The course outline for the 2022 Road World Championships in Wollongong was released Friday. The elite road race will traverse the coastline, followed by an urban circuit and a steep loop up Mount Keira.

Time trials will kick off the women's and men's elite events on Sunday, September 18.

"The course is exciting and challenging and will provide ample opportunity for fans to immerse themselves in the competition and watch the world's best cyclists in action," UCI President David Lapartiento said in a statement.

"The UCI is pleased to have worked closely with the local organizing committee over the past 12 months to create a course that is complex, technical, and will separate the true champions from their peers.

Details of the race distance, the number of laps in the city and Mount Keira, and the elevation gain have yet to be announced; the COVID-19 pandemic (the prolonged blockade of parts of New South Wales, plus the closure of international and national borders) has hampered the final decision process. hampering the final decision-making process. However, Australian borders have now been reopened and quarantine requirements have been relaxed. [UCI looks forward to visiting Wollongong in the first quarter of 2022 to see first-hand the extensive planning by the organizing committee and to review the details of the race.

The 2022 Wollongong will be the second road world championship to be held in Australia since Geelong in 2010. Like Wollongong, this event will feature a course that takes advantage of the coastline and includes some of the short but challenging climbs that characterize international races held in Australia.

The 2022 Road World Championships, however, will take place under very different circumstances. It will be the first international cycling event since the start of the 2020 season and comes after two years of cancellations due to the Santos Tour Down Under and the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race pandemic.

"Wollongong is a city blessed with diverse natural assets, including spectacular cliffs, crystal clear water, and a coastline that includes golden sandy beaches contrasted with rich cliffs," Wollongong 2022 committee chair Dean Dara Valle said in a statement.

"These features will shine through in the broadcast and will be an attractive draw for spectators, the UCI, and athletes who have not competed in Australia for several years.

The 2022 Road World Championships, which culminates with the elite men's road race on Sunday, September 25, is expected to draw 300,000 spectators and over 300 million viewers worldwide.

The center of the course for all 11 rainbow jersey competitions is the coastal city of Wollongong, located just 80 km south of the center of the nation's largest capital, Sydney. All races will start and finish in Wollongong, located in the Dharawal country, but the elite men's and women's road races will have different starting points. The two races start in Helensburgh, a small town 250 meters above sea level, roughly halfway between Wollongong and Sydney.

From Helensburgh, the course returns to Wollongong via the coast and splits into two circuits. The city circuit includes a time trial, while the Mount Keira circuit goes surprisingly inland and climbs the hill that gives the course its name.

The elite road race heads up the coast from the hamlet of Helensburgh, bordering the Royal National Park, to the picturesque Sea Cliff Bridge. Traveling south along the coast to Wollongong, more than 30 km from the start line, the course will lead to the city center and the Mount Keira Loop. How many laps each will take is not yet known, but some of the features are known. The Wollongong city loop is a technical route from the city center through the suburbs of Gwinville, Mount Woosley, Mount Pleasant, Fairy Meadow, and North Wollongong before returning to the beachside finish line. Although not named after an uphill, the route is not without climbs. The climb from Mount Woosley Road to Mount Pleasant has an average grade of 7.7 percent and a maximum of 14 percent, reaching 119 meters in elevation.

The Mount Keira Loop is a steep climb, reaching an elevation of 473 meters after an 8.7 km climb with an average gradient of 5 percent and a maximum of 15 percent. Surrounded by subtropics, the tough climb passes through Kembla Heights and Cordeaux Heights before descending to the Port Kembla Ironworks.

Road races for the U23 and junior categories take place on the city's circuit.

The time trial will also be held on the city circuit with slight modifications to the road race route, including shortening the section from Mount Woosley Road to Mount Pleasant.

The route will pass through the Wollongong Botanical Gardens, then Mount Woosley, and return to the coast via Fairy Meadow. From Thomas Dalton Park, the route runs parallel to the popular Blue Mile shared cycle pathway through the University of Wollongong Innovation Campus and along the beach to Stuart Park, before sprinting down Cliff Road, past the lighthouse at Flagstaff Hill, and on to Marine Drive, passing the finish line across from Wollongong Beach.

The elite time trial will continue north, up and down towards Towradgi.

As usual, the first medal event will be a race against the clock, followed by the elite road race, the first time in the history of the UCI Road World Championships that these two time trials have been held on the same day over the same distance.

Although it is not clear at this stage, many are hoping for the creation of a new U23 women's category. The possibility of this category being introduced has been noted in Flanders, where the road race will take place within the elite women's race rather than as a separate event.