The 2016 UCI Road World Championships took place in Doha, Qatar, in October 2016. The championships was moved from the traditional September to October to avoid extreme hot and blustery weather. The event consisted of a road race, a team time trial and a time trial for elite men and women and a road race and a time trial for men under-23, junior men and junior women. It was the 89th Road World Championships and the first time that Qatar and the Middle East hosted the championships.
In August 2016 the AIGCP approved a motion for all UCI WorldTeams to boycott the time trial event, due to the UCI insisting that WorldTeams should compete in the event as a requirement of granting a WorldTeam licence without providing a participation allowance to teams, as is the case with other UCI World Tour races. It was reported that the UCI Professional Continental teams attending the AIGCP General Assembly also supported the motion. The UCI expressed disappointment with the move and stated that it "continued to expect excellent participation in this year's UCI Road World Championships Team Time Trial".
Schedule
All times are in .
Courses
The races primarily started and finished in the capital city ofDoha, the home base for the Tour of Qatar. The initial plans were to have a flat time trial circuit, with the men riding it four times, and a larger flat circuit of around for the road race. However, UCI sport and technical directorPhilippe Chevallier stated in June 2013 that the courses did not meet the requirements for a world championship and it had been decided to construct a hilly purpose-built course, like had been done for the 1980 Summer Olympics. Despite this, in February 2014 Sheikh Khalid Bin Ali Al Thani, the president of the Qatar Cycling Federation, said that the organisers would not create a purpose-built course for the World Championships due to a lack of time. The route for the Worlds road races was presented in February 2015, which was made up of a loop of through the desert and a finishing circuit in Doha city centre, including of cobblestones. The finishing circuit of on The Pearl-Qatar was used for a stage of February's Tour of Qatar: riders noted that the course was highly technical, going through 24 roundabouts, with stage winner Alexander Kristoff comparing it to a criterium. However it was also noted that the lack of long straight sections meant that the effect of the crosswinds frequently occurring in Qatar would be significantly lessened, reducing the race's unpredictability. Subsequently, in August 2016 it was reported that the UCI had made changes to the course, increasing the amount of riding through the desert to and reducing the number of laps of the finishing circuit from eleven down to seven. The start of the men's race was also moved to the Aspire Zone, with the riders heading out northwards towards Al Khor and returning to Doha. The women started from the Qatar Foundation in Education City, and completed seven laps of the finishing circuit, with a total race distance of.
