The 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships in Scotland launches the 23 Million Mile Challenge marking 100 days until the inaugural event

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All cyclists from mountain bike riders to gravel bike riders are being encouraged to tick off the miles through the Love to Ride app ahead of the cycling mega-event

Evie Richards winning the XC World Champs in Italy
Evie Richards celebrating winning the Worlds XC in Val Di Sole in 2021 (Image credit: Paul Brett)

Mark your calendars for August 2023 as Glasgow and other parts of Scotland play host to the first-ever UCI Cycling World Championships. The event will take place over 11 days from the 3rd to the 13th of August, and make history as it combines 13 existing UCI World Championships into one massive event. It will make it the single biggest cycling event in history, with an anticipated global TV audience to rival the Olympics. 

The cycling mega-event will also place Scotland firmly on the world stage and enhance its reputation as a destination for some of the best mountain bike riding, and gravel bikepacking adventures, as well as showcasing the first-class facilities for elite cycling, that includes the iconic and one of the best downhill mountain bike tracks in the world at Fort William.

190 UCI World Champions will be crowned across all cycling genres including BMX Racing, Gran Fondo, Indoor Cycling, Mountain Bike XC, Mountain Bike Downhill, Mountain Bike XC Marathon, Para-cycling Road, Para-cycling Track and Trials.

Bethany Shreiver riding in her rainbow jersey

Bethany Shreiver riding at the Glasgow BMX center which will be a host venue in August (Image credit: Paul Brett)

To celebrate 100 days to go until the inaugural event, the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships has partnered with Love to Ride to launch the 23 Million Mile Challenge. The organizers are challenging everyone to sign up and contribute to their collective target of 23 million miles cycled across the UK ahead of the start of the UCI Cycling World Championships.

To get the mileage total started today, endurance bikepacking rider Jenny Tough and YouTuber Katie Kookaburra are recreating the first-ever bicycle ride undertaken by Scottish inventor Kirkpatrick Macmillan on his treadle bicycle in 1842. The pair started the journey from The Crichton in Dumfries and will cycle 94 miles towards Glasgow, passing through Burnhead, Sanquhar, Cumnock and along The Sir Chris Hoy Cycle Way.

Once in Glasgow, they will be joined by eleven-time UCI Track World Champion and six-time Olympic Champion Sir Chris Hoy, and nineteen-time UCI Para-cycling World Champion and eight-time Paralympic Champion Jody Cundy passing some of the host venues on their way to the finish in George Square.

Jenny Tough and Katie Kookaburra promoting the UCI world champs 2023

Jenny Tough and Katie Kookaburra are recreating the first-ever bicycle ride in 1842 (Image credit: 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships)

Any one wishing to join the 23 Million Mile Challenge can sign up from today at lovetoride.net and all the details for the first-ever UCI Cycling World Championships can be found at cyclingworldchamps.com.

Paul Brett
Paul Brett
Staff writer

Paul Brett joined BikePerfect as a staff writer in 2022. He has been an avid cyclist for as long as he can remember, initially catching the mountain biking bug in the 1990s, and he raced mountain bikes for over a decade before injury cut short a glittering career. An award-winning photographer, when not riding a bike, he can be found at the side of a cyclocross track or a downhill mountain bike world championship shooting the action. Paul was the founder, editor and writer of Proper Cycling magazine, and he's traveled the world interviewing some of the biggest names in mountain biking and writing about some of the biggest cycling brands.

Current rides: Canyon Inflite, Specialized Diverge, Marin Alpine Trail 2