World Cycling Championships in Scotland: Right in the middle of the mega event

Maike Hausberger has to take a deep breath. It's only a small step - and yet a significant one. And a moving one, you can see that in her face. Up to the top step of the podium. A small thing compared to the power with which the 28-year-old from Cottbus had previously left the entire field behind her in the Scratch track competition. She has already won five world championship gold medals on the road during her cycling career. But this moment has more significance than her previous titles - and not just because it is her first gold in a track competition. "It was very emotional. I've never experienced anything like it. It was unbelievably beautiful," she says a little later. And she is referring above all to the atmosphere on the world championship cycling track in Glasgow, in the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, where 4000 spectators gave the cyclists a real boost every day. Para-cyclists like Hausberger are not used to such an audience, such enthusiasm at world championships.

World Cycling Championships in a new guise

It is the first World Championships where almost all cycling disciplines will be competing to determine the world's best, road and track cyclists, mountain bikers, BMX and trail riders, artistic cyclists and cycle ballers, with and without handicaps - sometimes in a very confined space. "Biggest cycling event ever" is written on many posters in Glasgow - the biggest cycling event of all time. And nowhere is the new unity of the cycling disciplines more visible than in the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, where Olympic and Paralympic cyclists are staging their world championships under one roof. Together for the first time. "We have the same value as the Olympic athletes. We were integrated," emphasises Hausberger, who ended up being the most successful German cyclist at these World Championships - with two gold and three bronze medals.

While Hausberger listens to the German song on the top step of the podium with wet eyes, Lotte Kopecky and Jeffrey Hoogland rise from their chairs in front of the podium - the Belgian super all-rounder and the Dutch track sprinter have to wait for their medals. First it's the turn of the para-cyclists. This is new, that the best of both disciplines share, are allowed to share or have to share the big cycling world championship stage. Depending on how you look at it. Even the most prominent cyclists will have to wait, while those who have mostly had to compete in the shadows, a little away from the big cycling stage, will be honoured. Kopecky and Hausberger have very different careers - yet they have a lot in common.

World Cycling Championships 2023: Special moments in Glasgow

Hausberger has always had to struggle more than others. She has been partially paralysed in the lower half of her body since birth, following a stroke while still in the womb. The starting disadvantage never stopped the girl at home in Trier - sport has always been an important part of her life. She has already competed in athletics at the Paralympics. She later discovered cycling for herself. Her ambition, her determination to become the world's best cyclist in her handicap class C2, connects her with the bite of Lotte Kopecky, who in the days of Glasgow became the most prominent face of the first multi-discipline world championships in cycling history - with world champion titles on the track and in the most important competition: with the bite of a cheetah hunting antelopes, she chased up Montrose Street in a cradle pedal - the last climb in the road race. Only the finish line ahead of her, gold and rainbow jersey as spoils, all her opponents already behind her. It was the crowning glory on the final day of these World Championships - a few kilometres from the velodrome. And the provisional crowning of a cycling career - the first title for Belgium in the women's road race for 50 years.

>> World Cycling Championships 2023: All world champions on the road

While other all-rounders among the professional road cyclists such as Tom Pidcock or Mathieu van der Poel prioritised winning the title on the mountain bike or in the road race, Kopecky tried her hand at being a frequent starter - successfully. She took home three gold medals and a bronze medal from Glasgow: In future, she can wear a rainbow jersey in the road race as well as on the track in the elimination and points race competitions, plus bronze in the omnium track eventing competition. Four starts in two disciplines, four medals. Not much more is possible. "Without the track, I wouldn't be the cyclist I am today," said Kopecky, after she had also won bronze in the omnium in a thrilling finish after winning gold in the points race.

A Cycling Super World Championship with a future

The Belgian loves the new World Championship concept: "I really like it. Now I have a season highlight that combines both. Otherwise the season would be extended into October for the track world championships - that would make it mentally more difficult for me. And it didn't bother me that the para-athletes were also there," she says. Others found the new common ground a bit cramped - along the lines of: "The hall is full - even without para-cyclists. But if the UCI is anything to go by, they are diehards. Because there will be no going back. The Super World Championship format is to be held every four years in future. Even if the crowds and the tight schedule in the velodrome had advantages and disadvantages. Less space, but more attention for everyone, more common ground. "We got to know each other much better," says Hausberger, who also rode to her medals with a chainring borrowed from a BDR mechanic. Unlike internationally, track cyclists in Germany are organised in separate federations: The Olympic cyclists in the BDR Cycling Federation, the Paralympic cyclists in the German Disabled Sports Federation (DBS).

The athletes celebrate together, but without fans at the medal ceremony. "It's a shame that the award ceremonies take place without an audience in the hall next door," says Chris Hoy, the six-time Olympic champion and British cycling hero after whom the cycling track in Glasgow is named and who commentated on the track competitions for the British TV channel BBC. "Sports Hall 1 & 2" is written on the sign at the entrance - a gymnasium containing the national teams' boxes with all the track equipment - in front of which is the stage for the award ceremony. It has the flair of a garage. But the TV viewers don't see that, nor does the usher who ushers the athletes onto the stage - bronze, silver, gold, a rainbow jersey, a cuddly toy, national anthem. Emotions on the conveyor belt - almost without a break. The award ceremonies take place largely in private. Friends, family and team supporters applaud. While for many track cyclists the Glasgow velodrome is just a stopover on the way to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, the door to the Olympics remains closed for some. This is because inclusion is limited - especially at the Olympic Games.

Growing together among athletes - that was the Glasgow 2023 World Cycling Championships

Despite winning World Championship titles, Maike Hausberger was denied a ticket to Tokyo two years ago. The reason: Hausberger competes in the C2 handicap class. At the Paralympics, handicap classes are merged - which were actually separated to equalise losses. Nonsensical. Hausberger has to take a back seat to athletes with lower disabilities - who are naturally more capable. The stage at the Olympics is probably not big enough for everyone. The International Olympic Committee wants the handicapped athletes to be there - somehow, but somehow not.

All the more reason for athletes from niche disciplines to celebrate their appearance at the first major joint cycling world championships. Michael Teuber has experienced a lot - as a para-cyclist, he has competed in 16 world championships on the road and ten on the track. In Scotland, he focussed entirely on the road disciplines, successfully: he won his world championship medals number 37 and 38. Even if the great atmosphere of the velodrome in Glasgow was missing during the para-road competitions far out in Dumfries in the south of Scotland, the experienced rider Teuber was very satisfied: "Super race tracks on the road. Complete integration of the competitions on the track. The UCI is an association that does this in an exemplary manner." Inclusion works in cycling. And it has a future.

Next year there will be the Road World Championships in Zurich - together with elite professionals and para-cyclists. "2023 and 2024 - these are two milestones for para-cycling," emphasises Teuber. Things are going well in para-cycling. Teuber continues to collect medals. In the other disciplines, they will have to wait longer: the next major UCI World Championships with almost all competitions will not take place again until 2027 - then in the French department of Haute Savoie.