulative time winning.

As yet, there is no news on how exactly the timings will be taken, or how the male riders will ‘hand over’ to their female team-mates.

In team time trials such as the one this afternoon on Stage 3 of the Tour de France, the time is taken when the fourth of the eight riders crosses the line – something that clearly would not apply here.

According to Het Niewsblad, no mention was made of the new format in the dossier comprising the Flanders region’s bid for the 2021 UCI Road World Championships, submitted last Friday.

However, the newspaper said that Tom Van Damme, the chairman of national cycling federation Belgian Cycling, is supportive of the idea.

“It provides a new angle and gives women's cycling a boost, too,'' he said.