Leuven (Belgium) (AFP)
The 2025 World Road Cycling Championships will be held in Rwanda, a first in Africa, the Rwandan Cycling Federation announced on Thursday.
The congress of the International Cycling Union (UCI), which is held on Friday in Louvain (Belgium), must ratify the decision before its formalization, we learned from the international federation.
Two candidates, Rwanda (Kigali) and Morocco (Tangier), were in the running for these first cycling world championships organized in Africa.
The UCI management committee unsurprisingly opted for the candidacy of Kigali, who started as the big favorite.
UCI President, Frenchman David Lappartient, announced at the start of his first term in 2017 his desire to organize the Road Worlds, the UCI's flagship event, in Africa.
All the other continents have already hosted the road world championships.
After Flanders, which hosts the competitions this week, the next editions will take place in 2022 in Australia (Wollongong), in 2023 in Scotland and in 2024 in Switzerland.
The Tour du Rwanda, on which David Lappartient traveled last May, is one of the main cycling events in Africa, and each year attracts a large crowd on selective routes typical of climbers or punchers.
The first cycling world championships date back to the 1920s, with amateurs in 1921 in Copenhagen in Denmark, then professionals in 1927 in Germany (Nürburgring).
North America first hosted the event in 1974 in Montreal (Canada), and South America in 1977 in Venezuela (San Cristobal).
Asia organized them for the first time in 1990 in Japan (Utsunomiya), and Oceania in 2010, in Geelong near Melbourne.
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