The Canadian Cycling Association (CCA) has initiated its bid to host the International Cycling Union (UCI) road World Championships in 2015, although the exact city to be put forward has not yet been announced. The deadline for presenting intention in writing to the UCI is November 7th, with the full candidature to be filed by December 7th.
The CCA will publicly inform the selcted candidate on December 15th, before proceeding to international candidature, according to the CCA statement. The successful applicant will be announced by the UCI during the 2011 World Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Canada has hosted the World Championships twice before; in Montréal in 1975, when the race was a warm up for the Olympic games, the men’s road race was won by the great Eddy Merckx, and in Hamilton, Ontario in 2003 the race was won by Igor Astorloa.
The country has also played host to other UCI World championships on a number of occasions, including both the Para-cycling championships in Baie-Corneau and the Mountainbike and Trials championships in Mont-Sainte-Anne this year.
Canada also hosted its first ever ProTour events this season with the Grand Prix’ of Québec and Montréal; although the women’s sport lost both the World Cup and Tour of Montréal and the Tour of Prince Edward Island this year.
Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Transitions) finished seventh in this year’s Tour de France, which was a best ever finish by a Canadian since Steve Bauer finished fourth in the 1988 race. Guillame Boivin took a joint third place in the under-23 World Championships this year, while Tara Whitten won the Commonwealth Games time trial.
After the 2011 championships in Copenhagen, the 2012 event will be hosted by the Limburg region of the Netherlands then the 2013 event will be in Florence, Italy; the destination of the 2014 event has yet to be announced.
Despite its relatively low population Canada is no stranger to hosting major sporting events; after the 1976 Montréal summer Olympics it has hosted the winter games twice: in Calgary in 1988 and Vancouver this year.