World champions Annemiek van Vleuten and Chloe Dygert are very pleased that the UCI has announced that the 2020 Road World Championships will be held in Imola, Italy from September 24-27.

Van Vechten, the reigning elite women's road race world champion, told Cycling News that she was relieved to learn where the event will be held and that the mountain route planned for the original road race course in Aigle Martigny, Switzerland He said he was pleased that the sport's governing body had kept its promise to respect the design.

"I'm happy with the venue," Van Vleuten told Cycling News. And I'm also happy about the hard course."

Van Vleuten is a two-time time trial world champion (2017 and 2018) and reigning road race world champion who won the title in Yorkshire last September. She held off compatriot Anna van der Breggen and Australian Amanda Spratt to win the 105km solo race. She has raced for Mitchelton-Scott for the past five years but will move to Movistar Team Women in 2021 and 2022.

American rider Dygert won the elite women's time trial world title in Yorkshire with a dominant performance to beat Dutch riders Van der Breggen and Van Flugten. She was also pleased that the venue for this year's World Championships has been chosen, but said the new venue will not change her plans to defend her time trial title. She will compete in the time trial and road race in Imola.

"I am happy that the final decision has been made. Nothing will change for me personally and I will continue to prepare with a solid training plan," Dygert told Cycling News.

The UCI confirmed that the men's 259.2km race will include more than 5,000m of climbing and nine laps of a 28.8km circuit. The women's race is 144 km in five laps with 2,750 m of climbing; the time trial will take place on a flat course and all races will finish on the famous circuit.

The UCI announced earlier this month that the road world championships in Aigle Martigny had been canceled due to government COVID-19 regulations. Originally scheduled to take place September 20-27,

the Haute-Saône department of La Planche des Belles Filles in the Vosges mountains of eastern France and Bardella in Tuscany, Italy were among the candidates, but after a bidding war, Imola emerged as the leading candidate for the venue

The UC Berkeley was the most promising candidate to host the event.

The UCI confirmed on Tuesday that Imola, located in central Emilia-Romagna, had won the bid for the world championships, but the program was reduced to just four days, with only elite men's and women's road races and time trials to be held. World titles for junior men and women and under-23 men will not be awarded in 2020.

The Imola circuit will reportedly host the start and finish of the race, using existing infrastructure to house the race headquarters, and the pit lane box and paddock area will allow for social dancing between national teams with COVID-19 protocols. Additionally, a limited number of spectators will be able to watch the race from the grandstands.