With medals to be awarded from Friday 11 August for the Pair Women and culminating on the final afternoon of the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships, Sunday 13, with the Single Women and ACT4, the grace, beauty and power of artistic cycling will be showcased at Glasgow’s Emirates Arena.
In total, five UCI titles will be awarded for artistic cycling, with the programme also including Pair Open and Single Men.
The leading artistic cyclists have been dueling since the beginning of the summer to qualify for the discipline’s biggest annual event, which this year is part of the UCI Cycling World Championships taking place in Glasgow and across Scotland. Here’s what to expect…
Surprises in Single Women’s qualification
With Germany at the highest level in almost all categories, the national coach Dieter Maute can afford to nominate the reigning UCI World Champion Jana Pfann (Bruckmühl) and last year’s silver medallist Marcel Jüngling (Dornheim) only as replacements.
"Fall down, get up, straighten the crown, ride on", Jana Pfann commented on her narrow failure. "It didn't work as hoped. I'm very dissatisfied and also quite disappointed,” the 20-year-old admitted, adding that she was confident for next season.
Poor health at the beginning of the season hampered her qualification campaign. Her race to catch up was not fully successful: she will be replacement for Ramona Dandl – the top-seeded starter after her UCI World Championships silver medal in 2022 – and Germany’s 2023 National Champion Lara Füller.
Their main competitors are last year’s bronze medallist Alessa Hotz (Switzerland - Baar) and fourth-placed Lorena Schneider, from Höchst in Austria. Both have once again won their respective national titles and each have earned their qualification for the UCI Cycling World Championships in commanding manner.
Pair Women: Germany back to defend their title
The new German Champions Antonia Bärk and Laura Bruder will stay at home due to the citizenship of Bruder, who used to represent Switzerland.
The reigning UCI World Champions, Helen Vordermeier and Selina Marquardt (Oberjesingen/Stuttgart), had to settle for third place at the nationals but had already secured their Worlds ticket.
Look out as well for Austria (Rosa Kopf/ Svenja Bachmann - Sulz) who, with their new routine, they are on a par with the Germans. After winning four successive bronze medals at the UCI World Championships, the young Austrians are now striving for a different colour medal.