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As many as 14 Limburg cycling municipalities are involved in some way or other in the UCI Road World Championships. The finish of the road races is located just beyond the summit of Cauberg Hill in Valkenburg. The start of the time trials and road races will involve the following municipalities: Sittard-Geleen, Eijsden-Margraten, Landgraaf, Heerlen and Maastricht.
The Road World Championships will last eight days, two times longer than customary. By spreading the World Championships over a longer period, the UCI and the Limburg Region wish to focus greater attention on recreational sport and young people. Partly thanks to the fantastic cooperation, the World Championships is giving the entire region a sense of pride. That cooperation is also resulting in varied and challenging courses.
Road Races
The first 100 kilometres of the elite road race will not be run on a fixed circuit. By introducing a long preliminary course through a number of Limburg cycling municipalities, the Province of Limburg wishes to involve the entire region in the Road World Championships. Only after the preliminary course will the riders complete 10 laps of 16.5 kilometres on a fixed circuit that is largely the same as the course used during the 1998 Road World Championships in Valkenburg.
The elite men road race will start in Maastricht and finish on Cauberg Hill in Valkenburg. This is the same location where the Tour de France stage ended in 2006. The rolling and technically demanding preliminary course for the men’s elite road race is the same as the first part of the WorldTour Amstel Gold Race. Two climbs have been included in the course, Bemelerberg Hill (a difficult, winding climb with a length of just over 900 metres and a maximum gradient of 7%) and the renowned make-or-break Cauberg Hill with a total length of 1.5 kilometres and a maximum gradient of 12%. The finish is located 1,700 metres beyond the summit of Cauberg Hill.
Time Trials
To involve the entire region in this cycling event, the starting location of the various time trials will vary and be located in the municipalities of Eijsden-Margraten, Landgraaf, Sittard-Geleen and Heerlen, with Cauberg Hill in Valkenburg as the finishing location.
The start, finish and the courses of the various road races and time trials will be open to spectators free of charge. There will therefore be no admission fee.
Team Time Trial
This year’s event will be different with the return of the team time trial (TTT), not for national teams but for trade-sponsored squads.
The pressure builds to a climax on September 16th in Sittard, the start of the team time trial event. All teams from the men's UCI WorldTour will participate. There is also space for Pro-Continental and Continental teams to qualify.
The routes chosen for the team time trials are certainly not flat out and back! Both the men’s and women’s events start in Sittard and finish in Valkenburg. The women's 34.2 km route includes two climbs; the Lange Raarberg, after around 20 km, and of course the Cauberg. The men’s 53.2 km route features the Lange Raarberg and also the Bergesweg in Voerendaal. The men also finish close after the Cauberg.
Source: http://www.limburg2012.nl
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