Having long had Elite European BMX, Track and Mountain Bike Championships on their calendar, the European Cycling Union have decided to expand their programme by adding a cyclo-cross, road race and time trial. While the off-road competition will be held for the first time in 2015, the road events will be launched in 2016.

In many sports, the European Championships play a prominent role as one of the major events on the calendar but in that regard, cycling has always been different. While the youth categories have long had a chance to battle for the honour of being the best in Europe in the road and cyclo-cross disciplines, the elite riders have only had their chance to go for glory on the track or in BMX or mountain bike.

That is set to change in the future as the European Cycling Union has announced that it will now host cyclo-cross and road championships at the elite level. During its last meeting of the Management Committee, held last Saturday in Hoogerheide (The Netherlands), the International Cycling Union unanimously approved the creation of an Elite Category of the European Cyclo-Cross Championships, the first edition of which will take place in 2015, and for the Road, which will be launched in 2016. The Road European Championships will award the most prestigious titles in the Road race and Time Trial events.

“On behalf of the European Cycling Union, I would like to thank the UCI President, Mr Brian Cookson, and all the Members of the Management Committee of the International Cycling Union for their trust," European Cycling Union president David Lappartient said. "From tomorrow, we will be working in close cooperation with the UCI to create these two events. This marks a great victory that will enable us to cover all the titles at stake in the Olympic and World disciplines. The Elite Category of the Road and Cyclo-Cross events now joins the existing Track, Mountain Bike and BMX events and will prove to be a great success in terms of image ".

The press release doesn't say anything about when the races will be held and how they will fit into an already stacked calendar.