The 2024 UCI Gran Fondo World Series is headed to a thrilling culmination with the 2024 UCI Gran Fondo World Championships to be held in Aalborg, Denmark, from 29 August to 1st September.
It is the second time that thousands of amateurs from around the globe will descend on Aalborg: the Danish city also hosted the first edition in 2015.
Editions have also been held in Australia (Perth 2016), France (Albi 2017), Italy (Varese 2018 and Trento 2022), Poland (Poznań 2019), Bosnia Herzegovina (Banja Luka 2021) and Scotland, Great Britain (Glasgow 2023). The event is set to return to Australia next year, in the spectacular setting of the Great Ocean Road, before discovering Japan (Niseko 2026) and returning to France, as part of the 2027 UCI Cycling World Championships in Haute-Savoie.
The participation record was set in 2018, with 3,175 riders from 60 countries battling for the rainbow jerseys. French icon Jeannie Longo was among the riders crowned in that edition, as was Molly Shaffer Van Houweling (USA), a former holder of the UCI Hour Record timed by Tissot.
More than 3,200 participants
A similar mix of former top-end champions and ambitious amateurs from all sorts of backgrounds is set to battle in Aalborg: more than 3,200 riders representing over 70 nations are registered.
They earned their tickets for the rainbow battles through the 28 qualifying events held around the world as part of the 2024 UCI Gran Fondo World Series, from Italy’s GF Matidilca to Great Britain’s Gran Fondo Isle of Man, and including events in Australia, Indonesia, Brazil, Jordan, Cyprus, Croatia, the USA, Costa Rica…
At each event, the fastest 25% of finishers in the different age groups were granted a spot at the UCI Worlds. Belgium, Denmark and Germany will have the most representatives at the start.
Following the tracks of Vingegaard, Norsgaard, Asgreen…
After the 2023 UCI Gran Fondo World Championships, with short ascents, favouring explosive riders, the 2024 edition is set on flat roads, Nevertheless, the area through Aalborg and the Jutland is very much associated with one of the best climbers in the world.
This is where Jonas Vingegaard developed his abilities as a young rider. “Of course, there is no mountain but it’s a little bit hilly and then it’s just sand and grass,” the Danish winner of the Tour de France recalled in an interview a couple of years ago. “I really like it there.”
The elevation is up to 1,326 metres over 152.9km for the Gran Fondo distance (tackled by women in the age groups 19-49 and men 19-59). And there are 960 metres of elevation over a course of 114.4km for the Medio Fondo (women 50+ and men 60+). All categories will take on these courses on Sunday 1st September.
In the run-up to the Gran and Medio Fondos, the individual time trials (ITT) on Thursday 29 August will be raced on a 33.3km flat and scenic course (127m of elevation), on the Limfjord, that has crowned some of Denmark’s most powerful riders in the 2022 and 2023 ITT National Championships: Emma Norsgaard won the women’s event on both occasions. Her brother Mathias Norsgaard also claimed victory in 2022 and Kasper Asgreen succeeded him in 2023.
Rainbow relay
The UCI Gran Fondo World Championships will develop further in 2024 as the team relay (held on Friday 30 August) becomes an official event for the first time, with rainbow jerseys and medals for the best. In Aalborg, each rider of the four-rider teams (comprising at least one woman and at least one man, and a variety of age groups) will complete three laps of a city-centre 2,2km circuit, before passing the relay to the next rider of the team.