SEPTEMBER 25 - CHAMPERY in Switzerland and Krasnaya Pakhra in Russia have today been awarded major cycling events in the build-up to London 2012 by the International Cycling Union (UCI).

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Champery, a ski resort located between Lake Geneva and the Mont Blanc, 90 minutes, from Geneva Airport  has been awarded the 2011 World Championships for mountain bike and trial.

 

Krasnaya Pakhra, which is in the Moscow region and mentioned in War and Peace, has won its bid to host the BMX World Championships in the same year, an event where Britain's Shanaze Reade should be among the favourites for a gold medal.

 

Mountain biking’s biggest annual race heads to Canberra for 2009 and Mont-Ste-Anne, Quebec in 2010 while the BMX World Championships in 2009 and 2010 will be held in Adelaide and Pietermartzburg in South Africa respectively.

 

But the decision by the UCI to award the 2011 event to Champery upset the Italian candidate Veneto-Dolomiti.

 

An official said: "It's only a political selection.

 

"We have presented such a good, amazing and interesting proposal, but [UCI] President [Pat] McQuaid said that Switzerland didn't organise a World Championships since 2000 and this is one of the element considered for the final decision."