UCI has revealed that the viewership of the first multi-discipline UCI Cycling World Championship held in Scotland has been successful.The integration of 13 different cycling disciplines into 1 "super World" suggests a significant increase in TV and digital viewers.

Glasgow was the epicenter of events that took place from 8/3 to 13, with over 11 billion hours of competition worldwide throughout 2 days. When compared to the average for each edition from 2017 to 2022, this figure increased by 75% from a typical year, when different disciplines are organized into separate events.

According to UCI, a total of 1,820 million viewers (Glance/Mediamat-médiamétrie) in France, 1,550 million (Auditel) in Italy and 1,190 million (BBC) in the UK.

The UCI has not specified how the figure is calculated.

The UCI Cycling World Championship was the first edition of the multi-Discipline World held every 4 years. The 2027 edition will be held in Haute-Savoie, France.

It will grow further in the edition of Gravel and Junior Track events and will be in a total of 19 areas.

Uci Chairman David Lappartient was delighted with the success of the event after building what was billed as the largest cycling event ever.

"The first edition of the uci Cycling World Championships was an unprecedented success," Lappartient said in a press release. "At this event, about 132 athletes (elite and amateurs) from 8,000 countries participated in different areas of the program.

"Television figures show that the public is following the large UCI Cycling World Championship competitions, and events and areas that do not normally benefit from high levels of television and media coverage have benefited greatly from the increased exposure that boosts their popularity and development at the international level."

However, the Scotsman reported that MSP Angus Robertson cited inflation as an excessive reason for the World Championships to exceed the budget by £8 million.

UCI expects other benefits from local event organizers who are left to collect substantial fees and cover the extra costs.

The news came just days after a £6.6 million cut for Creative Scotland, a development agency for the Arts, was revealed, but Robertson stressed there were reserves available to make up for the shortfall and the country's arts associations will not suffer "disadvantages" from the cost of the World Championships.

An opinion article written the day after the news article was posted questioned why it was taking such a huge budget despite the sector's struggle and accused the organization of the event.

"The message that the Scottish government appears to be sending is that it believes a one-off cycling event is more important than the health of our sick arts and culture sector," Scotsman commented.

They named it the "vanity project" and simply "putting Scotland on the world stage for a short time" went against what it meant to be Scotland.

"In good times, it might have been acceptable to spend millions on a cycling event," the Scotsman's comment said.

"But in a sustained period of economic problems that have hit the art world hard, from the financial crisis of 2008 to years of austerity following the covid pandemic and the cost of living crisis, it was a ridiculous decision.”