While success in modern pro cycling requires an immense amount of work and planning, acting on the spur of the moment goes a long way too.

Powered by such spontaneity, Tom Pidcock stunned himself last Sunday.

After winning the MTB XCO World Championships in come-from-behind fashion at Val di Sole, the GP Industria & Artigianato one-day road race was hastily added to his schedule impromptu while he was barely off his flat-bar steed.

He went there to find his road legs, two months after his last hit-out on the tarmac, and left with another trophy in his carry-on luggage.

“That was kind of a surprise win. The momentum is nice, but I’ll take what comes. I’m just relaxed,” he told Cycling Weekly and other media in Québec on Wednesday night.

His back-to-back successes came despite a “hard road” from the Tour de France to his latest rainbow jersey.

“After the Tour, it was a bit weird feelings in general. I didn’t rush, I didn’t push myself, I trained hard the last few weeks before the MTB Worlds,” the Pinarello-Q36.5 rider said. “It took me a long time to feel good again. Longer than any other grand tour [has before]. It was three weeks really, we were just trying to build up some hours at a lower intensity.”

Making his debut in the brace of Canadian WorldTour events, Friday’s GP de Québec on Friday and GP de Montréal on Sunday provide opportunities to “carry on the momentum”. They are a puncheur’s paradise, defined by steep climbs that do not exceed two kilometres.

Pidcock will also have a valuable chance to race the lap on which the World Championships road race (27 September) will be decided by 12 circuits over Mont Royal, 1.6 kilometres at 7.7% gradient.

“It’s more of a goal,” Pidcock said of the World Championships. “Last year’s course didn’t suit me that well, this one suits me quite well. The Worlds is always going to be about [who has] the legs.”

The eight-strong Great Britain elite men’s line-up is yet to be announced, but Pidcock offered a sneak peek of the leading compatriots alongside him.

“We’ve been hit quite hard with people getting injured so I don’t know what the final team will be,” Pidcock said. “But I think we’ll have me, Adam [Yates] and Oscar [Onley], we have some pretty nice depth there, people who can play offensive roles.”

Relaxed and riding a wave of confidence; spearheading a strong team on a course that plays to his strengths; racing in a Tadej Pogačar-free peloton – this might just be Pidcock’s best chance of winning an elite road rainbow jersey.

“It opens the race up a lot,” he said of Pogačar’s absence. “I think everyone knows when Tadej is here, he and his team will dictate the race. Now I think it will be more, dare I say it, interesting, exciting.”

Although Pidcock has won five races on the road in 2026, despite missing several weeks of competition after a crash into a ravine at the Volta a Catalunya, he is not satisfied with his season.

“It would be nice to win a WorldTour race,” he said. “This season started well, then it was a bit crap in the middle. The Tour was good considering everything, but still I didn’t do that much. I want to try to finish the year off [well].”

Racing on the front foot in France at times, Pidcock came close to a stage win at the sport’s most prestigious race, his chances dented on stage nine by mechanical problems, and finished ninth overall.

His attacking, opportunistic nature can seem at odds with a GC contender’s need to weigh efforts carefully and race conservatively over three weeks. Grand tours do not strike as his most natural domain.

“It’s not the thing I enjoy the most, but it’s something I accept I need to do and try and do my best in,” Pidcock said. “I really enjoyed the Vuelta last year [where he finished third], that was good fun. The Tour was obviously a different beast, but this year was better, more enjoyable.”

The Briton’s road programme goes full bore to the end of the year, with the Giro dell’Emilia, Tre Valli Varesine and Il Lombardia before a planned Tour of Guangxi debut.

“We have team camp the week after Il Lombardia, so otherwise I’m going to have a week that I can’t do anything so might as well race that week!”

Whatever happens in Canada, another world title seems certain for a British champion who gives himself options because of his aplomb in road, MTB, gravel and cyclo-cross.

While there will be no trip to Australia next month for the Gravel World Championships, Pidcock mentioned wanting to go for that race when it suits him better.

Although he does not think he’ll compete in cyclo-cross this winter, Pidcock added he “thinks he would” come back to the discipline if it got a place in the Winter Olympics.

Given the IOC’s May announcement that it will not be in the 2030 Games, he and CX fans will likely be in for a minimum eight-year wait.

“Project Canada”, as he dubbed it on Strava during training, is go for Remco Evenepoel.

In the absence of Tadej Pogačar, the Belgian superstar is the man to beat. He could make history later this month in Montréal by becoming the first elite male rider to win the World Championships time trial and road race in the same year.

First, he wants to add Friday’s Grand Prix de Québec and Sunday’s Grand Prix de Montréal to his packed palmarès. He has crossed the Atlantic looking lean and keen, adapting himself more for the short, sharp hills which characterise the one-day races.

“I think it’s clear you need to have a bit more explosiveness for them, so we wanted that. We’ve trained a bit more on the sprint,” he said, speaking to the media on Wednesday night in Québec, a light blue cap worn backwards on his head.

Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe’s leader has not raced since winning the Clásica de San Sebastián on 1 August, spending three and a half weeks at altitude in the Italian town of Livigno. Only coming down from his lofty preparation perch a few days ago, Evenepoel is unsure how his body will react.

“He [coach Tim Heemskerk] told me I shouldn’t panic if one of these races doesn’t go so good,” he said.

“It’s always a bit different, harder to manage the fatigue and sessions [after altitude], but in general, everything went well. There’s still a bit of time, more than two weeks, to be in the best possible form for the World Championships.”

The absence of Tadej Pogačar, recovering from the broken collarbone sustained at the Vuelta a España, will give the Canadian events a different flavour.

“I’ve been there too; in 2020, I was in good form, I won everything and then I missed the start of the Worlds [after a serious crash in Il Lombardia], and then someone else takes it,” he said.

“It changes the race a lot, but that’s how it is now. You have to take your chance and push for victory. When Tadej is there, everyone wants to defend or just follow him. It’s not easy. You need to come up with new tactics.”

Competing in the GP de Québec and GP de Montréal double-header for the first time since 2019, he is keen to find his “best legs and best sensations” in a return to competition.

Evenepoel stressed that the WorldTour one-day races are more than mere amuse-bouches for the rainbow jersey main courses. “I’m coming in with a lot of ambition: these are races I’ve never won and I’d like to add them to my palmarès,” he said, adding later: “Why not win them both?”

You can hardly blame Evenepoel for feeling confident. As well as quietening a few naysayers, second place to Pogačar at the Tour de France reinforced his ambitions to add the sport’s blue riband race and the Giro d’Italia to his stuffed palmarès.

“I think I proved to myself and also to everyone else – I’ve won the Vuelta, been on the Tour podium twice. The results are there – I’ve got a future in the grand tours.

“I always believed that, I think there were some who didn’t. That gave me a lot of motivation for the Tour with a very specific, very precise preparation without a lot of racing … the dream to win the three grand tours is still there.”

Evenepoel is the original 2020s prodigy, a young force of nature who has lived up to the hype created when he swept through junior races like the second coming of Eddy Merckx.

Given he went straight from competing against 17-year-olds to beating adult pros for Quick Step as a teenager, he could see the irony of being asked about Michael Matthews’ assertion that riders turn pro in the WorldTour too young.

“It’s not down to me to say because I was one of the first to go straight from the junior ranks,” he said, smiling. “There are a lot who turn pro with zero junior wins, or one or two races. Me, I won 37 or 38 out of 45 … it’s true that young riders turn pro a lot quicker than before. But they already live like pros with their nutrition, training, the power meter – they’re a lot more prepared than I was back in the day. I didn’t have a power meter or nutritionist, it was really done by feel.”

“I think that’s a bit problematic now because when they get to the pro ranks, that’s when the sacrifices really need to be made. And after some years, we see some young riders cracking mentally because they don’t know how to make those sacrifices anymore.”

There will be plenty of sacrifices made in the World Championships road race in Montréal, with Belgian teammates burying themselves for their captain.

Visma-Lease a Bike rider Wout van Aert has also been selected, offering a potential Plan B. The squad will need to be united and well-drilled as other nations may will look to expose any weaknesses.

“He’s found good form at the right moment, it’s also a while until the road race so he has to keep it,” Evenepoel said of his compatriot, who has two Vuelta stage wins. “But I think he has the experience to handle that period between the Vuelta and the World Championships road race. It’s nice to see he’s ready.”

If you want to win a bike race, you'll need a few things. Good legs, most importantly, but among the rest, good luck also ranks high up the list. Some riders seem to have no end of it, and until a week ago you would probably have counted Tadej Pogačar among them. The UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider was not exactly immune to crashing (remember his broken wrist at Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2023?), but his Grand Tours have generally been untroubled by major upsets.

That run ended last month on stage eight of the Vuelta a España when Pogačar crashed heavily, taken out by a stone while drinking from a bidon on an otherwise innocuous piece of road. The toll was heavy: broken collarbone, concussion, multiple abrasions and a cervical fracture – all of which saw him leave the race, and, at the weekend, announce that his season was over.

“Of course, this isn’t the way I wanted my season to finish," said Pogačar in the team announcement. "Right now, the most important thing is to recover properly and give my body the time it needs. It has been a season with many special moments and I’m proud of what we achieved together. Now I’ll focus on getting healthy, supporting the guys from home, and coming back next year ready for what’s ahead.”

It's an announcement that puts to bed any thoughts of the Slovenian expediting his recovery to line up at the UCI Road World Championships in Montreal, Canada later this month.

Let's be clear – a great champion having to miss a race through injury never increases its value, it only detracts. There isn't a rider on the Worlds start list (or currently riding the Vuelta), who would wish a bad crash upon Pogačar in order to help their own chances of winning. When Movistar's Enric Mas took over the lead of the Spanish tour after Pogačar's exit, he did so very reluctantly. He would of course have preferred to have earned it fair and square.

But bike racing is messy at times, and crashing is part of it. Pogačar's absence has, without a doubt, opened up the Vuelta, and it's opened up the Worlds. There is now a sizeable list of riders feeling as though their chance of securing gold in the men's road race on September 27 has bettered – even if it's not a situation they would have chosen beforehand.

It's a classic Worlds course. Long (273km long) and attritional, featuring 12 laps of a hilly 13.4km city-centre loop, and a final tally of 3,803m of vertical ascent. Brutal – and just the sort of parcours that Tour of Flanders, Il Lombardia, Strade Bianche and Liège-Bastogne-Liège winner Pogačar would have revelled in.

But without the big favourite there, we have a phalanx of hopefuls for whom the dream just became a bit more real.

At the top of the tree is surely 2023 champion Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) who, on a course like this, could have been considered right behind Pogačar on the favourites list. There's also Remco Evenepoel (Belgium), second in the Tour de France this year and another former winner. Then there are wunderkinds Paul Seixas (France) and Isaac Del Toro (Mexico) – the latter of whom will be contending for his nation's first ever win in the race. Double Vuelta stage winner Wout van Aert (Belgium) will also be lining up next to his compatriot Evenepoel, while new mountain bike cross-country world champion Tom Pidcock will be hoping to add a second concurrent title to his palmarès.

Who will win? Who knows. At least not now. Van der Poel and Evenepoel might readily carry the 'favourites' tag with Pogačar out of the picture, but a distance of 270-plus kilometres, plus all that climbing, tends to lead to an all-bets-off kind of scenario. It may even be none of the above, and that is perhaps what is exciting about this year's Worlds – there's no clear favourite.

As arguably the best rider in the history of bike racing, Pogačar will undoubtedly have his day again next season, and we wish him the best with that. For now though, as he sits this one out, a level of unpredictability has been injected into the race that wasn't there before. Let's enjoy it.

USA Cycling today announced the team that’ll vie for the rainbow stripes in Montreal, Canada, later this month.

U.S. road race champion Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) and Olympic champion Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Oatly) will lead the elite squads, with former mountain bike world champion Kate Courtney (FDJ United-Suez) making her UCI Road World Championships debut.

Taking place 20-27 September, 39 U.S. riders will compete across the elite, under-23 and junior road races and time trials.

Simmons, the 2019 junior road world champion, will be joined by fellow WorldTour riders Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Sean Quinn (EF Education - EasyPost), Kevin Vermaerke (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) and Artem Shmidt (Netcompany INEOS). Shmidt earned places in both the road race and individual time trial after winning the 2026 elite national time trial title. Larry Warbasse of Tudor Pro Cycling Team rounds out the men's elite roster.

While Simmons will lead the team, McNulty is another rider to watch. Last season, the Arizona native won the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal ahead of teammate Tadej Pogačar, completing a historic one-two on roads that will also feature in the Worlds course.

Faulkner will race both the elite women’s road race and time trial. She won two gold medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics – one in the road race and another with the U.S. team-pursuit squad – and will be a threat in a breakaway as well as in the race against the clock. The course, however, may be better suited to Kate Courtney.

Courtney will make her Road World Championships debut after winning the 2026 U.S. road title, though she's best-known for her mountain bike career. She won the elite cross-country world championship in 2018, the UCI World Cup overall title in 2019 and the marathon world championship in 2025. She made a switch to the road in 2026 and, in July, made a surprise announcement about joining top-tier road team FDJ United-Suez, bringing longtime sponsor Red Bull along for the move.

Taylor Knibb, a two-time Olympic triathlete and U.S. national time trial champion, will also make her road worlds debut in Montreal, albeit in the time trial. Knibb won an Olympic silver medal in the triathlon mixed relay in Tokyo and competed in both the time trial and triathlon at the Paris Games.

The women’s roster also includes Alexis Magner (EF-Oatly-Cannondale), Natalie Quinn (Mayenne Pro Cycling), national gravel champion Lauren Stephens (Aegis X Leaders of Enchantment) and Grace Arlandson (Aegis X Leaders of Enchantment).

USA Cycling’s development selections are led by eight 2026 national champions, including Ashlin Barry (Visma - Lease a Bike Development), Kade Kreikemeier (Meridian Racing), Katherine Sarkisov (CCB p/b Levine Law Group Cycling), Kylee Hanel (Aegis X Leaders of Enchantment) and Enzo Hincapie (grenke - Auto Eder).

Team USA at the UCI Road World Championships in Montreal

Elite Men:

• Matteo Jorgenson (Boise, Idaho; Visma | Lease A Bike) – Road Race
• Brandon McNulty (Phoenix, Ariz.; UAE Team Emirates-XRG) – Road Race, Time Trial
• Neilson Powless (Roseville, Calif.; EF Education-EasyPost) – Road Race
• Sean Quinn (Los Angeles, Calif.; EF Education-EasyPost) – Road Race
• Artem Shmidt (Cumming, Ga.; Netcompany INEOS) – Road Race, Time Trial
• Quinn Simmons (Durango, Colo.; Lidl-Trek) – Road Race
• Kevin Vermaerke (Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.; UAE Team Emirates-XRG) – Road Race
• Larry Warbasse (Traverse City, Mich.; Tudor Pro Cycling Team) – Road Race

Elite Women:

• Grace Arlandson (Boulder, Colo.; Aegis X Leaders of Enchantment) – Road Race
• Kate Courtney (Kenfield, Calif.; FDJ United-Suez) – Road Race
• Kristen Faulkner (Homer, Alaska; EF-Oatly-Cannondale) – Road Race, Time Trial
• Taylor Knibb (Boulder, Colo.) – Time Trial
• Alexis Magner (Athens, Ga.; EF-Oatly-Cannondale) – Road Race
• Natalie Quinn (Harrisville, Utah; Mayenne Pro Cycling) – Road Race
• Lauren Stephens (Dallas; Aegis X Leaders of Enchantment) – Road Race

U23 Men:

• Ashlin Barry (Toronto, Ont.; Team Visma | Lease a Bike Development) – Road Race, Time Trial
• Nathan Cusack (Chevy Chase, Md.; EF Education-Aevolo) – Road Race
• Kade Kreikemeier (Fort Collins, Colo.; Meridian Racing) – Road Race, Time Trial
• Marcis Shelton (Mill Valley, Calif.; Comp Edge Rading) – Road Race
• Gavin Sherry (West Hartford, Conn.; EF Education-Aevolo) – Road Race

U23 Women

• Mia Aseltine (Littleton, Colo.; Comp Edge Racing) – Road Race
• Lidia Cusack (Chevy Chase, Md.; Smurfit Westrock Cycling Team) – Road Race, Time Trial
• Kylee Hanel (Portland, Ore.; Aegis X Leaders of Enchantment) – Road Race, Time Trial
• Alyssa Sarkisov (North Potomic, Md.; CCB p/b Levine Law Group Cycling) – Road Race
• Katherine Sarkisov (North Potomic, Md.; CCB p/b Levine Law Group Cycling) – Road Race

Junior Men:

• Kashus Adamski (Bloomfield, Mich.; Hot Tubes Cycling) – Road Race, Time Trial
• Sylvan Garrelts (Brooklyn, N.Y.; Hot Tubes Cycling) – Road Race
• Enzo Hincapie (Greenville, S.C.; grenke - Auto Eder) – Road Race, Time Trial
• Cormac Nagle (Bolton, Mass.; Hot Tubes Cycling) – Road Race
• Rowan Nistal (Boise, Idaho; Bear National Team) – Road Race

Junior Women:

• Liliana Edwards (Washington, D.C.; CCB p/b Levine Law Group Cycling) – Road Race, Time Trial
• Emma Jimenez Palos (Miami, Fla.; City Bikes) – Road Race, Time Trial
• Sofia Tripcevich (Berkeley, Calif.; Team California Academy) – Road Race
• Sophia Wellmeier (Corta Madera, Calif.; Team California Academy) – Road Race

Eighty two minutes. That’s how long Muriel Furrer lay undiscovered off the side of the road after she crashed during the junior women’s road race at the 2024 UCI Road World Championships in Zürich. By the time the 18-year-old was found and given medical assistance, it was too late. She died of a traumatic head injury. We’ll never know if earlier intervention would have prevented the tragic death, but we do know that for almost an hour and a half, the Swiss rider was missing and alone.

Eighteen months on, the investigation into her death has been closed, according to the public prosecutor's office in Zürich. No third-party involvement or "criminally relevant breach of duty" was found. Furrer crashed alone on a descent, unseen, “out of sight of support vehicles, race officials, spectators, and marshals,” the report read. With no tracking equipment employed, and no race radios, there was no immediate sense that anything had gone wrong, until it became clear that it really had.

I was in Zürich that day, covering the World Championships. There was no immediate evidence that anything was wrong. Cat Ferguson won the race on the Thursday, and I interviewed her in the mixed zone afterwards, unaware that on the course, Furrer was fighting for her life. Given the timeframe, it is likely she had not been found at this point. We were informed hours later by the UCI that she was in a critical condition, with little known about the incident. The next day, we were first told that the Worlds would continue as planned, then that she had died.

The rest of the week was strange, as if we were just going through the motions. Nothing mattered once someone had died, but the show went on. Lotte Kopecky and Tadej Pogačar won the blue riband events, on the same course where Furrer crashed days before. What was supposed to be a festival of cycling felt empty; watching fans cheer left me cold.

At a press conference the day after she died, UCI president David Lappartient sidestepped questions on what could have been done differently, and downplayed the idea of race radios in Worlds events. It felt defensive, rather than understanding and sad. A race radio might not have saved Furrer, but who’s to say? Surely everything should be done to give riders support. Last week, Tom Pidcock said his race radio saved him after he crashed off the road at the Volta a Catalunya, something he was lucky to escape from without more serious injuries.

Cycling is a dangerous sport, one in which serious accidents happen. It takes place in the real world, not on closed circuits, and everything from weather to road defects can have an impact. Furrer’s death was more shocking than others, not just because she was so young, but because it took place at the UCI’s biggest event, on a circuit course, with the eyes of the world on it. If this race can’t be safe, what can be?

The investigation essentially concludes that this was a freak accident, which it was, but Furrer is not the only cyclist to die. In the last few years alone, there have been other high-profile incidents, like Gino Mäder’s at the Tour de Suisse, and Andre Dregé’s at the Tour of Austria. Both riders died after crashing on descents.

Some things have changed. The UCI has introduced GPS rider tracking for everyone at the Worlds, but this is yet to expand to all elite races. There has been a lot of fiddling around the edges, with new rules either in practice or floated on things like handlebars, helmets and gear ratios, but nothing revolutionary. Rider airbags have been suggested, but not implemented yet.

Accidents will continue in cycling, serious ones, it is part of the sport, sadly. However, I hope that no rider has to go through something like Furrer did ever again, missing, undiscovered. It might have been a freak accident, but it’s something we can’t let happen again. I hope lessons continue to be learned.

This piece is part of The Leadout, the offering of newsletters from Cycling Weekly and Cyclingnews. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here.

If you want to get in touch with Adam, email adam.becket@futurenet.com.

The investigation into the death of Muriel Furrer at the 2024 UCI Road World Championships in Zürich has been closed by Swiss authorities, it was announced on Monday.

The Swiss junior rider, 18, suffered a serious head injury after crashing in the women's junior road race on 26 September 2024, and died after being airlifted to hospital. She lay undiscovered for approximately 82 minutes after the accident took place, according to authorities.

Eighteen months on, the case has been closed, acccording to the public prosector's office in Zürich. No third-party involvement or "criminally relevant breach of duty" was found.

A press release, published on Monday, reads: "Based on the police investigation, the cyclist's crash is considered a racing accident with no evidence of criminal conduct or contributory negligence on the part of the organiser, other race participants, or third parties. The accident occurred at approximately 11:04am., out of sight of support vehicles, race officials, spectators, and marshals.

"The injured cyclist lay hidden in the undergrowth and was not visible from the road. As was customary at previous editions of this World Cycling Championship, live tracking of all athletes was not used at the event. Therefore, the sudden disappearance of an athlete was not automatically reported. Due to these circumstances, the injured cyclist was not discovered until 12:26pm."

It continues: "According to the investigation, the first emergency responders arrived at the scene of the accident just minutes after the cyclist was found and immediately began providing initial medical care. This was followed by the rescue of the seriously injured cyclist from the undergrowth and preparations for her transport to the hospital.

"No evidence of any criminally relevant breaches of duty was found, either in connection with the time-consuming rescue operation or with the subsequent medical care at the University Hospital Zurich."

The 2024 Road World Championships continued as planned, at Furrer's family's request. In 2025, the UCI retired her dossard number 84 from the starting roster in future junior women's road Worlds. All riders at last year's Worlds raced with GPS trackers.

Furrer finished second in both the junior road race and time trial at Switzerland's national championships in 2024, and finished 44th in the junior time trial at the Worlds that year. It was her second and final year at junior level.

She rode for BIXS Performance Race Team, a Swiss mountain bike squad, and also competed in cyclo-cross, in which she also finished second in the Swiss nationals in 2023/4. Furrer was from Egg, just to the south of Zürich.

"Safety is not so easy, and this is why teams, organisers, and the UCI work together on this, and not to throw potatoes from one side to the other," UCI president David Lappartient said in a press conference after the incident in 2024. "Our common goal is to ensure safer cycling, because otherwise parents will be afraid to send their kids to practise cycling."

We could have all hazarded a guess, but now it has been confirmed that the 2028 Abu Dhabi World Championship will be one for the sprinters.

The construction of an artificial cycling climb at Al Wathba had thrown some off the scent, including Belgian fastman Tim Merlier, who expressed concern that the current generation of sprinters would never get their chance at a rainbow jersey.

But Belgian UCI director Peter van den Abeele this weekend told Belgian outlet Sporza that the sprinters would have their day.

"The flat World Championships are coming," he said. "It will definitely be a sprinters' Worlds."

In fact it will be by decree from the very top: "It was President David Lappartient's request to make it a sprinters' festival. It's been a while since there's been a World Championship for sprinters," Van den Abeele said.

The artificial hill being constructed nearby was for cycle touring purposes, he said, and nothing for riders like Merlier, Jonathan Milan, Jasper Philipsen and Biniam Girmay to worry about.

Merlier had said: “Every generation of sprinters should get at least one real chance at a world title. I fear that chance will never come for me.” And he expressed concern too about the artificial climb which he said could be seen growing bigger every year at the UAE Tour.

It has been nine years since the men's World Championships was won in a big bunch sprint, when Peter Sagan took a third consecutive title on a Bergen course that was far from flat. And it was 10 years ago, in Doha, that the women's Worlds were last decided in the same fashion, when Denmark's Amalie Dideriksen prevailed on a billiard-table-flat Doha course.

Go back 15 years ago or more and flat, sprinters' courses are much more popular. Mark Cavendish took GB's first Worlds win since Tom Simpson in 1965 in Copenhagen, and Giorgia Bronzini won the women's race, also in a bunch sprint. Then there was 2002 on the Zolder motor racing circuit, won by Mario Cipollini, and Spaniard Oscar Freire's sprint victory in Lisbon the year before that – though neither of these events ended in a bunch sprint for the women.

There were 63 men's and Women's WorldTour events in 2025, a whole range of races for exciting things to happen in. The truth is, I'm sure just like me, you don't remember most of them. If I concentrate hard enough, I can remember the Tours de France, and the ones I was at, but there are whole stage races which are a bit of a blur.

Do not worry then, for we're going to talk you through our favourite races of year, from the spectacular to the unexpected – hopefully some of these should jog your memory.

This is the penultimate piece in a series of pieces where we have compiled thoughts from across the CW staff about 2025, after our riders of the year, moments of the year, our alternative riders of the year, our bike rides of the year and our favourite places to ride full stop. Please let us know your thoughts!

Women’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad – Tom Davidson, senior news and features writer

Will they, won’t they? My jaw hit the floor a number of times while watching cycling this year, but none harder than when I realised Lotte Claes and Aurela Nero were going to stay away at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. Neither rider had won a professional race before that March afternoon. Suddenly, each of them had a one-in-two chance of a WorldTour victory, and a key Classic at that.

Yes, the peloton probably miscalculated the chase; yes, there were some frustrated riders at the finish; but let that take nothing away from Arkéa B&B Hotels’ Claes, who wrote her name into legend at the line in Ninove. It would take another three and a half minutes until the group of favourites rolled in. It doesn’t happen often, but I love it when a doomed move pays off.

That race reminded me that, just when you think cycling might be getting predictable, the most dramatic, incredible things can happen.

Men's Dwars door Vlaanderen – Adam Becket, news editor

From a final group of four at Dwars door Vlaanderen in April, three in the yellow of Visma-Lease a Bike, Neilson Powless in pink somehow won. The slumped heads of Tiesj Benoot, Matteo Jorgenson and Wout van Aert said it all as they crossed the line.

No-one could blame them, really, for not understanding what had happened. After 184.2km of hard racing, in which the race-winning move had been set up around 80km from finish by Visma-Lease a Bike, who would have bet against the men in yellow? Van Aert was there, a man who has won bunch sprints of almost every kind, as well as Classics before. However, something weird happened when the Belgian opened up his sprint in Waregem. He just couldn't get up to speed. Powless, sprinting for his life, could, coming around Van Aert and into cycling immortality.

It was a reminder of how mad cycling is sometimes. It's not always predictable.

Men's junior road race at the World Championships – Hannah Bussey, tech writer

The men's junior road race at the World Championships was the biggest standout race for me. Harry Hudson made such an audacious move— got away and then just kept going. The only way that stuck is due to his 100 percent commitment to self-belief.

There is no way you can watch the last two and a half kilometers of that race without getting chills, with tears welling up, and the thought that he might actually do it and become the first British Men's Junior World Champion.

To see the rest of the GB lads still in the mix at the end also feels like a real showcase for the future generation of cyclists coming through the ranks right now.

Despite all the turmoil in the sport and cycling industry, this race was just pure joy to watch, even if it was a little tear-jerking towards the end. It's the happily-ever-after result most cyclists dream of, and it's so amazing to see someone's fairy tale come true.

Paris-Roubaix – Jamie Williams, video manager

Few races can get the heart going like a monument and this year Paris-Roubaix had everything a classic should: early attacks, crosswinds, crashes and a nail biting finale.

I was also extremely pleased to see Mathieu van der Poel come out on top, not because I don’t like Pogacar but rather because it now means he’s going to have to return next year to do it all over again, no one should win Roubaix on their debut!

Strade Bianche – Aaron Borrill, tech writer

It’s lived in the shadows of the older monuments for nearly two decades, but Strade Bianche has become one of the most beautiful races to watch, both for the physical challenge it presents and the sheer scenes it offers viewers. It’s my favourite race on the calendar.

From the glorious Tuscan hills, the sterrato or white gravel roads and epic dust left behind by the peloton or those brave enough to float off the front, there’s never a dull moment. And then you add Tadej Pogačar. It’s pure theatre.

Tour de France – James Shrubsall, senior news and features writer

This season saw me out working at Opening Weekend and at the Tour de France. As any race fan who has stood at the roadside cheering the riders on, or mingled with them around the start and finish areas knows, there's little substitute for that first person experience when it comes to connecting with a race.

Ergo, it will come as no surprise that for me the Tour was easily the most memorable race of the year for me. I wasn't in France for the entire race – only the third week, but from Mont Ventoux to Paris that week was a gift that kept on giving.

Memorable performances from double-winner Thymen Arensman, sprinter Jonathan Milan and Wout van Aert were of course underlined by a history-making GC victory from Tadej Pogacar. Once again, La Grande Boucle had delivered.

The Lloyds Tour of Britain Men – Meg Elliot, news and features writer

This was the first race I went to as a Cycling Weekly employee! It was, I was reliably informed, one of the most well attended the Tour had ever seen. Everyone was out in Geraint Thomas masks to welcome him home on his last professional race.

We watched the peloton form a guard of honour for the Welshman in rainy Newport before the race began, then hot footed it over to Cardiff to chat to people waiting to cheer Thomas across the line. One man I spoke to bought him dinner once after spotting him in a restaurant in Grangetown.

“To come from Maindy as a young lad and then win the Tour de France as well is incredible,” another guy told me, kids in tow.

Milan-San Remo - Matt Ischt-Barnard, ecomm and tech writer

Despite its usual ‘predictable’ finish and pointless first 250-plus kilometres, Milan-San Remo had one of the most iconic finishes the race has ever seen. Thanks yet again to one Tadej Pogačar. His fifth swing at trying to add the monument to his ever-growing list of palmarès, however, again ended in a podium but no cigar.

There is one moment that will live with me forever in this ‘Tadej’ era, though, in which Pogačar himself, Mathieu van der Poel and Filippo Ganna were clear at the top of the Cipressa and racing for the win. It gives me shivers to think about it now.

Let us not forget what Van der Poel did on this day, either, for he will now be forever known in history as the one who denied Tadej again.

As surprise World Championships winners go, there can be few more eyebrow-raising than Canada's new elite champion, Magdeleine Vallieres. The 24-year-old won in Kigali on Saturday after attacking on the final climb and holding off Niamh Fisher-Black and Mavi García to win by 23 seconds.

The longest pre-race odds on Vallieres stretched to 400-1, giving some indication of the strength of her outsider status. Not since part-time racer Anna Kiesenhofer won the road race at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 has a rider so unknown won such a famous event.

And that was relatively recently. In reality, major upsets like this at big events are relatively few and far between.

We looked back through the World Championships record books to spot some of the minnows that won in this particular big pond.

Mads Pedersen (Den)

Harrogate, UK | 2022

These days we know Mads Pedersen well as a sprinter-rouleur who can win everything from early-season Classics to Tour de France bunch sprints. But back in 2019, a 23-year-old Pedersen was a rider very much on the periphery of the WorldTour elite.

His palmarès was far from empty – he had already notched up 11 victories, many of them using what we now understand is his seriously big engine to break away and win solo, or in time trials.

But few had him pinned as the winner on that wet day in Yorkshire at the end of the 2019 season.

After what was described by Cycling Weekly as a "shock victory", the 23-year-old said: "I'm finished with being the underdog."

He wasn't wrong.

Amalie Dideriksen (Den)

Doha, Qatar | 2016

As she lined up for the World Championships at Doha 2016, the then-20-year-old Amalie Dideriksen already knew what it was to be a champion. She had won the Danish national road champs twice already – the first time just a month after turning 18.

The nationals is one thing – but the step up to World Championships level from there is huge. Nobody expected her to run out the victor, seeing off former and future world champions Marianne Vos and Chantal Van den Broek-Blaak and outgunning race favourite Kirsten Wild in the sprint.

Contrary to her compatriot Pedersen though, Dideriksen's victory did not launch a world-beating career, and although she has won a number of races since including the WorldTour Ronde van Drenthe, her results generally continued a similar low-key vein to those pre-rainbow jersey.

Tatiana Guderzo (Ita)

Mendrisio, Switzerland | 2009

Another Marianne Vos-beating outsider was Tatiana Guderzo in 2009. Her outsider status was tempered by the fact she'd won a bronze medal at the previous year's Olympic road race in Beijing, but in 2009 she had only finished higher than fifth in a pro race on one occasion pre-Worlds – a stage win in the Giro della Toscane. The year before, she had scored a single victory, in her national time trial championships.

But Guderzo put her racing nous and climbing ability into action against the world's best, including Vos who, incredibly, had already been world champ once – back in 2006.

Guderzo attacked on the second last climb of the 124km course, and despite Vos's best efforts, hung on for a 19-sec win.

The Italian did not trouble the Worlds podium again for nearly 10 years and it remains the biggest win of her career by some distance. However, in an impressive resurgence she managed two further Worlds bronze medals in 2018 and 2020. She retired at the end of 2022.

Romāns Vainšteins (Lat)

Plouay, France | 2000

If you were looking for a textbook example of the notorious 'curse of the rainbow jersey', you need look no further than Latvia's Romāns Vainšteins. He won the World Championships road race back in 2000, at Plouay, France.

At the end of a 269km course that featured an eye-watering 38 classified climbs, Vainsteins outsprinted the rest of the field, including third-placed defending champion Oscar Freire of Spain, who would go on to win again the following year.

So far so good for Vainsteins. But the bare facts were that the majority of his career wins were already behind him.

The following year he came close in both Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix, but his only victories came on stages of Tirreno-Adriatico and the Volta Catalunya. His next win was two years later – a stage in the Giro della Provincia di Lucca. It was the final one of his career.

Mandy Jones (GBR)

Goodwood, UK | 1982

Britain's Mandy Bishop (née Jones) is often referred to as the 'accidental' world champion. Which is entirely unfair of course, as there was absolutely nothing accidental about her victory at Goodwood in 1982.

She might have been up against a handful of world-class favourites for the win, but Jones herself was no stranger to crossing the line first. She had won the British National Championships road race the year before and only days after her World Championships win at Goodwood went on to win the National Championships time trial.

But with Coors Classic champion – also a four-time US road champ – and future Tour de France Féminin winner Maria Canins of Italy both in tow, Jones was not at the top of most people's contenders lists.

Which is perhaps in part how she managed to escape the front runners with a relatively soft attack as the race crested the final climb and began descending.

However, as her rivals found out, Jones was a handy time triallist as well as a fine climber. Once she was away nobody could catch her.

Lance Armstrong (USA)

Oslo, Norway | 1993

Perhaps there is something in the Belgian water, because of the top 10 youngest riders ever to have won the men's World Championships road race, seven of them have come from this small cycling heartland in northern Europe. Two of them, though, happen to be a pair of rather well known American bike riders.

Greg Lemond is one of them – a surprise enough himself when he won in 1983, although he was already building a useful palmarès.

The other is Lance Armstrong who, at 21 years at 345 days, was the youngest rider in 23 years and the third youngest ever to win the World Championships when he triumphed in a wringing-wet Oslo, Norway in 1993.

His win, in what was his first full season at pro level, was also a bolt from the blue. It's also worth stating that it is one of the few major victories that he has not been stripped of for doping offences.

On the hilly 257km course, Armstrong outgunned a host of well-established stars of the Grand Tours and Classics, including then-triple Tour de France winner Miguel Induráin, soon-to-be Classics legend Johan Museeuw and former world champion Maurizio Fondriest (who incidentally is the final rider in that top-10 youngest winners list).

Armstrong escaped in the driving rain to win solo by 19 seconds. Back then it was just the start of a career that is now very much history.

I don’t love golf. In my experience, it’s largely a stuffy sport for men I don’t really hang out with – aside from some notable exceptions. It’s also a great way of spoiling nature, and in the UK, takes up a lot of private land. However, over the weekend I found myself captivated by the Ryder Cup, which seems to be like golf, except with all the boring bits ejected. Rather than playing as individuals, they play as Europe vs the USA, they wear different kits than usual, and they play in a format they don’t normally use. It’s not normal golf, and that’s what makes it fun, even if it is a bit confusing.

I hope this is how outsiders see cycling’s UCI Road World Championships. It’s every year as opposed to the Ryder Cup’s biennial occurrence, but it is always a welcome difference. Unlike almost every race a year, there are no trade teams, riders use different kits, teams are national mashups, no race radios, and a brand new unique course is used. It isn’t normal cycling, it’s chaos, and that’s why I love it so much.

It throws up unexpected scenarios, like Canada’s Magdeleine Vallieres’ victory in the elite women’s road race, while the best riders in the world just watched each other, and also creates the stage for incredible performances, like those of Tadej Pogačar and Harry Hudson in the elite and junior men’s road races, respectively.

There’s a lot of cycling that always happens in a similar way or looks the same, from the Tour of Flanders to sprint stages at the Tour de France, so to throw in a completely different kind of event once a year is good. I know I spend a lot of time saying cycling should make more sense for the casual or new fan, but to have something this wild once a year is not a complete juxtaposition; it’s an exception, not a rule.

A change the World Championships brings, as does the Ryder Cup, is a bit of tribalism that is often lacking in cycling – I really do want GB to succeed most of the time, as I was cheering on Europe in the golf. This is not something I usually feel when watching pro cycling, but it’s nice to cheer for your country, as is common in other sports.

The courses are a big part of what make the Worlds. They are fresh every year, in a different country, in Kigali’s case on a new continent, and test riders in a similar but distinct way. Sure, they ordinarily favour the best puncheur in the world as opposed to the best overall cyclist, but that’s no bad thing. Puncheurs are the most exciting kind of cyclist, and attacking is good. A fun thought experiment is to imagine where the Worlds would go if it came to your city – in Bristol, England, I’m sending the peloton up some nasty hills. It would be good.

The tradition and repetition that make moments in other races so good – the left turn at the top of the Oude Kwaremont in the Tour of Flanders, the Via Santa Caterina in Strade Bianche – are absent in the Worlds, and once a year, that’s novel and positive. You quickly have to get used to new notable parts of the course, as the Cote de Kimihurura provided in Kigali this year.

All that said, I did feel that the course at this year’s Worlds could have been a bit more exciting; the elite women did 11 laps of the same 15km-long circuit, making it feel like a big crit race rather than a road race. The elite men were the only road race to leave the circuit, and that was the best bit, providing the key moment on Mont Kigali, when Pogačar attacked with 104km to go. Only the men did the Mur de Kigali. Could the women not have done this extra loop too?

Photographer Zac Williams, there on the ground for SWpix, wrote on Instagram: “The Mur de Kigali was truly remarkable. The fans, thicker even than those on a Sunday afternoon in springtime Belgium made for a spectacle that had to be experienced to be believed. Only doing that climb once in the entire championships, to me, seems like a huge shame.”

There were surely contextual reasons for this, but in terms of showing off Kigali, it felt like there were opportunities missed. The men’s route also seemed like a course designed for Pogačar to attack from that far out; perhaps it is time to think about Tadej-proofing routes as golf courses were Tiger-proofed during Tiger Woods’s years of domination. It was also probably too hard – 30 riders finishing the men’s race feels like evidence of this.

I’m excited for Montréal 2026 already, just like I'm excited for Adare Manor 2027. Once a year, taking the cycling we know and changing a lot of it creates special moments.

This piece is part of The Leadout, the offering of newsletters from Cycling Weekly and Cyclingnews. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here.

If you want to get in touch with Adam, email adam.becket@futurenet.com, or comment below.

Tadej Pogačar once again stamped his authority on the cycling world, taking a second successive rainbow jersey and further laying claim to the title of the best cyclist ever.

As he always can, he benefitted from excellent support from the Slovenian team work early in Sunday's race, but the final 100km were all his own work.

Pogačar arrived on a long loop outside the KIgali city circuit used by all the other races having never put his nose in the wind, the bright green jerseys of his team mates covering all the early moves and controlling a six-man break.

Only as he reached the toughest slopes of Mont Kigali, the day’s most testing climb, over 100km from the finish, did he show himself, closing dow the final escapee, before launching his winning move. Over the top he found himself with two of his UAE Team Emirates-XRG trade team mates, Isaac Del Toro, representing Mexico, and Juan Ayuso (Spain).

While Ayuso was soon despatched, Del Toro lasted well into the final five laps of the challenging, 15.1km Kigali circuit, though when he was dropped, Pogačar was forced to ride the final 66km alone. Pogačar was able to take advantage of a circuit which was always either up or down, where the power of the group was limited. This meant opportunities for a group to claw its way back to anyone’s wheel were few, but catching the wheel of possibly the best bike racer ever were almost non-existent. Pogačar eventually finishing 1.28 ahead of second placed Remco Evenepoel (Belgium).

“I think the parcours was designed for this,” he said in his winner’s interview. “I was hoping that a small group would form like we did with Juan and Del Toro, a perfect combo. I was like this is dreams to ride together as far as possible as a trio, but Juan had a problem quite soon on the cobbles and Del Toro had some stomach problems in the race, so I was left alone quite early and I was solo like last year just fighting with myself, but I’m so happy I made it.”

For mere mortal it seems odd that a rider with his ability and palmarès might have doubts, but the enormity of the task was not lost even on Pogačar.

“For sure, because the climbs were getting harder and harder every lap, and also on the downhills it was not so fast, you still had to pedal quite a lot so the energy resources were going towards the end, and it was so hard those few final laps. Of course you doubt a bit but you have to push through and hope for the best.”

For a while now commentators have been comparing Pogačar’s achievements to those of Eddy Merckx, and this year has added to those comparisons. In 2025 alone he has amassed 17 victories, almost unheard of for a GC rider and more than sprinter Tim Merlier. However, Pogačar’s achievements include the Tour of Flanders, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, four stages and the GC at the Tour de France.

And though his five grand tour titles and nine Monument victories can’t quite match Merck’s total, he is only 27 and Sunday’s rainbow jersey win makes him the first man to win both the Tour de France and World Championship in consecutive years.

Tom Pidcock was Britain’s big hope for the rainbow jersey on Sunday in the elite men's road race at the UCI Road World Championships, but eventually finished in 10th place, after what he described as the most unenjoyable race of his season.

Pidcock led a strong team into the 267.6km race around Rwanda’s capital city, Kigali, and in the closing stages of the race found himself as part of a strong five man group pursuing a leading duo, including eventual winner, Tadej Pogačar. However, the Yorkshireman was unable to hold on, slipping out of that group, eventually fighting his way across the line some 9.05 down.

Pidcock was seen off the back of the bunch at the team car talking with Sports Director Matt Brammeier on the second lap of the 267.5km race, raising concerns that he might have been struggling. However, when the race headed out of Kigali for a single lap of a 48km loop including the day’s two hardest climbs, he was perfectly positioned.

Close to the top of Mont Kigali, Pogačar made his race winning move, initially taking two others with him, and Pidcock found himself as part of a large chasing peloton. That group was less than a minute behind the lead when they returned to the 15.1km city circuit for the final six of the 15 laps, but though he made his way into the five man group on the following lap, there was no way back for Pidcock.

“It was so hard,” he said in a post-race interview for TNT Sport. “To be honest I didn’t feel so good in the start and then I was coming round and into the race and I just completely blew. It was survival until the finish, it was absolutely brutal.

“At one point when it was the five of us away behind Tadej, at that point I thought ‘you know anything’s possible,’ but then the legs fell off. I think I was the best guy from coming from the Vuelta so you can’t have everything these days. I did my best like I said I would and that’s it.”

Pidcock arrived in Rwanda with clear ambitions for the podium, saying before the race, "We're here to do well. I wouldn't travel all the way to Africa if I didn't think that I could perform. We'll see. I mean, it's not like we're not here to race to win. That's evident. Worlds is always a day where anything could happen. We're not making too many expectations now.”

Pidcock has always been both exciting and competitive, but his move to the Q36.5 Pro Cycling team over the winter seems to have spurred him on, and 2025 has been something of a breakthrough for the 26-year-old. He won the early season Alula Tour, finished second at Strade Bianche then took a stage at the Arctic Tour of Norway. However, perhaps his greates success so far this year was his remarkable third place at the Vuelta a España earlier this month, proving his pedigree as a genuine GC contender.

Tadej Pogačar won a second rainbow jersey in Kigali on Sunday, the Slovenian riding the final 66km alone.

The race was decided on an extra loop which took the peloton off the main Kigali circuit and over two brutal climbs, Mont Kigali and the Mur de Kigali, which topped out more than 100km from the line.

It was here that Pogačar made his move, taking Isaac Del Toro (Mexico) with him while a 13 man group behind were unable to get on terms.

Once the pair were back on the Kigali city circuit used for all the road races, Del Toro was dropped and eventually caught and passed by a chasing group, while Pogačar forged on alone, building an insurmountable lead.

With Del Toro well and truly out of contention a three man group was unable to close the gap, despite working well together. In the end, on the penultimate ascent of the Côte de Kigali Golf, Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) attacked, riding the final 20km alone to take second place finishing 1.28 behind his rival.

On the final lap Ben Healey (Ireland) attacked is fellow escapee, Mattias Skjelmose (Denmark), the Irishman eventually rounding off the peloton in third place.

Pogačar becomes the first man to win both the Tour de France and world road race titles in two successive years, cementing his position as one of the best cyclists to ever race.

How it happened

The final event of this year’s World Championships took the Elite Men on a 267.5km route with almost 6,000m of climbing, including 15 laps of the 15.1km Kigali used in all the previous road races. The men’s event, though, was the only one of the week to leave that circuit, a mid-race 42.5km loop to the west of Rwanda’s capital tackling three new climbs, including Mont Kigali and the fearsome Mur de Kigali.

While that added variety, distance and climbing to the day, the lap itself was testing enough, with barely a metre of flat road and two challenging climbs, the Côte de Kigali Golf and the Côte de Kimihurura, the championships’ signature cobbled climb.

Attacks came from the gun with Red Walters (Grenada) immediately getting a gap, before being joined half a lap later by a group representing some of the world’s strongest nations who dropped Walters as quickly as he had initially escaped.

Marius Mayrhofer (Germany), Anders Foldanger (Denmark), Menno Huising (Netherlands), Ivo Oliveira (Portugal) and Fabio Christen (Switzerland) were soon joined by Julian Bernard (France), the group building a lead of two minutes on the opening lap.

France disrupted the second lap, first with Julian Alaphilippe attacking, then Julien Bernard bridging to the front group. This move saw the leaders’ advantage brought back to one minute and while the peloton eventually re-formed, it allowed Raúl García Pierna (Spain) to set off in pursuit, eventually joining the breakaway.

The chaos of the opening laps couldn’t carry on, and soon the Slovenian and Belgian teams of pre-race favourites, Tadej Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel restored order and the leaders’ advantage was restored.

After a crash saw British rider, Bjorn Koerdt, Marc Soler (Spain) and one of Evenepoel’s key lieutenants, Ilan Van Wilder abandon, the race settled into a rhythm. By the end of the fourth lap the Belgians and Slovenians had allowed the peloton’s deficit to grow to 3.10 though that was brought back to 2:30 where it stayed.

However, by the time the ninth lap was completed and the race was heading out for the new lap, the gap was down to 1.35, with one of Isaac Del Toro’s Mexican team mates replacing the entire Slovenian team at the front.

On the Côte de Péage the breakaway split, only Foldanger, Bernard and Oliveira remaining, while behind the dynamic in the bunch changed, the favourites joining their teams at the front of the bunch, but allowing the three remaining leaders to extend their lead once again.

While the breakaway took two minutes over the Côte de Péage, on Mont Kigali Bernard was alone, his lead dropping fast. On the steepest slopes, just short of the top Pogačar made his move, catching Bernard just before the top, with only Juan Ayuso (Spain) for company, Del Toro catching them on the descent. On the cobbled, brutally steep Mur de Kigali, Ayuso was dropped, as the chasing group fell back to more than 30 seconds.

When Pogačar and Del Toro crossed the finish line with 90.6km to go their lead was 44 seconds on a significant sized peloton. However, rather than riding together, that group began attacking in ones and twos, taking half a lap for any kind of organised chase to form, Belgium taking responsibility with Quinten Hermans and Cian Uijtdebroeks.

On the next ascent of the cobbled Côte de Kiimihurura Evenepoel stopped and waited for a second bike change of the lap. At the front though, all was not good, with Del Toro either suffering some sort of mechanical or running out of energy, and though he managed to stay with Pogačar, until the end of the lap, he was dropped next time round.

From the peloton Ben Healey (Ireland) finally made one of the moves work, taking Mikkel Honoré (Denmark) and Pavel Sivakov (France) with him, the three working well together, briefly closing the gap to within 35 seconds.

However, with their deficit approaching one minute, the Healey group was caught, though the Irishman managed to infiltrate a new chase with Evenepoel, Tom Pidcock (Great Britain), Mattias Skjelmose (Denmark) and Jai Hindley (Australia). This group also cooperated well, but entered the final four laps with one minute behind Pogačar, a deficit they were unable to close.

A lap later not only had the group lost Pidcock and Hindley, they’d also lost another eight seconds and the race was all but won ahead of them. Though Evenepoel attacked on the penultimate lap, by then second place was all he had to ride for.

RESULTS

ROAD WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS, ELITE MEN, KIGALI > KIGALI (267.5KM)

1. Tadej Pogačar, Slovenia, in 6:21:20
2. Remco Evenepoel, Belgium, +1:28
3. Ben Healy, Ireland, +2:16
4. Mattias Skjelmose, Denmark, +2:53
5. Toms Skujņš, Latvia, +6:41
6. Giulio Ciccone, Italy, +6:47
7. Isaac Del Toro, Mexico,
8. Juan Ayuso, Spain, at same time
9. Afonso Eulálio, Portugal, +7:06
10. Tom Pidcock, Great Britain, +9:05

It was billed in some quarters as a race between the pre-eminent seven, but in the end the winner of the women's road race World Championships was a rider very, very few people even expected would feature in the top-10.

It's understandable therefore that the victor, Canada's Magdeleine Vallieres, was in shock after winning the mountainous 165km race by 23 seconds from New Zealand's Niamh Fisher-Black. Spain's 41-year-old Mavi García was third.

Vallieres, who had only won one pro race before, attacked at the foot of the final climb and soloed to victory in the Rwandan capital of Kigali.

"No, I don't believe it yet, no. For sure not!" the emotional 24-year-old said minutes after the race.

"It's great to win here and with the Worlds next year in Montreal, it's perfect. It was my dream to win, and now it's come true – it's crazy."

Though Vallieres was not predicted to win the race, her result was no fluke. She raced ambitiously but cleverly throughout. As was one of 10 riders in the lead group in the final two laps, she was always at the front looking for an opportunity to break clear.

Her winning move, too, was borne out of intelligence. "I knew I probably wouldn't win in a sprint against Niamh because she is strong," the EF Education-Oatly rider said.

"We were both committed to this break, working really hard, and then I saw that she was fading a little bit so I told myself I just have to go all-in now and, yeah, it all worked out in the end."

Vallieres had only ridden twice since the Tour de France Femmes, a race where her best result was eighth on stage six. Since the French race, her preparation has been fixated on the Rwandan Worlds.

"I've been dreaming about it for a while now – it was a big goal of mine for this year so I prepared well and at altitude," she revealed.

"With my coach we knew this would be a big goal so with the team we focused on it.

"The girls believed in me so I believed in myself and I really committed to going for it. I prepared well, knew I was on good form, so I tried. I told myself I didn't want to have any regrets and I don't."

Vallieres, whose trade team EF aren't even a WorldTour team, also becomes the first ever Canadian to win a gold medal at the road race World Championships.

Linda Jackson, Michael Woods and Steve Bauer have all finished third in previous years, but never before has a rider from the North American country earned the rainbow stripes in the most prestigious race. But little-known Vallieres has changed all that.

Magdeleine Vallieres secured a shock gold medal for Canada in the women’s road race at the 2025 World Championships, the 24-year-old attacking in the final two kilometres to win by 23 seconds.

Vallieres had only won one race before in her career – the 2024 Trofeo Palma Femina – but she was the strongest rider in Kigali, taking advantage of a strange race in which none of the pre-race favourites featured at the front of the race.

Niamh Fisher-Black of New Zealand finished second, with Mavi García of Spain rolling home in third.

A lead group of 10 riders featuring most of the main countries went clear with a lap-and-a-half to go, but none of the big favourites were present.

Onto the final climb of the Côte de Kimihurara, only Vallieres, Fisher-Black and García were left, and Vallieres attacked right at the base. Neither of her fellow escapees were able to respond, ensuring that the EF Education-Oatly rider would go onto win the rainbow jersey.

She is the first ever Canadian to win gold in the UCI World Championships Road Race, men's or women's.

How it unfolded

Packing in more than 3,350m of climbing in 165km, it was expected that a big breakaway would go clear, as is custom at the World Championships. But surprisingly, there was only one rider who escaped – and that wasn’t until the second lap of 11. Austria’s Carina Schrempf went solo, and by the fourth lap she had almost four minutes on the peloton.

With 100km to go, Schrempf’s lead started to be cut, and ambitious attacks that were designed to test the water more than anything began to appear: Hungary’s Blanka Vas was one, as was Netherland's Yara Kastelijn and Belgium’s Julie Van de Velde.

Van Velde caught Schrempf, and the pair were then joined by the Netherlands’ Shirin van Anrooij, a smart tactic by the Dutch. With 55km remaining, though, none of the three were the leaders; a new breakaway group had formed of Noemi Ruëgg of Switzerland and Mireia Benito of Spain.

From there, the race really sprang into life, with the Dutch, French and Australians regular animators. But Ruëgg and Benito remained out front, holding an advantage of 50 seconds with two-and-a-half laps to go.

As the bell went to signal the penultimate lap, the leaders’ gap was down to just 15 seconds, and behind a strong chase group had formed, containing most of the favourites. It was then that Elisa Longo Borghini attacked, bringing with her Kasia Niewiadoma, Kim Le Court, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and others, but it came to very little, and they all sat up.

The reduction in speed played into the hands of the lead group which now numbered 10, including many of the big nations: France was represented through Évita Muzic; Netherlands with Riejanne Markus; Italy thanks to Barbara Malcotti; Spain through Benito and Mavi García; and Switzerland via Rüeff and Ginia Caluori. Fisher-Black (New Zealand), Antonia Niedermaier (Germany) and Vallieres (Canada) were also up the road.

Within just a few kilometres it became obvious the winner would come from the lead group, with the peloton almost two minutes adrift. With 22km remaining on the Côte de Kigali Golf, García, Fisher-Black and Vallieres attacked and built a small gap. On the cobbled climb of the Côte de Kimihururathe trio were joined by Niedermaier, and then by Markus. With one lap to go, the peloton had cut the gap by half, but it was the five leaders who looked set to battle it out for the medals.

Ferrand-Prévot attacked from the peloton with 11km remaining, bringing with her Niewiadoma, Longo Borghini and Elisa Chabbey, but it was too late. On the final ascent of the Kigali Wall, Fisher Black broke clear with Vallieres, and though García originally struggled to keep pace, the Spanish veteran caught the duo by the top.

With 2.4km to go on the final climb of Côte de Kimihurara Vallieres was the first to attack, and neither Fisher Black nor García were able to respond to the Canadian who soloed to the biggest victory of her career. Fisher Black finished second, and García, at the age of 41, finished third.

Results: Road Race World Championships: Kigali > Kigali, 165km

1. Magdeleine Vallieres, Canada, in 4:34.48
2. Niamh Fisher-Black, New Zealand, at 23s
3. Mavi García, Spain, at 27s
4. Elise Chabbey, Switzerland, at 41s
5. Riejanne Markus, Netherlands, at 57s
6. Antonia Niedermaier, Germany, at 1:17
7. Demi Vollering, Netherlands, at 1:34
8. Kim Le Court, Mauritius
9. Marlen Reusser, Switzerland
10. Kasia Niewiadoma, Poland, at the same time.

Oscar Onley has had to deal with a lot more attention than usual this summer. After finishing fourth at the Tour de France, the Scot has had a lot to deal with.

The 22-year-old from Kelso featured daily on ITV’s coverage of the Tour, was the subject of features in the national news, and even gained his own slogan for cardboard signs – Onley Fans.

It was life-changing for Onley, and brought about new confidence, confidence that could be key going into the elite men's road race at the UCI Road World Championships on Sunday.

"I feel like I'm in a good space again after the Tour," he explained on Friday. "Mentally, after the Tour, I was quite cooked to be honest, and I had to take some time off and have some time to myself.

"There was a lot of attention around everything I was doing for three or four weeks. That was quite a lot, but I had a good time away, got back into training, back into normal routine, and the focus was on this weekend the whole time. I'm really looking forward to it.

"The riders in the bunch look at me a bit differently now, maybe there's a bit more expectation and pressure from the outside, but I wouldn't say I feel any different. I always put pressure on myself and I always want to perform, so, I don't feel like anything has changed in that sense. Maybe I've gained a little bit more confidence after the Tour, and I know my place now. It gives me more motivation, I think."

This is Onley's second World Championships, after Zürich last year, where he finished 16th after impressing on a tough course. This course is even tougher, and at altitude too. The Picnic PostNL rider is ready to keep fighting throughout, knowing how important this is in such a huge one-day race.

"It's not specific to this race, but big one-day races in general, it's really important to keep riding, and to keep putting yourself in the position to be in the race," Onley said.

"Things change so fast when it's over 230 or 240km. There's a big difference in the drop-off of riders. Last year I was probably on the wrong side of that, I put myself in the position to get a result quite early in the race – that was the way I had to do it – but I didn't have the legs to hold on in the final couple of laps.

"An extra year of racing and training in the legs, I've shown that I can compete on these bigger days. I'm confident I'm stronger than last year, and I think with the team we have we can be in contention all day."

"It's a really hard route, we rode it a few days ago. It's a tricky one, because the climbs are really hard but the rest of the circuit is quite wide roads, nothing too technical," he added. "You can really recover there, but it's more the conditions that will affect the race more. With the altitude and the heat, it's really important not to go over your limit too early, especially in a 270km race."

Onley will be watched, but that suits him just fine – along with Tom Pidcock, GB have two good cards to play, something he thinks will be key on Sunday.

"It's quite exciting with both of us being in contention on Sunday, because it's really important when you can play off different teammates, it makes a big difference," he said. "It's not something I get to experience much across the year, and I'm really excited for it. The stronger your team is, even if you have four or five leaders, the chances of you winning or getting a better result is better than if you're the sole leader."

Confidence is key, key to believing he should be up there with Tadej Pogačar, Remco Evenepoel, and the rest; this was something he showed at the Tour, often hanging onto Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard in the high mountains.

"I go to every race believing I can win or do a really good result, and Sunday is no different," Onley explained. "The overall goal of the team is to get a medal, whether that's myself, Tom, Joe [Blackmore] or anyone. It would be really nice to get a medal for myself and it would cap off a really good year. I think as long as I do a race I'm proud of, then I'll be satisfied."

GB haven't had a medallist in the men's road race since Mark Cavendish won in 2016, something Pidcock and Onley hope to change on Sunday in Kigali. "The more chaotic the race, it suits us better," Onley concluded. Expect chaos.

Tom Pidcock is a man used to World Championships. This year's UCI Road World Championships in Kigali, Rwanda, is actually his 16th appearance at a Worlds, across road, cyclo-cross, and mountain bike, in different age groups. He knows how they go.

He's a multiple-time world champion, at elite in cyclo-cross and mountain bike, and in the junior time trial on the road. A medal at elite level in the Road World Championships has so far eluded him, however, which is very much the target for Sunday's road race.

"We're here to do well," the 26-year-old explained in a press conference on Friday. "I wouldn't travel all the way to Africa if I didn't think that I could perform. We'll see. I mean, it's not like we're not here to race to win. That's evident. Worlds is always a day where anything could happen. We're not making too many expectations now."

What Tom Pidcock is not used to is finishing third at a Grand Tour, something he did for the first time at the Vuelta a España earlier this month.

"I recovered pretty well to be honest," he said. "I think I'm actually too fresh, maybe. I've never finished a Grand Tour in such a good condition. A fairly new thing for me, it's a tricky balance to make sure I'm recovered but to make sure I'm also training as well.

"I took four or five days easy and then got back into training. I did seven hours last week one day, and just some intensity. The travel gets in the way a little bit, but I did some good training yesterday. People are talking about the altitude or smog, but it's quite tough here actually, tough conditions."

The Vuelta a España was the main thing on Pidcock's mind this summer, but it must be nice to be back to the chaos of a one-day race, the kind of event where the Brit, a winner of Strade Bianche and the Amstel Gold Race, and podium finisher at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, has thrived before.

"I haven't put much thought into this, I was just thinking about the Vuelta and not what's going to come after," he said. "I was pretty stressed when I got home cos I wasn't doing any organising and there was a million things to do. I didn't look much beyond it. It's nice to have a one day hit out."

Pidcock is also not used to riding in Rwanda or Africa more generally, something novel for most of the peloton in Kigali.

"I don't know what my expectations were, but I've come here and stayed in a nice hotel with a nice view," he said.

"Everywhere is super clean, there's less litter here than there is in Europe, all the people are super nice and friendly. It's really nice.

"I like going to places and getting new experiences racing my bike, so it's a nice experience."

This has already been a successful Road Worlds for GB, with golds for Zoe Bäckstedt in the U23 time trial and Harry Hudson in the junior road race.

"It's good, of course, when you have success as a team it always brings a positive atmosphere into it, and it normally reflects on other races," he said. "Hopefully, we can see the effects of that in the junior girls tomorrow and then our race."

Beyond Pidcock, all eyes are on Tadej Pogačar of Slovenia and Belgium's Remco Evenepoel. Pogačar is the defending champion, while Evenepoel was dominant in the elite time trial last weekend, catching Pogačar during his effort.

Asked where he thought Pogačar would attack from, after his 100km-long escapade last year, Pidcock wouldn't be drawn.

"I dunno, I'm not really bothered about wasting energy speculating on that," he said. "[After] what happened in the time trial he will want to prove something on Sunday."

Pidcock will not be alone either, with a strong GB team which includes Oscar Onley, fourth at this year's Tour de France.

"Oscar has also shown his strength this year," Pidcock explained. "It will be a hard, attritional race, it's nice to have someone like him in the team, someone I'm pretty sure will be solid on Sunday."

A first African Worlds elite men's road race beckons, with Pidcock in seemingly the form of his life. Pogačar and Evenepoel stand in his way, among others, of completing the set, but the GB rider is relaxed, and ready.

The elite road races are the culmination of both the week of racing at the UCI Road World Championships and the 2025 season. Yes, there are a few races still to take place, most notably Il Lombardia for the men, but this weekend’s races are what many riders will have focused the second half of their seasons on. For many, it is their last serious competitive outing of the year.

So who are the contenders for the famous rainbow bands? Who will get to wear the distinctive white jersey with the five coloured bands across their chest throughout 2026, and grapple with the decision whether or not to pair it with white shorts? We run through the route and contenders for both races.

Women’s Elite Road Race route details

Women’s road race, key facts
Where: Kigali, Rwanda
When: Saturday, September 24
Distance: 164.6km
Elevation: 3,350m
Circuits: 11
Circuit length: 14.96km
Starters: 106
Nations: 43
Defending champion: Lotte Kopecky (not riding)
Startlist for the Women's Elite road race

The route for the elite women’s race is a city centre-based course comprising of 11 laps of a 14.96km circuit, resulting in a 164.6km total length. The women will climb 3,350m of elevation throughout the race, all of which sits at between 1,400m and 1,500m above sea level.

These numbers are likely to result in an attritional race that will favour the climbers. Most significantly, the finish line comes just over the top of the cobbled climb of the Côte de Kimihurura, which you will have seen if you’ve been watching the time trials.

Although not the only climb on the circuit, and only 1.3km long at just 6.3%, the cobbles are severe enough to make this the decisive point in the route. Tackled 11 times, and topping out just a few metres before the finish line, this short stretch of road will determine tactics throughout.

Positioning coming into the cobbles will be key: there’s a fast run-in on a wide road where riders will struggle to move up, then a tight left turn scrubbing off everyone’s speed. Splits will then occur in the bunch almost every time up it. Ability wise, the field is one of the most diverse we’ve ever seen with riders like Demi Vollering and Pauline Ferrand-Prevot and others from smaller nations who won’t have competed in the WorldTour before.

Anyone with a realistic hope of winning will have to hold their position at the front of the bunch, and have the power to ride the cobbles in the saddle, along the climbing ability to deal with the accumulative fatigue that will come from the persistent climbing.

Women’s Elite World Championship road race contenders

Demi Vollering
Netherlands | 28
UCI rank: 22025
wins: 9
CW Rating 5/5
Throughout the first half of the year, Demi Vollering was the rider to beat, racking up wins at stage race after stage race while also performing in the one-day classics. A win at Strade Bianche Donne (a solid measure of ability on Kigali’s parcours) and was in the top four at Omloop Nieuwsblad, Milan-San Remo, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. She is therefore the standout favourite for the race. But this is no foregone conlusion. Vollering hasn’t won a race since early June and the Volta a Catalunya Femenina. Newly minted TT world champ Marlen Reusser narrowly beat her at the Tour de Suisse, then Pauline Ferrand Prevot comprehensively beat her at the Tour de France Femmes, Vollering’s main aim of the season. Vollering has all the attributes to win in Rwanda, if she doesn’t, the world champs risk becoming something of a bogey race for her - she is yet to win a senior world title. If ever there was a course to suit her, it’s this one.

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot
France | 33
UCI rank: 12
2025 wins: 4
CW Rating 5/5
Don’t let the low win count or lowly UCI ranking fool you; the Frenchwoman's return to road racing in 2025 has been nothing short of spectacular. With years of experience behind her, and several years racing mountain bikes in which a rider spends more time training and focusing on fewer races, Ferrand Prevot came back to the road scene with very specific targets. And nailed them. An early win at Paris-Roubaix was a good start although as the race can be something of a lottery, was not taken as a sign of things to come. But then, at the Tour de France Femmes she was unstoppable. Biding her time until the race hit the mountains and making her move in a pre planned attack that worked wonders. The 2014 road world champion knows how to focus, and knows how to win world titles - she has 15 of them under her belt.

Kim Le Court-Pinaar
Mauritius | 29
UCI rank: 13
2025 wins: 5
CW Rating ⅘
2025 has been a breakthrough year for the Mauritian rider with a win and spell in the yellow jersey at the Tour de France Femmes and victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Out of the nine one-day races she’s completed this year, she has only finished outside the top ten in two of them. While not a pure climber, her results at the Ardennes classics prove she’s a contender.

Anna Van der Breggan
Netherlands | 35
UCI rank 17
2025 wins: 1
CW Rating 3/5
The two time winner of this title has had a solid return to the peloton this year. After retiring at the end of the 2021 season, van der Breggen spent three years working as a Directeur Sportif for SD Worx Protime. She’s been solid all year but not quite up to the level of Vollering, Ferrand-Prevot or Lotte Kopecky. She is however an essential part of the always strong Dutch team, that has several options. For them, team cohesion will be as influential as the cobbles of the Côte de Kimihurura

Kasia Niewiadoma
Poland | 30
UCI rank: 15
2025 wins: 1
CW Rating 3/5
Just one win this year at her national championships for the 2024 Tour de France Femmes winner, but if you’re looking for a consistent rider, with experience, look no further. In both individual stages at stage races and one-day events, Niewiadoma is rarely out of the top ten, and only occasionally out of the top 20. Expect to see her near the front all day, riding off the back of the stronger teams.

Elisa Longo Borghini
Italy | 33
UCI rank: 3
2025 wins: 7
CW Rating 3/5
The winner of this year’s Giro d’Italia women will lead the Italian team that lacks strength in depth. Not a natural climb, Longo Borghini undoubtedly has the power to ride the cobbles of the Côte de Kimihurura and the experience to hold an optimal position in the bunch throughout. Pulling out of the Tour de France Femmes after two stages left her without much racing this summer, but a one-day win in France at the end of August suggests she is building back up for the end of the season.

Others to watch

Winning the time trial in decisive fashion means Marlen Reusser (Switzerland) will be a marked woman. Not known for her climbing, and with few one-day results in the last two seasons, Reusser has however triumphed at the Tour de Suisse Women and finished second at the Giro d’Italia women, two races not known for their flat profiles. If Pauline Ferrand-Prevot missfires, France’s leadership will likely switch to Cédrine Kerbaol, a young climber whose results suggest she’s on a path to bigger things. Part of the silver medal winning team in the Mixed Relay Team Time Trial, she’s clearly in good form. Gernany’s best bet comes in the shape of Liane Lippert. Solid if not spectacular in one-day races, she’s had two solid results in races earlier this month.

Men’s Elite Road Race route details

Men’s road race, key facts
Where: Kigali, Rwanda
When: Sunday, September 25
Distance: 267.5km
Elevation: 5,475m
Circuits: 9 x Local circuit, 1 x Extended, 6 x Local circuit
Circuit length: 14.96km (Local circuit), 42.5km (Extended circuit)
Starters: 165
Nations: 57
Defending champion: Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia)
Startlist for the Men's Elite road race

The men’s road race is the only event at the Worlds to venture out of the centre of Kigali. The route takes the peloton west out through the city centre out to Kamuhanda, but in a break from the normal format, only after they’ve completed nine circuits of the route the other races have used. The ‘Extension circuit’ as it’s referred to is 42.5km long and takes the riders to the top of Mont Kigali, a 5.9km climb that takes the riders to the highest point on the route. From there it’s mainly downhill back to the circuit and five more laps which includes five more ascents of the cobbled Côte de Kimihurura.

Expect a slow start from the peloton, as they cruise through the first two to three hours of the likely six-hour-plus race while a break establishes a lead. The Worlds is often a wearing down process due to it’s length and the first few hours serve to build the fatigue in the riders that then impacts their performance in the final stages. The hilly parcours in Kigali that has the biggest elevation gain of any Worlds road race will likely see the peloton slowly whittled down before it explodes in the final hour.

Men’s Elite World Championship road race contenders

Tadej Pogačar
Slovenia | 26
UCI rank: 1
2025 wins: 15
CW rating 5 / 5
The defending champion will start as favourite, as he does for any race he starts. This year the Slovenian has been as close to unbeatable as any rider has ever been with seemingly comfortable victories at the Tour de France, Tour of Flanders, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Strade Bianche. But then a few days ago Remco Evenepoel caught him for two-and-a-half minutes in the TT and suddenly there was a glimmer of hope for the rest of the peloton. Was it a rare off day for Pogačar, or has he struggled to regain his form after such an impressive opening six months of the year. Considering his ride at the GP Cycliste Montréal two weeks ago, we’ll go with 'an off day.'

Remco Evenepoel
Belgium | 25
UCI rank:
2025 wins:
CW rating 4 / 5
His performance in the time trial elevated Evenepoel to favourite status as he became the first rider to catch and pass Pogačar. Suddenly pulling out of the Tour de France with a lack of form was a distance memory, and thoughts turn to his solo win at the Wollongong worlds in Australia, 2022. If Evenepoel wants to win, he’ll need to go it alone as few can match his pace setting and aero tuck in a one-on-one chase.

Ben Healy
Ireland | 25
UCI rank: 16
2025 wins: 2
CW rating 3 / 5
If ever there was a race that suits the Irishman's style of road racing, it's the World Championships. Run with smaller teams there is less control in the bunch, meaning riders have to race more on instinct; sniffing out the right move, at the right time, and then riding to their strengths. Although diminutive, Healy can't climb with the likes of Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard, but he excels on tougher routes as he knows how to pace his efforts. His results this year have shown he can mix it with the best in the world when he’s on form.

Tom Pidcock
Great Britain | 26
UCI rank: 8
2025 wins: 5
CW rating: 3 / 5
Pidcock’s fresh start with a new pro team and focus on road racing paid dividends at the Vuelta a España where he finished third, his best performance in a Grand Tour. There was no stage win, but neither did he scrape in at the last minute. He held his podium position through the final week and some of the races toughest stages, suggesting he got to Madrid (or thereabouts as the stage was cancelled) in good form. The key for Pidcock, and all the riders coming out of the Vuelta, is how they balance the fatigue while maintaining form alongside the international travel out to Africa.

Juan Ayuso
Spain | 23
UCI rank: 17
2025 wins: 7
CW rating: 4 / 5
Three stage wins, two of which came from long breaks, means Ayuso is certain to be Spain’s leader in Rwanda. Only 23, Ayuso has been touted as the heir to Pogačar’s throne for some time, but the Spaniard obviously doesn’t want to wait as he recently got himself out of his contract with UAE Team Emirates to join Lidl-Trek for the next four seasons. Ayuso has lived up to the hype this year, with one-day wins back in early March, victory at Tirreno-Adriatico and a solid performance through the first 15 stages of the Giro d’Italia before quitting after getting stung by a bee.

Others to watch

The only rider to beat Tadej Pogačar when going mano-a-mano at the finish line, Denmark’s Mattias Skjelmose will not be allowed to go under the radar in Rwanda. A natural climber, he is well suited to the parcours and has posted solid results in all his races post Tour de France. And that photo-finish win at Amstel ahead of Pog, also saw him take Evenepoel’s scalp. Without Mathieu van der Poel to coalesce around, the Netherlands will likely pin their hopes on double TdF stage winning Thymen Arensmen. He might not be a prolific winner, but he can climb well and manage his efforts - essential over the rolling terrain in Kigali. Julian Alaphilippe has won this title twice, and a win in Canada earlier this month gives a glimmer of hope that he might have one more big win in him, while Britain’s Oscar Onley proved through July that he can climb with the best. Australia has options with the in form Jay Vine and Jai Hindley while the United States will look to Quinn Simmons to get stuck in. Pure climbers lurking in the field included Egan Bernal (Colombia) , Richard Carapaz (Ecuador) and Italy’s Giulio Ciccone.

Harry Hudson had never been to Africa before this UCI Road World Championships in Kigali, Rwanda, but the 18-year-old made himself at home in the continent on Friday, making history for Great Britain.

There have been many great British male juniors in the 21st century, from Geraint Thomas to Sebastian Grindley, via Tom Pidcock, but none had ever stood on the top step of the podium after the junior road race at the World Championships until Friday.

Hudson, the junior national hill-climb champion, was the man to change that story, a step up from Grindley's silver in Zürich last year, and did so in dramatic fashion, attacking from 36km to go, and soloing to victory.

Not as a result, as it was already in the works, but the man from Sheffield has been announced as a Lidl-Trek Future Racing rider for 2026, following in the wheel-tracks of Grindley.

"It's still sinking in to be honest. I'm really happy to have won the race, I really liked the course," Hudson said in his post-race press conference, speaking to Matilda Price of Cyclingnews. "It suited me quite a lot, it was going to be really hard and attritional. It's crazy."

There was no plan for Hudson, a winner of junior Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the junior CiCLE Classic this year, to attack from that far out, it just happened that way, he explained.

"When the break went up the road, I had a teammate in it so I was pretty happy to just sit there and let them do what they wanted," he said.

"The plan was just to be up near the front of the race, and I saw an opportunity with 35km to go. I just decided to give it a go, and see if anyone came. I was solo, so I just decided to see if I could hold on, settled into my rhythm.

"At the top of the cobbled climb was maybe where I thought I probably had it."

While he his the first male junior road race world champion, the men are following the women; Cat Ferguson won the junior women's road race in Zürich last year, and Zoe Bäckstedt won the event twice, in 2021 and 2022. Before them, Nicole Cooke and Lucy van der Haar also won twice each.

In the men's race on Friday, Hudson was followed in by Max Hinds in fourth, and Matthew Peace in fourth.

"The British riders this year were super strong, we've got lots of racing, the level is really high," Hudson explained. "The support we get from GB at these events is great, we've basically got everything done for us, so we can just focus on performing in the race, which we did today."

The UCI has retired the number 84 for all future UCI Road World Championships junior women's road races as a mark of respect towards Muriel Furrer, who passed away during last year's event.

The Swiss junior rider suffered a serious head injury after crashing in the Zurich road race last September, and died after being airlifted to hospital.

Omitting number 84 from the starting roster in future junior women's road Worlds would be a tribute to Furrer, said newly re-elected UCI president David Lappartient.

"The death of Muriel Furrer, a promising young rider with a bright future ahead of her, during our UCI Road and Para-cycling Road World Championships last year cast a shadow of mourning over the event and the entire cycling community," he said.

"One year later to the day, our thoughts are still with her, her loved ones, and her Federation, Swiss Cycling. To pay tribute to Muriel, the UCI has decided that the race number she wore during the event will no longer be assigned in the Women Junior road race at the UCI World Championships for road cycling."

Furrer's death threw up a multitude of questions, with details of how the crash happened and how long it took before she received medical attention in short supply.

"We don’t know exactly what happened, that’s the job of the police, they are working on it, to figure out the conditions of how the accident happened," said Lappartient at the time.

Questions were also asked as to whether the use of race radios – prohibited in World Championships races – could have meant Furrer received earlier medical attention.

Most recently the UCI trialled the use of GPS trackers at the Tour de Romandie Féminin, and all riders are using them in this week's World Championships. This comes as part of the governing body's SafeR initiative, with the specific aim of being able to quickly locate a stopped rider – for example in a crash situation like that of Furrer.

"This system, operated from the UCI Road World Championships control centre, will enable real-time monitoring of data regarding the position and speed of the entire peloton, thus allowing for immediate identification of any unusual situations, such as a rider suddenly stopping on the course," a UCI release said.

Lappartient has also expressed a desire to see GPS used in all WorldTour events.

After Friday morning's junior men's road race victory by Great Britain's Harry Hudson, the World Championships continue today with the under-23 men's road race this afternoon. The elite women's road race is held tomorrow (Saturday 27 Sept) and the Championships culminate in the elite men's road race on Sunday (28 Sept).

If you thought that Zürich’s UCI Road World Championships road race was hilly, think again. As Africa hosts the event for the first time, Kigali brings an incredibly climb-heavy course to the table. With 5,475m of elevation over 267.5km in the elite men’s, it is the hilliest road race since Sallanches in 1980, and the only time over 5,000m of climbing has been tackled in the 21st century. Think less typical road race, and more Giro d’Italia epic mountain day.

Similarly, the elite women’s race officially has 3,350m of elevation, the most of any Worlds road race in the professional era.

All of this will be done at altitude, too, with Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, 1,567 metres above sea level, higher than the capital of Andorra, where many pro cyclists live. It is a World Championships made for climbers.

The road races do not leave the capital, which is likely to do with the logistics of taking the world’s best riders to a developing country; while the Tour du Rwanda makes a habit of travelling around, the best roads, relaid for such an occasion, are in Kigali.

This is not a race to show off a country, but instead to show off one city, a reasonably young one at that, founded in 1907 when Rwanda was part of the German Empire.

The men’s road race takes on two circuits, the local one, starting and finishing at Kigali’s Convention Centre, which is around 15km long, and an extension circuit of 42.5km which takes in both Mount Kigali and the Mur de Kigali. Both are used at the Tour du Rwanda, with Mount Kigali being 5.9km at 5.9%, and the cobbled Mur de Kigali being 400m at 11%. Neither should decide the race, but should soften the legs.

The local circuit is tackled nine times before the extension loop, and then six more times after. On the course are two climbs, the Côte de Kigali Golf, 800m at 8.1%, and the Côte de Kimihurura, 1.3km at 6.1%, the latter following a cobbled sector. It is not the length or gradient which should be a worry, but their repetition, as the kilometres tick on.

In the women’s race, the local circuit is the only part raced, but 11 times. The Kimihurura represents the final punch up to the line in both the women’s and men’s races, a final kick to split the race up, not that it will need it by then.

Women's elite road race route

Distance: 164.6km
Elevation: 3,350m

Men's elite road race route

Distance: 267.5km
Elevation: 5,475m

Great Britain's Harry Hudson stormed to victory in the men's junior road race at the UCI Road World Championships on Friday, escaping with 36km to go and soloing to the line.

The 18-year-old, a winner of junior Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the junior CiCLE Classic, is the first ever British rider to be junior world champion in the men's road race.

Backing up a strong effort by the British men, Max Hinds finished fourth and Matthew Peace fifth, meaning there were three Brits in the top five in Kigali, Rwanda.

Hudson's attack came on the antepenultimate lap on the Côte de Kimihurura, just after Beckam Drake of the USA had been caught. Despite attempts from behind, he held off the charging peloton. Johan Blanc of France finished second and Jan Michal Jackowiak of Poland third.

"It's probably still settling in, I don't really know what's happening. I dunno," Hudson, national junior hill-climb champion, said when asked for his thoughts on TV at the finish line.

Asked if the attack from so far out was the plan, he said: "No. I just saw in the moment that people were sitting up and it had been quite hard up that climb so I just went, thought someone else would go. I just settled in and saw how far I could go. I thought I was going to get caught with a lap to go or something, because there were people quite close, but I just ended up staying away. I was really suffering on the final climb, I think there was a French guy behind, but I just managed to stay away."

"Just after the cobbles, or maybe the flat bit in the cobbles, I just realised that a French person was dropping back and it looked like I was going to the line," he continued.

"In Africa is crazy, this is my first time in Africa. Just winning a world title, I don't really know what to say."

As for his future plans, Hudson said: "Making cycling a career, we'll see where it goes. Just riding my bike, it's what I love."

While winning the junior men's road race is no guarantee of future success, previous winners include Mathieu van der Poel, Felix Gall, Remco Evenepoel and Quinn Simmons. Hudson currently rides for the Harrogate Nova Race Team.

It is the second rainbow jersey for Great Britain this week, after Zoe Bäckstedt triumphed in the under-23 women's time trial.

Results

1. Harry Hudson (GBr), in 2:55:19
2. Johan Blanc (Fra), +16s
3. Jan Michal Jackowiak (Pol), at same time
4. Max Hinds (GBr), +22s
5. Matthew Peace (GBr), +24s
6. Édouard Claisse (Bel)
7. Elias Wändel (Swe)
8. Daan Dijkman (Ned)
9. Moritz Mauss (Ger)
10 Benedikt Benz (Ger)

Four days can be a long time in cycling. Already this week, Tadej Pogačar has been on two training rides, raced against Kigali locals on rusty bikes, and welcomed his Slovenian road race team-mates to Rwanda. He's been crowded by fans, and stopped for selfies. Business as usual. And just like that, the disappointment of the time trial at the UCI Road World Championships feels like a distant memory.

Pogačar finished just one second off a medal in time trial last Sunday, after he was tagged and passed by Remco Evenepoel, who started two-and-a-half minutes behind. At the time, the Slovenian said the overtake was a “hard one to swallow”, but a long four days have passed, and he's now raring to put the “bad feeling” behind him, and keep his rainbow jersey.

“When I arrived here [in Kigali] I was training two days on the TT bike and then raced, and I didn’t catch my rhythm, I didn’t catch my legs,” he said in a press conference on Thursday. “After Sunday, I switched to road bike, and I don’t have any issues now this week. I’ve gotten used to the environment, to the altitude, also to the weather and just everything. I think now the legs are turning pretty well every day."

As Pogačar sat in front of the world's press, a row of microphones in front of him, he looked calm, relaxed, perhaps worn down by the volume of interviews he's done this year as the world's number one cyclist.

He knows that, come this Sunday, he will be the overwhelming favourite for the road race world title. His objective is clear. "The expectations are high, I expect a lot from my legs, and also the result should be we aim for the best," he said. "I think we have one of the strongest teams here, so we should be considered as top contenders."

Within the Slovenia squad that will support Pogačar is five-time Grand Tour champion Primož Roglič, Milan-San Remo winner Matej Mohorič and UAE Team Emirates-XRG domestique Domen Novak.

Sunday’s course in Kigali has been hailed as one of the hardest in World Championships history, stretching 267.5km, with 5,475m of elevation. The largest climb – Mont Kigali at 1,771m altitude – will be summited with around 100km remaining.

Coincidentally, Pogačar’s winning attack in Zurich last year came with 100km to go – a move he described afterwards as “stupid – but it worked”. Might he try from range again? “It’s always an option to attack wherever you want if you have the legs,” he said.

“For me personally, the best part on paper would be the longer climb, Mont Kigali. The consecutive two next climbs, the cobbled climbs, are short and sweet, but the only problem with that it’s quite a long way to the finish.

“When you race so much, and you always race for the win, and most of the eyes are on you all the time in the big races, obviously you can make mistakes. You have to try different things as well. You cannot always do the same thing.”

As the defending champion, Pogačar understands “there will be guys who just look at me” in Sunday's race. He, too, will be looking at certain riders. Asked who he sees as contenders, the first name he listed was Evenepoel, the man who caught him in the time trial.

“We saw how he was flying in the TT. I think he’s in good shape also for the road race,” Pogačar said.

“Then I have my teammates from UAE, they’re quite big contenders, like [Mexico’s Isaac] del Toro, Pavel [Sivakov, France] is flying now. And then you have [Great Britain’s Tom] Pidcock; he’s coming off a good Vuelta, so maybe he still has really good legs."

Still, the Slovenian was keen to add: "We shouldn’t care too much about the opponents, but focus on your race, on your legs, because it’s so long and so difficult.”

With three sleeps to go, the finishing touches have been made, the acclimatisation is complete. "I got an extra boost now these days for Sunday," Pogačar said. On Tuesday, he completed his final training ride in the rainbow jersey, a privilege he will now give his all to keep.

Might he also be fuelled by revenge after the pain of the time trial?

“Probably Remco also wanted revenge for the Tour de France when he was caught by Jonas [Vingegaard] in the mountain TT. I think that was good for him. I think he ticked off one bad moment of this year," Pogačar said.

"Now, on Sunday, maybe it can be my turn to tick off and put away that not so bad day, but bad feeling when someone catches you, to put it aside."

In the first ever edition of the women's under-23 road race at the UCI Road World Championships, Celia Géry of France took the spoils, powering home in an uphill sprint ahead of second place Slovakia's Viktória Chladoňová in Kigali.

Third place went to Spain's Paula Blasi, who caught and outsprinted Géry's loyal team-mate Marion Bunel, who had turned herself inside-out in support of Géry on the final climb of the Côte de Kimihurura.

Canadian favourite Isabella Holmgren looked among the strongest riders all day, but was unable to match the French assault on the final climb. She finished sixth, with Imogen Wolff first Brit home in 12th place. Katherine Sarkisov of the USA finished in 14th, the best-placed American.

"It's unbelievable," said Géry afterwards. "It's been a long time coming, but it's great."

She praised her French team-mates, saying Bunel was amazing at the finish, and with Julie Bego also putting in a strong shift.

"There were only three of us on the team, but we managed to race perfectly, we had three very strong girls," she said.

"I knew there were still a few other girls behind who were dangerous in the sprint, so I wanted to stay with Chladoňová," she added. "I wasn't too, too confident coming here, but I did have confidence in my team."

How it happened

The hillly 15km lap around the centre of Kigali was always going to make this historic race an attritional one.

Riders dropped off the back of the bunch on the two climbs of the Côte de Kigali Golf and the Côte de Kimihurura all day, with a large number not finishing the race.

The final three laps of the 119km race had seen the peloton whittled down to an elite front group of 14 riders – including favourite Isabella Holmgren and Britain's Imogen Wolff – which waxed and waned as it looped over the two ascents.

A flurry of attacks as the bunch crossed the finish line for the penultimate time came to nothing and were immediately followed by a phoney war, as the pace eased and riders sought to conserve energy.

With 12km to go a 10-rider chasing group behind caught the front-runners and straight away Sweden's Stina Kagevi attacked, gaining 40 seconds within a few kilometres.

But the riders behind were saving themselves for the ascents and on the Kigali Golf climb Kagevi was caught by a very useful looking quartet including Géry and Holmgren.

In turn though, they were caught too by the chasers behind, just in time for an all-out assault on the final Kimihurura climb, led by Bunel.

Chladoňová followed hot on her heels along with Géry, and Bunel led the way right to the final few hundred metres, where Chladoňová's initial burst was no match for Géry, who looked her straight in the eye as she came round to take the victory.

Results

1. Celia Géry (Fra) in 3:24:26
2. Viktória Chladoňová (Slo), +2s
3. Paula Blasi (Spa), +12s
4. Eleonora Ciabocco (Ita)
5. Marion Bunel (Fra), all a same time
6. Isabella Holmgren (Can), +17
7. Ilena Ivanchenko (INA), +20s
8. Lore De Schepper (Bel), +25s
9. Talia Appleton (Aus), +31s
10. Linda Riedmann (Ger), +54s

Chloé Dygert displayed a message in support of the assassinated right-wing American activist Charlie Kirk during her time trial at the UCI Road World Championships on Sunday, appearing to break UCI rules.

The message, clearly visible on her front fork in photographs of the 28-year-old racing in Kigali, Rwanda, on Sunday, reads: "I stand for the truth. I stand with Charlie Kirk."

Dygert, a former TT world champion, finished ninth, 2:32 behind the winner, Marlen Reusser of Switzerland.

Kirk, a right-wing commentator and ally of Donald Trump, was killed while speaking at a university campus event in Utah earlier this month. His death has led to debates over free speech in the USA.

According to the UCI's Code of Ethics: "In dealings with government institutions, national and international organisations, associations and groupings, persons bound by the Code shall remain politically neutral, in accordance with the principles and objectives of the UCI, whenever expressing themselves on behalf of the organisation they represent."

It also states: "The persons bound by the Code shall not undertake any action, use any denigratory words, or any other means, that offend the human dignity of a person or group of persons, on any grounds including but not limited to skin colour, race, religion, ethnic or social origin, political opinion, sexual orientation, disability or any other reason contrary to human dignity."

Earlier this month, in a statement regarding the pro Palestine protests that impacted the Vuelta a España, the UCI condemned "the exploitation of sport for political purposes in general".

In 2020, Dygert was forced to apologise after it came to light that she had liked a series of racist and transphobic posts on Twitter.

"Cycling should be for everyone regardless of colour, gender, sexuality or background. Like Canyon SRAM Racing, I am committed to promoting diversity, inclusion and equality in cycling and our wider communities," Dygert said at the time.

The Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto rider is open about her Christianity and her conservative opinions. Her Instagram bio currently reads: "I stand for the truth ✝️ Glory to God ✝️ Jeremiah 29:11 ✝️".

Kirk was known for making provocative comments, often sexist and racist, in appearances on podcasts, at universities, and on television. He was the founder of Turning Point USA, a group which promoted right-wing view points at universities across America.

Cycling USA and the UCI have both been contacted for comment

The biggest event at every UCI Road World Championships is always the elite road race – sorry to time trial fans – with the week being closed out with the women's and men's versions.

There have been 91 separate elite men's road race world champions since 1927, with the race happening every year, apart from 1939 to 1945, when they were paused, understandably, due to the Second World War.

So, ahead of the men's race this Sunday, why not test your knowledge of the 91 winners – although, be warned, there are some repeats. To help, we've given you the year and location of each Worlds, so you have something to guide you, although we imagine that the further back in time you go, the less useful this will be.

There are some people on this list that our cycling-mad team have barely heard of, so good luck to you. Here's an obvious tip: just name some famous cyclists from history, although not all of the all-time greats succeeded at the Worlds. Do note that this is road race world champions only, so time trial victors don't count for this.

Last names are good enough for this quiz, and while we applaud knowing exactly where accents and other diacritics go, we have allowed you to skip those should you wish. The clock is ticking down from 10 minutes. Good luck.

Young US talent Ashlin Barry finished second in the junior men's time trial at the UCI Road World Championships on Tuesday, as Michiel Mouris of the Netherlands won.

Barry, 17, who is reigning US men's junior national time trial champion, followed Mouris out onto the course in Kigali, Rwanda, but was unable to overhaul his time. He finished just six seconds behind.

Mouris, 18, completed the 22.6km course in 29:07.61, at an average speed of 46.555km/h.

Third was Seff Van Kerckhove of Belgium, who finished two further seconds behind Barry, in a tight podium. Barry's fellow American, Beckam Drake, finished in fourth, five seconds off third place, while Great Britain's Max Hinds was another five seconds further back in fifth.

"It’s incredible to win here, and it was really, really difficult," Mouris said on television post-race. "You had the time trials the days before, I knew a lot of guys would blow up. I tried to start conservative but it was still really long to the line, a hard fight."

Mouris was the second Dutch world champion of the day, after Megan Arens won the women's junior time trial by more than half a minute. Spain's Paula Ostiz finished second, with Oda Aune Gissinger of Norway in third. GB's Erin Boothman, the pre-race favourite, missed out on the podium by 11 seconds after unclipping on the final cobbled climb, and finished fifth.

"It’s amazing for the whole team, it’s incredible that we both win here, and I think it says we’re with a good staff here and everything is good," Mouris said.

"I cannot believe it, actually. It's really humbling, I don't know what to say," Arens said earlier.

More to follow...

Sweden's Jakob Söderqvist became his country's first ever under-23 men's time trial world champion on Monday after a commanding performance in Kigali at the UCI Road World Championships.

The 22-year-old crossed the finish line 1:04 faster than second-place Nate Pringle of New Zealand to take victory.

Maxime Decomble (France) finished third to Pringle after laying down the second fastest time at point 1, as Callum Thornley, the only Brit in the under-23 men's event, finished just short of the podium in fifth, 1:11 slower than Söderqvist.

“The preparations before this [race] has been extra everything because as soon as I finished second last year, the goal was for this year,” Söderqvist said at the finish.

“This is the one thing in the U23 category that I care about the most so it was preparations all year round to just make this one as good as possible. I had a good feeling coming into this and I'm really happy with how I handled the situation.

“[The pressure] is a challenge I really like to have as well. In a career, I think handling pressure is a key success factor, and for sure I want to [go on to] win some of the biggest races. At that point you have got to be the best at handling pressure."

Speaking about the 31.2km loop of Kigali the riders took on this afternoon, involving three climbs and a cobbled finish, Söderqvist said: “It was not the easiest one to pace for sure… but I can depend on my feeling, I know that I am a TT specialist and it’s the pacing that makes it, so I just trusted myself and trusted my feeling and I knew what to make out of it.”

But before Söderqvist set off from the start gate, drums rolling, the race's preliminary podium had already begun to shuffle. Mateusz Gajdulewicz (Poland) had been in the hot seat for over an hour before Jonas Walton finally toppled him with a time of 39.51. Though the Canadian national champion barely had time to catch his breath before Pringle caught him, having made 23 seconds on Walton.

Decomble, sprinting at full effort, ended his push a fraction too early, clipping his potential second place podium by a fraction of a second.

In the background to the podium reshuffle, however, was Söderqvist, thundering across the course, leading the race by 14 seconds at the point 1, then by 24 seconds at the second. By the third point, Söderqvist was leading by 31 seconds and his race was already won, finishing 38.24 seconds ahead of Pringle.

Taking a swig of water at the end of his race run, Söderqvist didn’t seem to have broken a sweat compared to his competitors who, dazed, recovered at the other side of the final.

Results

Men’s Under-23 Individual Time Trial

1. Jakob Söderqvist (Sweden), in 38.24
2. Nate Pringle (New Zealand), +1.03
3. Maxime Decomble (France), +1.04
4. Lorenzo Finn (Italy), +1.08
5. Callum Thornley (Great Britain), +1.11
6. Jonal Walton (Canada), +1.26
7. Mateusz Gajdulewicz (Poland), +1.28
8. Jonathan Vervenne (Belgium), +1.33
9. Héctor Martínez (Spain), +1.40
10. Hamish McKenzie (Australia), +1.48

It was a sight that few people thought they'd ever see – four-time Tour de France champion Tadej Pogačar, a rider whom it is easy to think of as invincible – being caught and passed for two-and-a-half minutes in a time trial by Remco Evenepoel.

The unlikely catch happened in yesterday's elite men's time trial in Kigali, Rwanda at the UCI Road World Championships, as the pair tackled the cobbled climb of the Côte de Kimihurura with around a kilometre left of the 40.6km event.

Evenepoel's up-and-down trajectory over the past two seasons, during which he has won Olympic and World titles but suffered major crashes and failed at some of his biggest objectives, made his routing of the Slovenian feel all the more unlikely. But what is good for the goose is good for the gander, and on this occasion it was Pogačar's turn to show that bad luck can happen to anyone.

Asked how he felt when Evenepoel passed him, Pogačar was ready, as ever, with a quip: "For sure it was a hard one to swallow, but he's Remco, he's too good in this discipline. I hope he prepared 100% for today and he will be 99% ready for next Sunday," he said.

And when one journalist wished him a happy birthday but pointed out it maybe wasn't the present he had hoped for, Pogačar joked: "I don't want to spoil myself on my birthday to win today… so let's try and win on Sunday."

Evenepoel, for his part, played down the incident: “This wasn't my goal for the race, I just wanted to win, and catching him or not didn't really matter. So I think it's not something that we need to make bigger than it is. Because I've also been passed in a TT this year, so it's something that happens or doesn't happen.

"Once you have a rider in sight, you just want to go as fast as possible towards him, because it gives some extra motivation to go through the pain wall, but it was not something that was in my head."

Pogačar, who is the reigning world road race champion, had arrived under-prepared for the time trial, he said, after falling sick in the run-up to the recent Canadian double-header, the GP Montréal and GP Quebec, and missing key sessions on the time trial bike.

"I can be happy with how I suffered today," he said after his unaccustomed fourth place. "It was not my best performance but good in the circumstances. Before Canada I couldn't finish my block of training on the TT bike. I'm looking forward more for the Sunday road race anyway," he insisted.

"After I got sick before Canada… it wasn't that I gave up on the TT but I had to skip a few important training sessions on the TT bike," he said. "But I knew that if I wanted to be 100% for the road race I had to go to Canada.

He added: "I think Canada (where he was 29th at Québec and second at Montréal) was a good decision for the road race."

Pogačar's main focus is clearly Sunday's elite men's road race, in which he will attempt to defend his title over a 267km course featuring a brutal 5,475m of climbing. The race will see him go up against Evenepoel again, Great Britain's Tom Pidcock, Thymen Arensman of the Netherlands and Juan Ayuso of Spain among others.

"I've been enjoying the last few days here training and I'm really looking forward to the road race," he said. "Now I need to just do two more hard training sessions and I'm ready for Sunday."

Zoe Bäckstedt thundered to her first under-23 road world title on Monday, winning the time trial at the UCI Road World Championships in Rwanda.

The Brit, a three-time junior road world champion, won by 1:50 ahead of Slovakia's Viktória Chladoňová, averaging 43.8kph over the 22.6km course.

So dominant was Bäckstedt's effort, that she caught and passed two riders on her way to victory: Julia Kopecký (Czech Republic), who started 1:30 ahead of her, and Marie Schreiber (Luxembourg), who had a 3:00 head start.

Beyond the finish line, the 20-year-old fell in a heap on the floor, empty after the course's final cobbled climb. She has now won her last five races against the clock, and nine rainbow jerseys, split across road, track and cyclo-cross disciplines.

"I was of course nervous before the start. I think that's natural in one of these championship events," Bäckstedt said afterwards.

Those nerves began to subside when, before even the halfway mark, she overtook Kopecký, a fellow WorldTour-level rider.

At the first time check, the Brit posted the fastest time by 16 seconds. She then grew her lead to 34 seconds by the second, which fell between the course's two climbs.

"Those two climbs that we had to do just zapped your legs completely," Bäckstedt said. "I have to say, it was quite fun on that downhill going super quick. I’m looking forward to seeing what my maximum speed was in that one.

"Hearing that I was up at the first time check, only by 16 seconds, I thought, 'Ok it's possible to lose that on the last climb.' But I just kept pushing as hard as I could on the section in between."

Waiting in the hot seat for Bäckstedt's arrival, Chladoňová had drawn out her lead on the closing climb: the Côte de Kimihurura (1.3km at 6.3%). The Brit, too, ploughed into the cobbles, passing Schreiber with 1km to go, and charging in victory to the line.

Having decided not to take part in the under-23 road race, Bäckstedt will now leave Rwanda with a rainbow jersey. In fact, this year's Road World Championships mark the third of the 20-year-old's career, at each of which she has won at least one title: the junior road race in 2021, and the junior road race and time trial in 2022.

"It means a lot," Bäckstedt said of her latest exploit. "Hopefully next time I can try out for the elites."

The bronze medal was won by Italy's Federica Venturelli.

Results

Women's under-23 individual time trial, Kigali > Kigali (22.6km)

1. Zoe Bäckstedt (Great Britain) in 30:56
2. Viktória Chladoňová (Slovakia), +1:50
3. Federica Venturelli (Italy), +2:11
4. Felicity Wilson-Haffenden (Australia), +2:21
5. Alena Ivanchencko (Individual Neutral Athlete), +2:22
6. Millie Couzens (Great Britain), +2:37
7. Justyna Czapla (Germany), +2:47
8. Alli Anderson (Australia), +2:53
9. Tabea Huys (Austria), +2:59
10. Ava Holmgreen (Canada), +3:05

After Marlen Reusser (Switzerland) and Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) were crowned world champions in the elite categories on Sunday, the 2025 UCI Road World Championships continue on Monday with the under-23 individual time trials.

The women's event begins first, at 9:50 (BST), and is set on a 22.6km route with 350m elevation. The course counts two climbs: the Côte de Nyanza (2.5km at 5.8%) and the cobbled Côte de Kimihurura (1.3km at 6.3%) which leads up towards the finish line.

The men's event starts later in the afternoon, at 12:50 (BST). Its course is exactly the same as women's elite time trial on Sunday, stretching out 31.2km on a loop south of Kigali. The riders will climb 460m in total, over three climbs: the Côte de Nyanza, which is ascended from both sides, and the Côte de Kimihurura.

One rider to look out for on the women's under-23 start list is Great Britain's Zoe Bäckstedt, a three-time junior world champion, who will roll down the ramp last, at 11:05 (BST). Speaking ahead of the race, the 20-year-old said she is going to "give it 200% to try and go for that gold medal".

In the men's event, the last rider to start will be Sweden's Jakob Söderqvist, who finished runner-up to Spaniard Iván Romeo last year, and will ride for Lidl-Trek in 2026.

There are no defending champions in Monday's under-23 time trials in Rwanda, as Romeo and Antonia Niedermaier, last year's women's title winner, both stepped up to the elite category.

Other Brits competing on Monday include the national road champion Millie Couzens, who will begin her effort at 10:41 (BST), and Callum Thornley, the only Brit in the under-23 men's event, starting at 14:34 (BST).

Below are all the start times for all 110 riders competing across the women's and men's under-23 time trials, listed in British Summer Time. The local time in Kigali (Central African Time) is one hour ahead. All the riders will set off at 1:30 intervals.

Women's start list

Men's start list

When David Lappartient was first elected as UCI President in 2017, he vowed to bring the Road World Championships to Africa for the first time. Eight years later, it's happening. The 2025 Worlds in Kigali, Rwanda, has been hailed as a breakthrough moment for the globalisation of the sport and a catalyst for the development of African cycling.

Lappartient said that witnessing an African Worlds was his "dream", and the UCI has invested heavily in the development of cycling on the continent in recent years, hoping to see a stream of riders move up the sporting ladder, emulating the likes of Biniam Girmay and Kim Le Court-Pienaar.

What cannot be ignored, however, is Rwanda's history of human rights abuses and its role in a brutal conflict in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as well as organisational hurdles for the championships. Will the Kigali Worlds be Lappartient's dream come true, or could it be something more akin to a nightmare?

In January, Rwanda hit the headlines after fighting broke out in eastern DRC between Rwandan-backed rebel group M23 and the Congolese military. In the following months, M23 took control of large parts of the provinces of North and South Kivu. The DRC's prime minister Judith Tuluka Suminwa has stated that approximately 7,000 people, including combatants and civilians, have been killed in the eastern conflict since January 2025.

Millions of people have been displaced since the start of the year, while reports from human rights organisations claim that war crimes have been carried out, including torture, attacks on displacement camps and forced deportations. This is a conflict that has ebbed and flowed for decades and is rooted in the same ethnic tensions that led to the 1994 Rwanda genocide.

Rwanda has always denied involvement with M23, but evidence presented by human rights groups appears to confirm that the country commands the group and supplies it with weapons, resources and intel. This leads many experts to believe that Rwanda is perpetrating war crimes and human rights abuses in DRC.

Rwanda has human rights problems on its own soil too. Over the past decade, though the country has been praised for stability, economic growth and social development, reports of political repression, a lack of freedom of expression and other human rights abuses have proliferated.

"There are several pillars with which you can gauge Rwanda's human rights record, and on most of them [it] has an abysmal record," says Lewis Mudge, Central Africa director of Human Rights Watch. Despite having covered the conflict between DRC, Rwanda and various rebel militias for decades, Mudge has been shocked by what has occurred this year. "It's really hard to find words that express how surprised I am at the level of cruelty of the killings, particularly of women and children," he says.

"M23 is Rwandan-backed. This is not up for debate, any objective observer knows this... The Rwandan Defence Forces have been actively engaged for months in M23 taking territory."

The Rwandan government's role in what has been termed the Kivu Conflict led to calls from the European Parliament to the UCI to rescind its plans to host the Worlds in Rwanda. The allegation is that Rwanda is using these World Championships as a vehicle to airbrush their international image, a technique commonly known as 'sportswashing'.

Rwanda has upped its investment in sport sponsorship in recent years. Its Visit Rwanda logo has been seen on the kits of football teams such as Arsenal and PSG, and the government's next goal is to stage a Formula 1 race in Kigali.

When the World Championships in Kigali were announced by the UCI in 2021 and Lappartient was asked by reporters whether it was appropriate for cycling to host its flagship event in a nation with such a human rights record, he was bullish in his response, stating that the UCI takes human rights seriously, adding "sometimes we shouldn't look at all the world's governments through the prism of our strictly European way of doing things."

More recently, he said to Cyclist: "We are confident that the situation will be under control. Our mission is to be politically neutral [and] to call for peace. It's also to make sure we are not used for political reasons." Mudge is critical of these comments, saying: "The problem with this argument is that it refuses to acknowledge, at least publicly, that sporting events are a means by which the Rwandan government seeks legitimacy and to wash its reputation.

It wants these types of events to overshadow both its domestic human rights record and what it is doing in Congo." He has a question for cycling fans too. "Are you comfortable with your sport leaning in towards these countries that are becoming more and more openly authoritarian?" Mudge stops short of advocating for a boycott of the World Championships in Rwanda, but encourages the raising of awareness of what is happening.

Several federations have publicly stated over the past year that the costs of competing at the Kigali Worlds have far exceeded other recent championships. The Netherlands, Denmark and Ireland have indicated that these costs have obliged them to take reduced squads to Kigali, leaving U23 and junior riders at home.

These withdrawals have been a blow to the Worlds, compounded by race favourites such as Jonas Vingegaard and Puck Pieterse pulling out, both citing that the additional pressure of travel to Rwanda would negatively impact their other goals. Belgian Cycling CEO Nathalie Clauwaert claimed that the total financial outlay for the 2025 Worlds is around double that of Wollongong, Australia, in 2022, accusing Rwanda's hospitality sector of hiking up prices exponentially.

However, another national federation told Cycling Weekly that the cost per head for the Kigali Worlds is around the same as Wollongong and Zürich. There had been talk of cost mitigations being arranged such as charter flights and hotel discounts, but it appears that no such support has been offered.

"It's always expensive for us," says South Africa's Louis Meintjes, responding to complaints about the cost. The 33-year-old adds that African federations have always faced larger logistics bills than their European counterparts: "We [the African contingent] have been at that disadvantage for years... it's always super expensive."

"[Major events] being held in Africa now and then makes the game a bit fairer." He is right that only European countries have complained about the cost. For Meintjes, staging the Worlds in Africa is a small but meaningful step toward levelling the playing field.

Ugandan rider Florence Nakagwa, who races for Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto's development team, points out that it is a welcome change for African teams not to have to worry about visa restrictions. "In the past, riders have been selected for World Championships only for their visa to mysteriously fail to be processed," she says. "This time around, that should not happen."

The UCI wants these landmark World Championships to create a new wave of African cycling success. The governing body hopes to see the sport globalise beyond its traditional roots, boosting African cycling and inspiring a new generation to strive to reach the top level of the sport, which has been a central goal of the UCI's World Cycling Centre (WCC).

Of course, the most important piece in the puzzle is financial investment, which is why the UCI has invited dignitaries from across Africa to Kigali, hoping to inspire them to fund cycling development in their respective nations. This could bring about more UCI racing across the African continent, better coaching and equipment for athletes and opportunities for riders to travel to races.

Taken together, such changes would strengthen the foundations of the sport in Africa and could prove to be a positive legacy. Alongside the call for funding, the WCC has been working with young talent as part of its 'Africa 2025' programme, which was launched simultaneously with the announcement of the Kigali Worlds.

Dozens of riders from across the continent were selected over a three-year period and invited to training camps in South Africa, with the best of those progressing on to further camps in Brittany, France, where they could spend several weeks working with UCI coaches and racing in local and national-level events.

WCC coach Clint Hendricks explains that it can be a rude awakening for African riders when they come face-to-face with the reality of top-level competition. "We have to sometimes just take a step back and realise where these kids are coming from," he says, speaking over video call from the UCI headquarters in Aigle, Switzerland.

"They have raw talent and raw engines, but compared to some of the European riders who started cycling at an early age, they have a big gap to make up." It is not raw power that African riders lack, adds Hendricks, but technical and tactical aspects of the sport. In Africa, where races take place on wide roads with little furniture, the tactics are aggressive, with a clear hierarchy of talent.

Riders can soon find themselves out of their depth in Europe. Several talented Africans have made strong progress during their time with the WCC. Hendricks points to examples including Rwandan Jazilla Mwamikazi, whom he first started working with in 2023. "When she started, she didn't really understand how to operate the gears properly, and had an awkward position on the bike, but this year there's been a really super upward curve," he says. "She's not even close to her full potential yet...

The [European] girls are afraid when she rocks up to the line, even the local girls in Brittany. She's won eight or nine out of 10 races this year locally." The UCI is hoping to see several riders from its programme perform well at the World Championships, partly to inspire the next intake. That is one way, Hendricks believes, to avoid the Kigali championships ultimately being regarded as a one-off.

Since the demise of the Qhubeka team - a previous iteration of the team now known as Q36.5 - there has been a decline in the number of African riders turning professional. Hendricks hopes that Kigali 2025 will kick-start new programmes alongside the WCC's, with an intentional focus on developing African riders.

So should the Kigali Worlds be seen as a stain on cycling, or a moment of pride? They may, in reality, turn out to be both. However Lappartient frames it, in awarding its biggest event to Rwanda, the UCI has knowingly aligned itself with a regime that uses sport to launder its image. Yet at the same time, it has unlocked real opportunity: the Worlds are already fuelling cycling's growth in Africa and could inspire a new generation of riders.

If the UCI is serious about globalising the sport, it cannot avoid countries with poor human rights records - cycling is already entwined with the UAE, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, nations with their own chequered records. But Rwanda - the 'land of a thousand hills' - is different in one respect: cycling is deeply embedded in its culture, second only to football.

That passion makes the Worlds in Kigali more than a PR exercise. The sport must tread carefully in how it engages with the state, but if leaders on both sides are bold, this could be more than just another edition of the Worlds. It could be a moment to foster lasting progress, while refusing to look away from Rwanda's ongoing abuses.

After three trips to the UCI Road World Championships time trial podium without a win, Marlen Reusser finally took to the top step on Sunday morning with victory in Kigali, Rwanda.

The Swiss rider looked in control throughout and displayed extraordinary power on the day’s final steep cobbled climb to take the rainbow jersey.

She saw off early leader Anna van der Breggen, who took second, and the Dutchwoman's compatriot Demi Vollering, who came in third after fading in the final kilometres.

Reusser completed the hilly course in 43:09 and had a margin of 51 seconds to Van der Breggen.

Speaking at the finish, it was clear the win was a huge relief. Reusser said: “I almost can't believe it. I know it’s real and it happened but I’ve tried so many times and it didn’t work out and now I’ve made it. It’s really special.”

The Swiss rider has been one of the world’s best time triallists for years but this victory has alluded her, despite coming close on three occasions. She said it felt like she’d had ten near-misses, such was the frustration.

Reusser had finished 15 minutes before the final rider crossed the line, and her win could be confirmed, but she was still recovering from the effort. “I’m still breathing heavily. I’m not usually that type of high lactic acid rider but this course you could pace it polarised," she said.

“I went really hard on the climbs and on the final climb I think I went too hard in the beginning so I was full of lactic acid but I think it was the right way to pace it.”

She added: “I have an advantage as I’m quite a heavy rider so without a lot of effort I can go downhill pretty fast and then I can put in all my efforts in on the climbs.”

Reusser, beaming, was keen to thank her team around her who have helped her to those three World Championship podiums and now a win. “It now makes me happy for myself but even more for the whole group around me. Even if the sport wasn’t here, I’m full of love for these people,” she said.

Vollering, who had set off last, had looked like she might challenge Reusser but faded in the final kilometres, which featured the steep cobbled climb of Côte de Kimihurura and slotted into third place.

How it happened

Heralded by the sound of a Rwandan drum troop, Xaverine Nirere, the Rwandan time trial national champion, a little smile never far from her face, was first to roll down the start ramp.

The 23-year-old likely had few hopes of victory but was given a rapturous reception from the deep crowds that lined the course. Nirere could at least be confident of spending some time on the hot seat, not least of all because of her proven record at the discipline but also because she sported some of the best equipment of the early runners.

With a proper skinsuit and a top-of-the-range Factor time trial bike, complete with a disc wheel on the rear, she had an advantage over many of the early runners from fellow African nations who had baggy jerseys, shallow rimmed wheels and road bikes with no aero extensions. It was a stark reminder of the relative differences in resources between the different nations present, and a factor likely to cause minutes of difference between times over the 31km course.

Nirere crossed the line in 50:07 and sat atop the leader board for some time before she was deposed by Soraya Paladin from Italy, who knocked nearly a minute and a half off her time with a 48:36.

Paladin didn’t get any time to enjoy her stint atop the leaderboard as just moments later Hao Zhang from China set a 47:23 to go top. The Chinese woman did get to take her spot on the winner's chair for a few minutes before Sigrid Haugset from Norway knocked almost a minute off that with a 46:24.

By now, it was becoming clear that the biggest single difference maker on the course was the final cobbled climb of Côte de Kimihurura, despite being just 1.2km at 5.9%, as several riders had gained time on this final ascent, the fatigue setting in for others.

The Norwegian’s time in the hot seat was swiftly looking like it’d be limited as former road race world champion Van der Breggen was lighting up the timing sheets out on the course at every checkpoint. The first rider to tackle the cobbled climb on the TT bars, she crossed the line in 44:01, putting 2:23 into Haugset.

As Van der Breggen crossed the line, Britain’s only hope, Anna Henderson, who had realistic hopes of a medal, sped out of the BK Arena as the drums rolled on.

Meanwhile, at the finish, Kasia Niewiadoma (Poland) came in with the third best time, two and a half minutes down on Van der Breggen, giving some perspective on just how impressive the Dutchwoman’s ride had been.

Further back down the Kigali roads, Swiss rider Marlen Reusser, among the favourites for the title, had gone 15 seconds faster than Van der Breggen at a the first time check.

Things were starting to heat up as the big names reached the marker; Henderson went third fastest, faster than Van der Breggen at that point, while Vollering, who had been the last rider off, went second quickest by less than a second.

At the finish, Norwegian Katrine Aalerud did enough to take the provisional second place spot, 32 seconds down on Van der Breggen.

Reusser, displaying extraordinary power and control rolled into the finish in 43:09 to set the fastest time by a margin of 51 seconds. She gained half of her advantage on the final climb and out on the course only Vollering looked in a position to challenge her, but even that looked like a long shot.

Of the podium contenders, Henderson was the first to hit the crucial Kimihurura climb and looked laboured as she pushed a bigger gear than most of her rivals on the cobbles. Despite an impressive ride, she came in in seventh place.

Next was American Chloé Dygert, who had already spent a lot of time out on the course and came in eighth.

Vollering, was the final rider to come home but could do nothing to challenge Reusser and slotted into third place. Henderson and Dygert were bumped down to eighth and ninth, respectively.

Results

UCI Road World Championships, women's elite individual time trial: Kigali > Kigali (31.2km)

1. Marlen Reusser, Switzerland in 43.09
2. Anna van der Breggen, Netherlands, +51s
3. Demi Vollering, Netherlands, +1.04
4. Brodie Chapman, Australia, +1.20
5. Katrine Aalerud, Norway, +1.24
6. Antonia Niedermaier, Germany, +1.29
7. Juliette Labous, France, +1.32
8. Anna Henderson, Great Britain, +1.37
9. Chloé Dygert, USA, +2.25
10. Mireia Benito, Spain, +2.32

The men's elite individual time trial is the second event of this year's UCI Road World Championships in Kigali, Rwanda, following on from women's event on Sunday.

The course takes the riders on a 40.6km out-and-back route, starting at Kigali's BK Arena and returning to finish at the city's Convention Centre.

It will be the hilliest Worlds time trial since Bergen in 2017, with a total elevation of 680m, gained over four climbs: the Côte de Nyanza (tackled from both sides – firstly 2.5km at 5.8%, and then 4.1km at 3.1%), the Côte de Peage (2km at 6%), and finally the Côte de Kimihurura (1.3km at 6.3%), which is cobbled and leads the riders to a closing kicker at the finish line.

The event begins at 12:45 (BST) with local Rwandan rider Shemu Nsengiyumva the first to roll down the ramp. The last rider to begin his effort will be the defending champion Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) at 15:00.

Evenepoel, who also won gold at the Olympics last summer, is one of two clear favourites for the title in Kigali, alongside Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia). The four-time Tour de France winner will be the penultimate rider to start, doing so at 14:57:30. Also among the contenders are Luke Plapp (Australia) at 14:12, his compatriot Jay Vine at 14:50, and Stefan Küng (Switzerland) at 14:55.

There are three reigning world champions on the start list: Evenepoel, who is targeting three in a row, last year's under-23 champion Iván Romeo (Spain), and Paul Seixas (France), the winner of the junior time trial in Zurich, and the youngest rider taking part on Sunday, still only 18 years old.

Below are all the start times for the 55 riders competing in the men's elite time trial, listed in British Summer Time. The local time in Kigali (Central African Time) is one hour ahead. All the riders will set off at 2:30 intervals.

Make sure you have read our guide on how to watch the Worlds.

The 2025 UCI Road World Championships in Kigali, Rwanda raise their curtain with the women's elite individual time trial this Sunday.

Starting at the BK Arena, the route stretches 31.2km on a loop south of the city, before returning to finish at the Kigali Convention Centre. The course climbs 460m in total, over three climbs: the Côte de Nyanza, which is ascended from both sides (2.5km at 5.8% on the first ascent, 4.1km at 3.1% on the second) and the cobbled Côte de Kimihurura (1.3km at 6.3%).

Among the contenders for the event are two-time winner Chloé Dygert (USA), who earned titles in 2019 and 2023, Demi Vollering (Netherlands), Marlen Reusser (Switzerland) and Olympic silver medallist Anna Henderson (Great Britain).

In total, 44 riders will compete in the women's elite time trial for the first rainbow jersey of this year's championships. The event will be followed by the men's elite individual time trial later the same day.

Below are all the start times for the women's event, listed in British Summer Time. The local time in Kigali (Central African Time) is one hour ahead.

All of the title favourites will be among the last to begin their efforts. Some of the times to look out for are: Reusser at 10:55, Henderson at 11:05, Dygert at 11:07:30 and Vollering, the last rider down the ramp, at 11:10.

Germany's Antonia Niedermaier, twice a winner in the under-23 category, is the youngest rider participating in the event, aged 22.

There are the only two previous elite time trial world champions on the start list: Dygert and Anna van der Breggen (Netherlands).

Make sure you have read our guide on how to watch the Worlds.

Few riders have a time trial record like Zoe Bäckstedt’s this season. The Brit, still only 20 years old, has won the last four races against the clock she has competed in, earning herself a national title and a WorldTour victory at the Simac Ladies Tour. Now, if she wins one more, she’ll take home a rainbow jersey.

Bäckstedt will compete in the under-23 time trial on Monday at the UCI Road World Championships in Rwanda, and she’ll do so as one of the favourites.

Speaking ahead of the event, the Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto rider said her winning streak leaves her feeling “super confident”, and ready to “give it 200% to try and go for that gold modal”.

“That’s the goal,” she said. “I would really love to be able to do that, but you never really know what’s going to happen on a course like this, also with the altitude to think about. I think that’s going to be a big part.”

The under-23 time trial course in Kigali is located at 1,600m above sea level, with two climbs: the Côte de Nyanza (1.5km at 5.8%) and the cobbled Côte de Kimihurura (1.3km at 6.3%), which leads up to the finish line. In total, the route stretches 22.6km and climbs 350m.

“It looks like a fun course, if you ask me, not super technical,” Bäckstedt said. “It should be a reasonable ratio of distance and climbing to what Nationals was, so that’s also quite exciting, just without that really, really, really steep climb that we had to do, thankfully, only one time.

“I’m excited for it, some cobbles at the end – why not throw them in? – that’s going to be also fun. I think it’s going to be hopefully easy to break down. You obviously have the long climb quite early on and then still pushing on the downhill trying to make up time wherever you can. I would say it’s quite a nice distance for me as well.”

On Bäckstedt’s last appearance at the Road World Championships in 2022, the Brit did the double in the junior ranks, winning the time trial and defending her road race title from 2021.

She considered entering in the elite category this year, together with Olympic silver medalist Anna Henderson, but decided the 31.2km course was “a little bit outside of my comfort zone”.

“It’s a little bit longer and not what I’m used to,” she said. “I think I’ve got a good shot at the under-23, and I’m still under-23 for this season, so why would I not try and go for it?

“I hope I’m in peak condition. The last weeks of training have been good, so we will only find out on the day.”

Alongside the 20-year-old, national road race champion Millie Couzens will also compete for Great Britian in the under-23 time trial. Bäckstedt has decided to forgo the road race, as the route is “not the one for me,” she said.

The 2025 UCI Road World Championships begin this Sunday 21 September with the elite women’s and men’s time trials. The under-23 time trial will take place on 22 September between 9:35am and 11:45 am UK time.

The 2025 UCI Road World Championships will take place in Kigali, Rwanda, in the coming week, marking the first time cycling’s biggest one-day titles are contested on African soil.

Over eight days of racing, 13 rainbow jerseys will be awarded in time trials and road races for juniors, under-23 and elite riders. Unlike the pro calendar, which is contested in trade teams, the Worlds see riders don their national colours to chase the most prestigious prize in cycling. For the winners, the reward is the ultimate accolade. In addition to going into the record book as best-in-the-world, winners also earn the right to wear the rainbow jersey for a season and the rainbow armband as a mark of their world champion status for life.

This year’s 98th edition has sparked a lot of debate, with safety concerns and the cost of travelling to a remote venue dominating the build-up. As a result, the group of contestants is smaller than it has been in other years. The Dutch federation has withdrawn its junior and under-23 squads altogether, the USA will send only a small delegation, and some of the sport's biggest stars are sitting this one out, including both defending elite road race champions. Men’s champion Mathieu van der Poel has opted to focus on mountain biking, while two-time women’s world champion Lotte Kopecky skips Rwanda due to lack of form.

Even so, the racing will be no less fierce, and with both defending champions absent, new names are guaranteed to be etched into cycling history. Our News Editor Adam Becket, North American Editor Anne-Marije Rook and Magazine Editor Simon Richardson take a stab at who they believe will be wearing the sport’s most iconic stripes next season — offering up their mind, heart and wild card picks.

Time Trials

The elite women kick off proceedings on Sunday, September 21, in the individual time trial, with the male contestants following 50 minutes after the women’s race concludes.

All time trials races share the same basic route, which is a highly unusual one featuring significant climbing and, even, some cobbles.

Not one for the pure time trial specialists like Filippo Ganna or Ellen van Dijk, the women’s 31.2km (19.4-mile) race features 460 metres (1500’) of climbing, while the men's race will climb 680 metres (2231’) in 40.6km (25.2 miles).

The women’s elite time trial champion will be…..

With reigning Olympic and World time trial champion Grace Brown retired from elite racing, last year’s runner-ups Demi Vollering (Netherlands) and Chloé Dygert (USA) are the hot favourites for the rainbow jersey. As a Dutch national and your North American editor, I’m in a tricky spot. Who do I favour?

🧠 Despite the hilly course, it’s hard to bet against Dygert. Her race-start-to-podium-finish ratio is outrageous. She’s highly selective with her race calendar and ruthlessly efficient. When she shows up, it’s because she knows she can win. With two world titles already in her back pocket, I wouldn’t bet against her making it three.

❤️ I pick Marlen Reusser (Switzerland) for my heart pick because she’s had such a rollercoaster season and I’d like to see her end it on a high note. After winning the Tour de Suisse, her run at the Giro was strong stopped short by Elisa Longo Borghini. The Tour de France Femmes should have been her stage, but instead, she was sidelined with food poisoning. Having already stood on the Worlds podium three times, it’d be good to see her on the top step.

🃏 And then there’s Anna van der Breggen (Netherlands), the ultimate dark horse. Back in the peloton after a three-year retirement, we have yet to see her dominant form of old but her résumé in this discipline is hard to ignore: five Worlds medals (four silver, one gold) and two Olympic bronzes with some national and European championship titles to boot.

🧠There could be a new world champion in the women’s TT, although Chloé Dygert (USA) and Anna van der Breggen (Netherlands) will be trying to take back the rainbow jersey. On a hilly course in Kigali, however, it could go to someone like Demi Vollering (also from the Netherlands). Vollering hasn’t won a time trial since the Tour de France Femmes last year, but finished second in the Worlds last year, and is a solid performer in the race against the clock. I think she is the most likely to win, but that doesn’t mean she will.

❤️Great Britain’s Anna Henderson is well within touch of the podium, and could even win, given the technical nature of the course. She isn’t as famed a climber as Vollering or Van der Breggen, but she did win silver at the Paris Olympics last year, and this is her only goal at the Worlds, so she’ll be going all in.

🃏It seems odd to call Marlen Reusser a wildcard, considering the Swiss rider made her name as a TT specialist, but she has focused more on climbing this year. She will be among the favourites, but a win would also be huge for her, as it would be her first win at this level.

🧠Demi Vollering (Netherlands). Vollering might not be known for her time trialling results, but that’s only because her road results overshadow them. Second last year in Zurich came after two ITT wins throughout the season. The climbs on the course in Rwanda will favour her over a more pure TT rider like Marlen Reusser, and she’s always a safe bet.

❤️Chloe Dygert (USA). Dygert’s raw power is a pleasure to watch. When she’s at full fitness, she’s a joy to watch on the bike. Whether it’s on the track or the road. She still hasn’t cracked road racing. She didn’t grow up racing bikes, so she doesn’t know her way around the peloton as well as many Dutch or Belgian riders, so the TT is her time to shine.

🃏Anna Kiesenhofer (Austria). As the Olympic road race at the 2020 Olympic Games proved, Kiesenhofer is capable of upsetting the apple cart when races and events don’t follow the usual pattern. She doesn’t get many chances to do that in the WorldTour, but these worlds are a long way from Europe, and I just wonder if some out-of-the-ordinary results are on the way.

The men’s elite time trial champion will be…..

🧠How could you not pick Remco Evenepoel of Belgium? The 25-year-old is the one with the aerodynamic skin, and he has won three WorldTour time trials this year. If you think this TT is too hilly for him, then you clearly haven’t seen him climb, as he is pretty good at this, too.

❤️My heart, however, says that this is going to be the year of Tadej Pogačar. The Slovenian is a level above everyone else, and he could storm to this time trial, although he was off Evenepoel’s pace at the Tour de France and Critérium du Dauphiné. Those were flatter, though, and Pogačar is the best at going up hills.

🃏I’d just love Stefan Küng to win. In an era of generational talents, the Swiss rider has come so close, finishing on the podium at the Worlds twice. He hasn’t won a time trial this year, so it would be a bit of a surprise.

🧠680 metres of elevation over just 40.6km is seriously climby, rewarding riders who can sustain high power on long drags and repeat it over multiple ramps. On a profile like that, there’s no one better equipped than Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia). He’s on a level of his own this season, so unless he has an off day, it’s hard to imagine anyone outriding him here.

❤️My heart wants to see Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) win. Not just because this is his speciality or because he’s both the Olympic and defending world champion, but because the 25-year-old lived through so much drama this season. A crash in December derailed his winter, another crash in the run-up to the Tour left him racing with injuries, and then, under the weight of expectation, he cracked in the high mountains of the Tour de France and withdrew. He described that moment as one of the rawest and most vulnerable of his career. All the while, he wasn’t happy at Soudal–QuickStep and the rumour mill went into overdrive with transfer gossip. All that was finally settled in August, and he rebounded with a strong ride at the Tour of Britain. Still, it'd be nice to see him close out such a turbulent year on a high.

🃏This being such an atypical time trial, I’d be inclined to look at strong climbers who are just coming off a successful Vuelta. Someone like João Almeida (Portugal), with his diesel climbing engine, or Jay Vine (Australia) with his punch on steep ramps, could surprise with a podium if the favourites misfire.

🧠Remco Evenepoel (Belgium). Some of his best results have been when riding for his country, and the 25-year-old is a relatively safe bet for his third TT gold medal. Forgetting for a moment the mountain TT to Perygourde at the Tour, he has won all time trials he’s ridden this year. And you know he’ll have put the work in over the last few weeks.

❤️Thymen Arensmen (Netherlands). It’s hard to get away from the fact that the men’s TT is a two-horse race this year. So this pick goes to someone I’d like to see take third (with the chance of moving up should something go wrong for my other two picks). Arensmen’s rides, and post-ride reaction, at the Tour this year endeared him to many, and if you scroll back through his results, he has some TT pedigree.

🃏Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia). It seems odd selecting Pog as a wild card for any bike race, but as he’s going for the road race, the TT is a bonus for him. This makes me question whether or not he’s put much time in on his TT bike in the last two months. On form, he can, and has, beaten Evenepoel against the clock. When was the last time a rider did the double at the worlds?

Road Race

This year’s 98th edition promises a brutal test of climbing ability, with the men’s and women’s road races packing in an unprecedented 5,475m (17,963’) and 3,350m (10,990’) of elevation, respectively, over a series of attritional circuits around Kigali.

The women’s elite road race champion will be…

🧠It’s hard to look past Pauline Ferrand-Prévot. On the big mountains in France earlier this summer, she looked simply untouchable. Her timing was impeccable and her climbing pace was unmatchable. She’s also a rider who knows how to rise to the occasion. The Française already holds 12 UCI elite World Championship titles across road, cyclocross, gravel and mountain bike disciplines, cementing her status as the most versatile rider of her generation. The other nations will have to employ some clever team tactics to stop her from claiming a 13th.

❤️Yet my heart would like to see a rider who has yet to earn a Worlds title win: Elisa Longo Borghini. The Italian showed superb form with her Giro performance, and the fact that illness robbed us of a true showdown at the Tour de France Femmes makes her story feel unfinished. Few riders fight harder in the decisive moments, and a rainbow jersey would be the ultimate reward for her grit and resilience.

🃏Demi Vollering (Netherlands) is hardly an outsider; she's a downright race favourite. The Dutch have a prolific history at Worlds, and after the sting of a miss at the Tour de France Femmes, Vollering could be extra motivated to deliver here. She's also got a killer team behind her in former multi-time world champions Anna van der Breggen and Marianne Vos, as well as Shirin van Anrooij and Pauliena Rooijakkers. The Dutch could well turn their collective strength into yet another set of rainbow bands.

🧠Now, it would be easy to give this to Demi Vollering (Netherlands), but why not go for the easy option? The Dutch are normally so good at the World Championships, and after the disappointment of missing out at the Tour de France Femmes again, why couldn’t the FDJ-SUEZ rider do better in Rwanda. She has the Classics pedigree, and a solid team behind her.

❤️Imagine the scenes if Kasia Niewiadoma won. After breaking her not-winning streak in incredible fashion last year at La Flèche Wallonne and then backing it up at the Tour, the Pole has been a bit quiet since then. Her 13th appearance at the Worlds could be lucky.

🃏My wildcard? Cédrine Kerbaol. The Frenchwoman has attacking panache, and is the kind of rider who could just get away, and make it stick. The circuits will be confusing, and without race radios, who knows what will happen. She’ll attack on a punchy climb, and solo to the finish.

🧠Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (France). Her two wins on the road this year prove that Ferrand-Prévot is the master of rising to the big occasion. Something she managed in MTB too, winning two Olympic titles in a discipline that requires more solitary training than a busy race calendar. The course should favour her, and her cross-discipline experience could mean she’s less far out of her comfort zone than others.

❤️Kim Le Court Pinaar (Mauritius). An African winner at an African Worlds would be quite special. And it’s not beyond the realm. If she can win Liège-Bastogne-Liège she can win on this course, if things go right for her.

🃏Cèdrine Kerbaol (France). The French climber has had a solid year, especially at the Tour de France Femmes, where she only finished outside of the top 20 on one stage. Fifth at the Classic Lorient at the end of August suggests her form hasn’t tailed off toward the end of the season.

The men’s elite road race champion will be…

🧠Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia) will win the road race. Why wouldn’t he? Who’s going to beat him? You could say he’s only not won three races he was really trying to win this year: Paris-Roubaix, Milan-San Remo and the Amstel Gold Race. Everything else he has touched has turned to gold, from the Tour of Flanders to the Tour de France. He’s the best rider in the world.

❤️My heart says Pogačar will win too, but for the sake of this piece, why can’t Ben Healy of Ireland do it? He was in the form of his life at the Tour de France, and is the kind of Ardennes attacking rider that should do well in Kigali. It’s a lot of climbing, a lot of climbing, but why not?

🃏The wildcard is Toms Skujiņš of Latvia, who always seems to turn it on for the biggest of occasions. Maybe it’s the style of racing, maybe it’s the love for his country, but the 34-year-old finished in the top five at both the Worlds and the Olympics last year, and is a tough cookie. Look out for him.

🧠Who else? Tadej Pogačar, of course. The Slovenian is the clear favourite. Fresh off another blistering Tour de France campaign, he’s shown again and again that he can dominate on long climbs and still pack a devastating sprint when it matters. On a course as attritional as Kigali, few riders can hope to match his combination of endurance, explosiveness and tactical sense. He's the man to beat.

❤️I'm with Adam Becket on this one: everyone would love a Ben Healy win. The Irishman is known for his aggressive racing style and hail-mary attacks. When he goes, he goes all in, and the crowds love him for it. Healy has the climbing chops to get into the right move and the panache to take risks others won’t. A rainbow jersey for him would be one of those romantic cycling moments the sport lives for.

🃏For a wild card, I’m going with Juan Ayuso (Spain). Still only 21, the Spaniard already has a Vuelta podium to his name and the kind of climbing engine well-suited for this course. He may not yet have the palmarès of Pogačar or Evenepoel, but his ability to grind through long, selective days makes him a real threat if the favourites mark each other out. If he seizes the right moment, Ayuso could be one to watch.

🧠Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia). Is there anyone else? We’re at the stage now where it’s hard to see how anyone can beat him in a race he’s targeting. Especially over a tough route. The only thing that could stop him is the fact that everyone else in the race will be trying to beat him. Something that might be possible when freed of pro team loyalties.

❤️Oscar Onley (Great Britain). The fourth best climber in the world throughout July, only one of the three riders who outclimbed him across France is in Rwanda. The problem is, that’s Tadej Pogačar. Onley has zero one-day pedigree (he’s only 22), but the world champs in a far-flung place is the kind of race where strange things can happen.

🃏Mattias Skjelmose (Denmark). Just 44 days of racing this year, Skjelmose has had a solid end to the year since he abandoned the Tour de France on stage 14. He was in the mix in both one-day races in Canada earlier this month, and, most importantly, he is one of the few riders in the world who has gone up against Tadej Pogačar in a one-day race this year and beaten him.

The time trials at the UCI Road World Championships 2025 in Rwanda are just days away, with the elite women's and men's the first elite road events at this year's Worlds. The races against the clock are scheduled for the opening Sunday - 21 September - with the women's race occurring first, followed by the men's.

Both are over tough courses in Kigali, Rwanda, with defending men's champion Remco Evenepoel of Belgium and Chloe Dygert of the US among the favourites, although there are lots of people hoping for medals. These include GB's Anna Henderson, Demi Vollering of the Netherlands, and that little known Slovenian, Tadej Pogačar.

Beyond the elite events, there are also junior and under-23 time trials, and the mixed relay team time trial too.

Women to watch

Chloé Dygert (USA)

2025 TT wins: 0

Already a two-time world champion against the clock – in 2019 and 2023 – the American ticked off a long-awaited career milestone last summer in winning an Olympic gold medal. That triumph came on the track, while in the time trial, she crashed and still came away with a bronze.

Dygert’s story, her horror crash at the 2020 World Championships where she lacerated her thigh, has come to define her career. Still today she feels the pain of that injury, and even though she often needs help to get off her bike, it hasn’t stopped her pushing herself to her limits.

Cédrine Kerbaol (France)

2025 TT wins: 1

France’s national time trial champion has morphed into one of the peloton’s strongest all-rounders. Kerbaol can climb, she descends like a demon on rails, and is showing herself to be increasingly more adept against the clock, too.

Fourteenth in the time trial in Zurich last year left a bit to be desired for the 24-year-old, but with more elevation to scale this time round, the course suits her better. Don’t be surprised to see the EF Education-Oatly rider contesting for a podium. That said, she might be saving her matches for the road race.

Anna Henderson (GBr)

2025 TT wins: 0

Not even Henderson herself could believe it when she scored a silver medal in the time trial at the Olympics in Paris last year. “I burst into tears when I found out I was second. I just can't stop smiling,” she said at the time.

In reality, though, Henderson’s ability had been building up to that point, and has shown no signs of slowing down. Twice a British national champion against the clock, she guided Lidl-Trek to team time trial victory at the Vuelta Femenina in May, and won a lumpy stage of the Giro d’Italia. She should relish the hills of the Kigali course.

Zoe Bäckstedt (GBr) – U23

2025 TT wins: 3

The Welshwoman is focusing her energy on the time trial in Rwanda, and is one of the favourites for the U23 title. A three-time world champion as a junior, Bäckstedt has since won U23 gold against the clock at the European Championships, and is the current British time trial champion.

Others to watch

Demi Vollering seems destined to win a rainbow jersey at some point in her career, and the Dutchwoman is hedging her bets this season by lining up in both the road race and time trial. Last year she finished runner-up in the latter, 16 seconds behind Grace Brown, but in the Australian’s absence will now be one of the favourites in Kigali.

Eyes, too, will be on the German national champion Antonia Niedermaier, who won the U23 world title in the last two editions, as well as France’s Juliette Labous, Vollering’s team-mate at FDJ-SUEZ, and chief climbing domestique.

European champion Lotte Kopecky of Belgium will be absent, with her compatriot Marthe Goosens instead picking up the mantle.

Men to watch

Remco Evenepoel (Belgium)

2025 TT wins: 4

The 25-year-old comes into the World Championships as not only the defending champion again, but as Olympic champion too. He has won time trials at the Tour de France, Critérium du Dauphiné, and Tour de Romandie this year, and is going all in for the rainbow bands yet again.

Filippo Ganna (Italy)

2025 TT wins: 3

The tall Italian has for some years now been the rider that fans look to when a time trial is in town. His immense ability has helped him accumulate an extensive palmarès that includes Grand Tour and Worlds TT wins, as well as track medals and, in 2022, a World Hour Record of 56.792km, which still stands. He has been less prolific on the road in recent years – his Italian championship win this year notwithstanding – and, more to the point, the very lumpy Rwanda course doesn't play to Ganna's strengths.

All the same, if he's on a good day he is likely to be up there in the results.

Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia)

2025 TT wins: 1

After skipping the time trial at the Worlds last year, Tadej Pogačar is back with his sights on another World Championships victory, this time against the clock. The hilly course should suit the Slovenian, although Evenepoel has a better record in time trials. Pogačar won the mountain TT at the Tour de France this year.

Others to watch

Four times in the top-10, and twice on the podium, Stefan Küng of Switzerland will hope to finally make it to the top step. Australia's Jay Vine finished second in the recent time trial at the Vuelta a España, and is in the form of his life. His compatriot Luke Plapp should also be one to watch.

Isaac del Toro will hope to become Mexico's first ever World Championships TT medallist, while Thymen Arensman of the Netherlands will hope to still have his stage winning form from the Tour de France.

There have almost been 100 UCI Road World Championships – this year will be the 98th – from the very first in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1921, to the present day.

However, after almost a century of unbroken history, this year's Road Worlds in Kigali, Rwanda represents something brand new – the first to take place in Africa. It's not the first Worlds organised by cycling's governing body, the UCI, to take place on the continent, with the Mountain Bike Worlds taking place in South Africa in 2013, but it's a huge moment.

For those unaware, the Road World Championships are one of the pinnacles of the cycling season, when riders compete for the title of world champion. There are three different disciplines: a one-day road race, an individual time trial, and a mixed relay team time trial.

The road race and the individual time trial are contested by elite, under-23, and junior (under-19) men and women, while the TTT can be contested by a mix of these. There are 13 events in all, and the most a single rider can win could be three (a road race, a TT, and the TTT).

Unlike almost all other races, riders compete in national teams, not their 'trade teams'. So Tadej Pogačar, for example, rides for Slovenia, not UAE Team Emirates-XRG, and will ride alongside Primož Roglič, who is usually a rival, riding for Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe. Think of it like the football World Cup, but every year. It also means riders wear different colours to usual, although they tend to use their team-issue equipment, so Pogačar will be on his Colnago, and Roglič on his Specialized.

Nations qualify for a certain number of spots in the road race based on their UCI rankings, with the top men's teams having eight, while some only have one rider in the race. The more successful a country overall, the more riders they have in their squad, which should work in their favour. However, they don't have to take up those spots, with GB not taking an elite women's squad to this year's road race, despite qualifying six places, to give one case.

The rider who wins the World Championships wins a rainbow jersey, and earns to wear it in every race of the kind they won it in for the next year. So for example, reigning elite women's road world champion Lotte Kopecky of Belgium wears the rainbow jersey in pro road races, while women's junior time trial champion Cat Ferguson of Great Britain would wear her jersey in every junior time trial she has taken part in the past year, which is actually none.

The location of the Worlds changes every year, and so does the nature of the race. It's not always a certain type of course, with some road races favouring sprinters, while others favour climbers; typically, though, they suit an all-rounder who does well in the Classics, like Kopecky or France's Julian Alaphilippe, two recent repeat champions. Sometimes there are mountains, sometimes cobbles, sometimes flat days, it's a real mixed bag, but that adds to the intrigue. Every year is different.

The road race is a one-day event, with the first person over the line the winner. They typically mostly take place on a city circuit, allowing fans to see the riders repeatedly.

Victory in the time trials is awarded to the individual, or team in the case of the TTT, that completes the course in the fastest time. They are typically won by a specialist, and can be mixed up between hillier affairs and incredibly flat power-courses.

Why Rwanda?

As above, the location of the Road World Championships changes every year. Of the 97 editions held so far, 87 have been in cycling's traditional heartland of Europe, with the most hosted by Italy – 14 times. The first time the event left Europe was in 1974, when it took place in Montréal, Canada, and the Worlds have also been to South America (Venezuela in 1977, Colombia in 1995), Asia (Japan in 1990, Qatar in 2016), and Australia.

Host cities and countries, and their national cycling federations, bid to host the Worlds, like other major sporting events, but some element of variation is sought in all of this. In 2025's case, the UCI president, David Lappartient, made it part of his election manifesto to take Road Worlds to Africa. The UCI made 2025 the year, and bidding was open to just African federations.

Rwanda and Morocco submitted formal bids, and the former was announced the winner in 2021, which makes a lot of sense. Rwanda has a long history of cycling, is a country where the bicycle is often the main mode of transport, and is home to the Tour du Rwanda, a UCI 2.1 category race, which regularly attracts over a million fans. It might be the best attended Worlds ever.

The elite time trials at the UCI Road World Championships 2025 in Rwanda take place on the opening Sunday - 21 September - with the women's race occurring first, followed by the men's.

Both start at the BK Arena, mostly used for basketball and volleyball, but this time, cycling.

The races are, euphemistically, sporting courses. This is not a pure time trial specialist’s course, not one for Filippo Ganna or Ellen van Dijk to blast everyone away on, with 460 metres of climbing across 31.2km for the women, and 680 metres in 40.6km for the men.

Unusually for a time trial, the route also includes a cobbled section. The women’s race includes ascents of the Côte de Nyanza from both sides, first from the north, 2.5km at 5.8%, before 4.1km at 3.1%. There is then a long, reasonably straight, descent towards the cobbles, which come before the Côte de Kimihurura, 1.3km at 6.1%, before a finish at the Kigali Convention Centre.

Britain’s Anna Henderson will surely be in contention, alongside the favourites, Demi Vollering (Netherlands) and Chloé Dygert (USA). 2024’s defending champion, Grace Brown (Australia), is now retired.

The men’s race is 9km longer than the women’s race, thanks to a longer return from the Nyanza climb, and then a further climb is tackle, the Côte de Péage, 2km at 6%, before the cobbles and Kimihurura, meaning there will be more opportunities for time gaps to be made towards the end.

It will be the hilliest time trial since Bergen in 2017, when the race finished up a proper climb, but with ups and downs throughout this year’s race, it is one for a time triallist who has a punch, like Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia) or defending champion Remco Evenepoel (Belgium).

The individual time trials are followed by the mixed relay team time trial in midweek, which takes place on a similar loop.

The junior men's and women's and under-23 men race against the clock midweek too.

Make sure you have read our guide on how to watch the Worlds.

Women's individual time trial

31.2km, Sunday 21 September, 9:10am (BST)

Men's individual time trial

40.6km, Sunday 21 September, 12:45pm BST

Mixed relay team time trial

41.8km, Wednesday 24 September, 11:30am BST

The 42.4km mixed relay TTT, raced after all the individual time trials have taken place, occurs on a similar, but not identical course around Kigali, with the Côte de Nyanza only climbed from the north, and the Côte de Kimihurura making an appearance, but not the cobbles. The men go first, riding 21.2km, before the women set off on the same route. The defending champions are Australia.

Junior and U23 time trials

The under-23 women and junior men tackle the same 22.6km course with 350m of climbing. It's a shorter version of the elites, with just one ascent of the Côte de Nyanza, but still includes the cobbles and then the Côte de Kimihurura.

The under-23 men tackle the same course as the elite women, 31.2km with 460m of climbing, while the junior women don't make it to the Nyanza, riding 18.3km with 225m of climbing.

This feature originally appeared in Cycling Weekly magazine on 11 September 2025. Subscribe now and never miss an issue.

When Adrien Niyonshuti stops pedalling, the past comes rushing back. He used to get headaches akin to withdrawal symptoms if he didn’t ride his bike for a few days. Cycling has been his escape, his way to silence the memories that once threatened to consume him. “I look forwards over my front wheel,” he says. “It takes a couple of minutes before you forget everything and just enjoy what you’re doing.”

Niyonshuti was seven years old when the militia surrounded his home in Rwamagana, eastern Rwanda. It’s a memory that now, more than 30 years on, he’s still reluctant to discuss. “I don’t like to go in deeper, but I will say in brief,” he begins. “In 1994, something happened, and we went to hide.”

The Rwandan genocide had begun that April, and lasted 100 days. Groups of Hutu extremists went from house to house with machetes and slaughtered an estimated 800,000 people, most of whom were from the Tutsi ethnic minority. Six of those killed were Niyonshuti’s brothers.

With militants closing in, his parents rushed him to hide among the trees near their family home. They stayed there for days, surviving on whatever food and water they could find. “It was not an easy life,” Niyonshuti, now 38, says. As per his cycling mantra, he prefers to look forwards. “Life goes on. We have a good country. We are holding the World Championships. The past is the past, but we learn from the past, and we build our country.”

Later this month, Rwanda will become the first African country in the UCI’s 125-year existence to host the road cycling World Championships. Niyonshuti feels the significance of the occasion. “It’s something we won’t forget. We’re making history,” he tells Cycling Weekly from his home in Lucca, Italy. He has lived in Tuscany for over a decade, more than 3,000 miles as the crow flies from his birthplace of Rwamagana. The trauma he experienced as a child has not defined him; instead, Niyonshuti is Rwanda’s most successful cyclist, and the only rider from his country to ever compete at the sport’s highest level, the WorldTour. His story is one of unparalleled resolve, dedication, and belief. It started with one of his uncle’s old bikes.

Emmanuel Turatsinze, the brother of Niyonshuti’s mother, was a well-known cyclist in Rwanda. “After the genocide, he told me, ‘Adrien, I lost my children. They should have been cyclists. But you, my nephew, I want to see you cycling’,” Niyonshuti recalls. “He never saw me start to race because he passed away in 2002.”

Aged 16, Niyonshuti inherited his uncle’s steel bike, and cycling quickly became a form of therapy. As the wheels turned forwards, he found, the past vanished in the dust behind. Riding helped him forget.

With his parents’ support, the teenager trained to become one of the top talents in his country, racing his first Tour of Rwanda in 2004.

At the end of 2006, he had a life-changing encounter. Niyonshuti met former pro Jock Boyer – the first American to compete in the Tour de France – who had come to Rwanda to help run a village bike race, but ended up staying to coach the national team. The story became the subject of the 2012 documentary ‘Rising from Ashes’, in which Niyonshuti, the plucky rider with the greatest potential, found himself the protagonist. “I had the goal to compete in the Olympics,” he says. That drive formed the premise of the documentary, and the purpose of the young Rwandan’s life.

Under Boyer’s mentorship, Niyonshuti jumped at every chance to race abroad. He competed in the Cape Epic mountain bike race in South Africa for the first time in 2007, the US Tour of the Gila that same year, and returned to Rwanda in 2008 to win his national stage race, just five years after picking up cycling. That victory, Niyonshuti now says, “opened the door to becoming a professional rider”, and in 2009, he signed for MTN Energade, the road team he would stay with for nine years as it morphed into MTN Qhubeka and WorldTour-level Dimension Data.

Over the first few years of his career, Niyonshuti combined mountain bike and road cycling calendars, with his sights set on the Olympics. He methodically sought to pick up qualifying points for London 2012. That ticket was sealed with a fourth-place finish in the cross-country mountain bike race at the 2011 African Continental Championships. Not only would Niyonshuti become an Olympian – Rwanda’s first ever mountain biker at the Games – he’d also hold the flag for his country at the opening ceremony.

“It was a really amazing experience I will never forget,” he says. His finishing position – 39th – was almost immaterial. “It was just a dream to start the race,” he adds. “My goal was to finish the race, and I made it. It’s something very close to my heart.” Four years later, at the Rio Olympics in 2016, he qualified for the road race, and was again honoured as Rwanda’s flagbearer. Though he did not finish this time, his compatriots still hailed him as a hero.

The following year, after two seasons as a WorldTour domestique, Niyonshuti’s contract with Dimension Data came to an end. He retired in 2018 with four national titles to his name, split two apiece between the road race and time trial. But that wouldn’t be the end of his cycling journey.

In between his two Olympic appearances, Niyonshuti had founded his own cycling academy. After his road career ended, he dedicated himself time to helping young Rwandans follow in his footsteps. One of those who joined was his younger cousin Eric Muhoza, the son of his uncle Emmanuel. “What my uncle shared with me, I shared with his child,” Niyonshuti says.

Muhoza holds special memories of his years training under his cousin’s tutelage. “He’s my family and I want to be like him,” the 23-year-old says. “When I was younger, he told me, ‘If you go to a race, don’t give up. It’s better to finish behind the riders than to not finish. You have to finish the race.’” It’s the same attitude Niyonshuti held throughout his career. “All the Rwandans now want to be like Adrien,” Muhoza adds. “They want to race for WorldTour teams.”

The academy launched its own Continental squad in 2020 but, due to the Covid pandemic, the venture was short-lived. Niyonshuti’s main sponsor pulled out, and he couldn’t find a replacement. At the end of 2022, he took the difficult decision to close the academy. “Every day, if I open my WhatsApp, I will have between five and 10 messages from parents asking me how I can help their kids,” he says. “I don’t give up. I think, in the future, I will be back in Rwanda to start again with some other small project.”

In the meantime, though, Niyonshuti is working as the head coach of the Benin national squad. He has held the role since early 2023, and travels regularly from his home in Italy to support the team in west Africa. “In Europe, it’s common for each family to have a bike and learn a lot on the internet. In Africa right now, you still need to have people to share their experiences with you. That’s why I went to Benin,” Niyonshuti says. The goal is to have Beninese cyclists competing at the Olympics, as well as in the biggest UCI races, just as he did.

“People will never forget what I’ve done for the history of cycling in Rwanda,” Niyonshuti says. While he has set many firsts for his country, he doesn’t want to be the last. He anticipates that this month’s World Championships will open “big doors” for the riders he coaches, those in his native Rwanda, and many other aspiring cyclists across the continent. “I hope that in two years, five years, 10 years, we can have 20 more African riders signed for WorldTour teams,” he says. After the trauma of his childhood, Niyonshuti is sticking to his mantra and looking forwards to a hopeful future.

For the first time in the UCI's 125-year existence, the UCI Road World Championships will take place on the continent of Africa, in Rwanda's capital city of Kigali, in 2025.

In total, there will be 13 different titles awarded across the week, which stretches between 21-28 September, with rainbow jerseys to be won in time trials and road races in the junior, under-23 and elite ranks.

Below, Cycling Weekly has gathered all the key information on broadcasters and live streams so you can watch the 2025 UCI Road World Championships wherever you are.

Quick guide to watching the UCI Road World Championships

• UK: BBC (free), TNT Sports / Discovery+ (£30.99/mon)
• US and Canada: Flobikes (USD$29.99/mon, CAN$39.9/mon)
• Australia: Stan (from AUD$12/mon + AUD$15/mon sports add-on)
• Free streams: YouTube (geo-blocking applies), BBC (UK), RTBF (Belgium), France Télévisions (France), RAI (Italy), RTVE (Spain), NOS (Netherlands)
• Anywhere: Watch your local stream from anywhere with NordVPN

How to watch the UCI Road World Championships in the UK

In the UK, this year's Road World Championships will be shown live and free on the BBC, the country's public service broadcaster. (To watch the BBC, viewers are expected to have a TV licence, which costs £174.50 a year.)

Fans will also be able to watch all of the events on TNT Sports, Warner Bros. Discovery's premium sports channels.

Online and mobile device viewers can watch the racing for free on BBC iPlayer, or on Discovery+, with a package priced at £30.99 a month. This offering also gains viewers access to Warner Bros. Discovery's full range of sports listings.

How to watch the UCI Road World Championships in the USA and Canada

In the US and Canada, Flobikes has been granted the broadcast rights for the Road World Championships.

Subscriptions for US viewers cost USD$29.99 a month, or USD$149.99 for the year. In Canada, the price is CAN$39.99 a month, or CAN$203.88 a year.

The Flobikes TV app is available on Roku, Fire TV, Chromecast and Apple TV, as well as on iOS and Android.

How to watch the UCI Road World Championships in Australia

Cycling fans in Australia can watch the Road World Championships on the Stan streaming service.

The most basic plan costs AUD$12 a month, although standard and premium packages are available for AUD$17 and AUD$22 per month respectively. Viewers will need to have the Stan Sport add-on to watch the Road World Championships, which costs an additional AUD$15 per month.

Can I watch the UCI Road World Championships for free?

Across the globe, fans can watch the Road World Championships for free thanks to broadcasters in their regions and the UCI's YouTube channel.

The YouTube feed is geo-restricted, so will not be available to residents in countries that already have a TV broadcast deal in place.

In the UK, as outlined above, the BBC is broadcasting the events, with free streaming available on BBC iPlayer.

Elsewhere across Europe, France Télévisions (France), RTBF (Belgium), RAI (Italy), RTVE (Spain) and NOS (Netherlands) are a few more of the public broadcasters who will be showing the championships. The full list is available online on page eight of the the UCI's technical guide for the event.

Coverage is geo-restricted, so if you're away from home right now, you'll need a VPN to get your usual coverage while abroad – more on that below.

How to watch the UCI Road World Championships while abroad

Most streaming platforms have geo-restrictions these days, which means they only work in certain countries. But being locked out of the races is a thing of the past thanks to a VPN.

A Virtual Private Network is a piece of internet security software that can alter your device's location, so you can unblock your usual streaming services, even when you're abroad.

Our expert colleagues at TechRadar rate NordVPN as the best on the market for its security, compatibility, streaming credentials and, right now, its value for money...

The offer is live for readers in the UK, US, and Canada – simply follow this deal, select to one of the qualifying two-year plans, and see the extra four months automatically added to your cart. Once you've reached the end of the 30-day trial period the Amazon voucher will land in your inbox.

Want to know more? We have an explainer on the benefits, costs, and considerations of using a VPN...
– Should I use a VPN to watch cycling?

What to expect at the UCI Road World Championships

The 2025 UCI Road World Championships will mark the event's 98th edition, the first taking place in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1921.

This year, the event will be held in Africa for the first time in history. To mark the occasion, the organisers in Kigali have carved out some of the hardest, if not the hardest, routes ever seen at the championships.

The men's elite road race, for example, counts 5,475m of elevation over 267.5km, making it more gruelling than any Grand Tour stage or Monument this season. Tadej Pogačar's (Slovenia) title defence will be the final event of the week, closing the curtain on 28 September.

The events will begin with the elite individual time trials on 21 September, the courses for both of which include punchy climbs. The U23, junior, and mixed relay races against the clock will follow over the start of the week, before the road races take place.

Another historic first will be the inaugural U23 women's road race – the title was previously awarded to the highest-placed U23 rider in the elite race – which will be held on 25 September.

The elite women's road race will come on 27 September, the penultimate event of the championships, and will take place without the defending champion, Lotte Kopecky (Belgium), who has opted to skip the event.

UCI Road World Championships 2025 event schedule

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For the first time in more than three decades, there are no British riders in the elite women’s road race at the UCI Road World Championships this year.

Great Britain’s 25-rider squad for the championships in Rwanda, announced on Tuesday, counts just one entrant in the elite women’s events: Anna Henderson, who will only compete in the time trial.