The UCI has announced the postponement of the 2020 Mountain Bike Cross Country World Championships due to a coronavirus outbreak. The World Championships were scheduled to take place in Albstadt, Germany, from June 25-28, but have been postponed due to restrictions on sporting events and public gatherings in Germany. [The UCI fully supports the decision of the City of Albstadt, the German Cycling Federation (BDR) and the State of Baden-Württemberg. In view of the sanitary situation in Europe and worldwide, hosting the annual flagship of this discipline could have been detrimental to the health of the riders, event officials, and fans," it said in a statement on Friday.

This year's World Championships, originally scheduled to take place in early June to avoid a conflict with the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, has been postponed until 2021.

The UCI added that it will work to get the World Championships on a revised calendar to be held later in the season, noting that it will take precedence over all other competitions in the discipline.

"In accordance with the decision on non-road disciplines announced on March 20 in relation to the coronavirus, the UCI stresses that the UCI World Championships will be given priority within the framework of the revised UCI International Calendar with a view to resuming the 2020 season," the statement said.

So far, a total of nine UCI Mountain Bike World Cup competitions in cross-country, downhill, and eliminator disciplines have been postponed or cancelled due to the Covid 19 epidemic.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games were also postponed until 2021, thus removing the center of the current cross-country mountain biking season from the calendar.

Cyclocross world champion Mathieu van der Pol (Alpecin Phoenix) had made the cross-country event in Tokyo his primary target for the 2020 season, as part of the Dutchman's preparation for the Olympics, He also planned to compete for the rainbow jersey in Albstadt.