It's not often your school is front and centre of a global cycling spectacle but St Mary's Star of the Sea College in Harbour Street, Wollongong, plans to make the most of it.
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The UCI World Road Championships will pretty much start and finish at the school gates when Wollongong's streets are taken over by 1000 competitors and 300,000 spectators in September 2022.
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"Given that we occupy prime real estate in terms of the race we are thinking about ways we make that available to our students and staff. Hopefully it will encourage generations of the future to take up cycling," said Principle Tony Fitzgerald.
The school already has a cycling star in its midst. Year 10 student Poppy Pollock is the Australian national downhill champion.
She said she was looking forward to the event showcasing Wollongong and hoped it inspired her schoolmates to jump on a bike.
The school plans to close early for the September school holidays to minimise issues with school drop off and pick up during a time.
"We decided to change our whole calendar because the race is on what would have been the last week of our term 3 and its just not practical to be here given the size of the event. We are committed to supporting the competition. We think of ourselves as being very much part of the Wollongong community and we have a strong sense of citizenship," Mr Fitzgerald added.
A $5 million funding commitment was made by Minister for Sport, Richard Colbeck to help boost the event's international profile with more than 300 million expected to watch the race around the world.
Below is a list of indicative road closures during the eight-day event.
Saturday 17 September: Training, road closures tbc
Sunday 18 September: Women Elite Time Trial Men Elite Time Trial, road closures from 8:00am to 6:00pm
Monday 19 September: Men Under 23 Time Trial, road closures from 12:00pm to 6:00pm
Tuesday 20 September: Women Junior Time Trial Men Junior Time Trial, road closures from 8:00am to 6:00pm
Wednesday 21 September: Team Time Trial mixed relay, road closures from 1:00pm to 6:00pm
Thursday 22 September: Training, road closures tbc
Friday 23 September: Men Junior Road Race Men U23 Road Race, road closures from 7:30am to 6:00pm
Saturday 24 September: Women Junior Road Race Women Elite Road Race, road closures from 7:30am to 6:30pm
Sunday 25 September: Men Elite Road Race, road closures from 8:30am to 6:00pm
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