2025 Road World Championships in Rwanda

From 21 to 28 September 2025, the annual world championships for road bicycle racing is being held in Kigali, Rwanda. It is the 98th edition of the UCI road World Championship and the first edition to be hosted in Africa. In July 2018, the International Cyling Union (UCI) expressed its desire to award to organization of the World Championships to an African country. In February 2019, the Rwandan cycling federation announced its intention to submit an application via its capital, Kigali. The city of Tangier in Morocco had also submitted its candidacy. On 23 September 2021, the organisation was awarded to the Rwandan capital.

The route was announced during the 2024 UCI Road World Championships in Zurich. The road races take place on a 15.1 kilometres circuit around Kigali, with a different number of laps for different events. The elite men's race also includes an extra 42.5 kilometres extension that climbs Mount Kigali and the Mur du Kigali. Kigali sits at an altitude of 1850 metres. The high altitude combined with the amount of climbing led multiple cycling publications to call the route one of the most difficult in the history of the world championships.

(Source: Wikipedia accessed on 23 September 2025)

Selected publications

Chabroullet, Denis, Tours cyclistes en Afrique : Érythrée - Rwanda - Sénégal (Paris, 2015).

Gispert, Oriol, en Lluis Jené, Honest men on bikes (2000).

Herman-Iżycki, Jacek, On a bicycle across the Sahara and beyond : a report from a journey through Africa in 1980 (Warswa, 2024).

Jong, Eric George De, en Gary De Jong, Zimbabwe on the road less travelled (Harare, 2021).

Le Comité d’Organisation de la Tropicale Amissa Bongo, La 10ème édition tropicale Amissa Bongo 2015  le livre de route (Libreville, 2014). 

Lewis, Tim, Land of second chances: the impossible rise of Rwanda’s cycling team (London, 2014).

Morgan, Njogu, Cycling cities: the Johannesburg experience (Eindhoven, 2019).

Cycling documentary: Roaming Rwanda