It was a dream come true for cycling enthusiasts in Africa when the International Cycling Union (UCI) announced during the UCI presidential campaign in 2017 that the body hoped to see Africa host its first UCI Road World Championships in 2025. In a statement released by UCI the following year, the world governing body for sports cycling expressed its belief that staging the organization’s flagship event in an African country would consolidate the growth of cycling throughout Africa, being the final continent to host the championships.
No sooner had the UCI made known its decision to stage the championships in Africa than the bidding process began and bidding cities getting to work. The bidding process was a two-horse race between Tangier, a city in northwestern Morocco, on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean; and Kigali, the capital and largest city of Rwanda. At the end of the day, Kigali, which had previously hosted the Tour du Rwanda stage race, saw off competition from Tangier.
The UCI president, David Lappartient, announcing the Rwanda’s capital as host of the event thanked Tangier for its bid and encouraged the North African country to submit new bids for future events. “Staging our biggest annual event in Africa was one of our dreams. Today, this is nearer to becoming a reality. I sincerely thank Tangier and Morocco for their bid of very high quality. The UCI encourages the country to submit new bids for future events. Given its love of cycling and its commitment for the development of our sport, it deserves to welcome major UCI events.”
The UCI Road World Championships are the annual world championships for bicycle road racing, organized by UCI, the governing body of international competitive cycling events. The choice of Kigali by the international Cycling body didn’t look like a decision that was taken by chance, for instance Tour du Rwanda, the cycling competition organized since 1988 by the Rwanda Cycling Federation (FERWACY) has recently become a race where cyclists can expect to gain fame. Several names on the local scene have in the last two decades performed creditably well in the various events and have become the talk of their communities and the whole world obviously took note of these developments.
The UCI championships consist of events for road race and individual time trial, and as of 2019 a mixed team relay. All the world championship events are ridden by national teams, not trade teams such as in most other major races, so it is truly an international competition. The world championship events currently include the Elite Men’s road race, Elite Men’s time race, Under-23 Men’s road race, Under-23 Men’s time trial, Junior Men’s road race, Junior Men’s time trial, Elite Women’s road race. Elite Women’s time trial, Junior Women’s road race, Junior Women’s time trial and Mixed team relay. The former events were Men’s amateur road race (1921-1995), Men’s team time trial (1962-2018) and Women’s team time trial (1987-2018).
The first world championships took place in 1921, the only event then was the men’s road race for amateurs. The first professional world championship took place in July 1927 at the Nürburgring in Germany, Italian Alfredo Binda won the professional men’s race and Belgian Jean Aerts won the men’s amateur race in this tournament. The women’s road race was introduced in 1958. The very first men’s team time trial, contested by national teams, took place in 1962. Beginning in 1972, the team time trial was discontinued in Olympic years only. Individual time trials in all categories were added in 1994, which was also the last year for the original incarnation of the men’s team time trial. In 2012, the men’s team time trial was reintroduced again, and a women’s team time trial added to the programme; both were contested by trade teams. In 2019, the team time trial events for men and women were replaced by a mixed relay team time trial.
Until 1995, there were separate races for male professional and amateur riders. In 1996, the amateur category was replaced with a category for men under-23 years old, with the professional category becoming an open category. From 1995 until 2022, the event was held towards the end of the European season in late September, usually following the Vuelta a España. Before that, the event had always been a summer race, held in late August or the first week of September (except for 1970, when it was a mid-season summer event).
From 2023, the event will start holding in a cycle of four years as part of the combined multi-disciplinary UCI Cycling World Championships, the inaugural edition of which was held in August.
The world championships are located in a different cities or regions every year. The event can be held over a relatively flat course which favours cycling sprinters or a hilly course which favours a climbing specialist or all-rounder. In each case, the course is usually held on a circuit, of which the riders complete multiple laps. The world championship road race and two of the three Grand Tours (namely the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France) form the three top global of Cycling tournaments.
The 2025 championships are expected to attract over 5,000 cyclists and 20,000 delegates from around the world.
Michael Delagrange, an American attorney and passionate cyclist has sponsored high-profile races with the hope of seeing people from East Africa featuring in professional races. The first of a series of actions taken by Delagrange was the four-day Migration Gravel Race held in June 2021. The race brought 61 riders from all over the world to race 650 km over single-track, game trails, red clay and hard-pack gravel across the wilds of Kenya’s Massai Mara Reserve. The Migration Gravel Race has given non-professional cyclists in Africa the rare opportunity to travel and race their bikes in East Africa. The event is also intended to provide high-level racing on African soil and to support aspiring East African professionals.
As time ticks away and the championships fast approaching, African riders have become more prominent on the international racing scene in the last decade. The continent’s agenda to focus more primarily on youth categories with a view to making junior podiums in Rwanda is yielding results. Among the leading African riders is the Eritrean professional Biniam Girmay Hailu, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Intermarché–Circus–Wanty. At the 2022 Giro d’Italia, Biniam became the first Black African cyclist to win a Grand Tour stage after winning stage 10 in a reduced bunch sprint. After discovering cycling through his cousin Meron Teshome, Biniam joined the World Cycling Centre in 2018 for his second junior year. That year, he became a triple junior cycling champion of Africa, winning the road race, time trial and team time trial. He also won the first stage of Aubel–Thimister–Stavelot, beating out favourite Remco Evenepoel.
On 24 September 2021, Biniam finished second in the under-23 road race at the UCI Road World Championships, becoming the first black African rider to achieve a podium finish in the history of the UCI Road World Championships. Biniam began the 2023 season racing in Spain, and had his first win of the year on stage 1 of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana. After a lack of results in the spring, he won the second stage of the 2023 Tour de Suisse, outsprinting Arnaud Démare and Wout van Aert. He entered his first Tour de France in 2023 as the team leader for Intermarché–Circus–Wanty, placing third in a sprint finish on stage 7. He was one of only two African riders alongside Louis Meintjes as well as the only black rider to compete in the race.
Another African rider doing the continent proud is South Africa’s Louis Meintjes, who rides for UCI WorldTeam Intermarché–Circus–Wanty. Meintjes won the South African National Road Race Championships in 2014, and has finished 8th overall in the Tour de France, on three occasions in 2016, 2017 and 2022. He has also finished 10th overall at the 2015 Vuelta a España, and won a stage at the 2022 Vuelta a España. In November 2020, Meintjes signed a one-year contract with the Intermarché–Wanty–Gobert Matériaux team. During the Tour de France, he rode at the front of the race up Alpe d’Huez and was in pole position to win before being dropped by Tom Pidcock. He became number 13 overall after this stage and two days later, he got involved in another breakaway; finishing over +11:00 ahead of the GC favourites and moving into 7th place overall, jumping ahead of Gaudu, Pidcock and Enric Mas.
Areruya Joseph, a Rwandan Cyclist who coasted to the finish line in ecstasy in one of the events at the recent Tour du Rwanda organized by the Rwanda Cycling Federation (FERWACY) February this year is also a star rider from the continent.
Then, there is 23-year old Henok Mulubrhan, an Eritrean cyclist, who currently rides for UCI ProTeam Green Project–Bardiani–CSF–Faizanè and the Overall 2023 Tour du Rwanda 1st Stages 3 & 8 winner who is revving up for the 2025 UCI World Tour too.
In West Africa is Nigeria’s Ese Ukpeseraye, who has shot herself into record books as the first Nigerian cyclist to qualify for the Olympics. The Delta-born cyclist topped the cycling medals table at Edo 2020 and repeated same feat in Asaba all in the South-South region of Nigeria last December. This year in Accra, Ghana, Ukpeseraye, contrary to all expectations, qualified for the road race in the 2024 Olympics in Paris, France. She is the first Nigerian to achieve that feat.
According to African Cycling Confederation (CAC) president, Mohamed Wagih Azzam, it is all hands to the pump to ensure Africa achieve its goals with flying colours at the historic event. ”The talent is there and we are getting them ready with a programme of training camps and races each year between now and 2024, when there will be a long training camp in Rwanda on the circuit of the UCI World Championships. We have good communication and good programmes with the UCI WCC in Switzerland and the UCI WCC’s South African satellite in Paarl. We are working in the same direction and that is very important,” said Azzam.
Preferences:
- UCI (4 March 2022) “Globe Riders: Africa gearing up for 2025 UCI Road World Championships in Rwanda” uci.org
- Mortkowitz, Siegfried (25 October 2023) “Preparing Rwanda’s Cyclists for its 2025 World Championships” welovecycling.com
- SportsPro (27 September 2021) “UCI Road World Championships heading to Rwanda in 2025” sportspromedia.com
- Alexander, Dan (27 July 2018) “UCI announces 2025 World Championships to be hosted in Africa” cyclist.co.uk
(Edited by Kehinde Fagbuaro)
