Rwanda to become first African country to host UCI Road World Championship

Rwanda will become the first African country to host the annual Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) Road World Championship in 2025.

CAPE TOWN, September 23 (ANA) – Rwanda will become the first African country to host the annual Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) Road World Championship in 2025.

Rwanda Cycling Federation (FERWACY) speedily took to social media on Thursday to announce that the race will take place in the capital of Kigali.

FERWACY has since taken down the pinned tweet down of the announcement. However, a FERWACY Twitter header photo still shows Rwandan President Paul Kagame and UCI director-general Amin Lanaya.

Lanaya met Kagame in Flanders, Belgium, the host of this year’s 100th UCI Road World Championship, according to digital competitive cycling platform CyclingNews.

There is still no official announcement by UCI, CyclingNews revealed.

However, daily news publication The New Times reported FERWACY president Abdallah Murenzi as saying: “It is official, Kigali will host the UCI Road World Cycling Championships 2025. The announcement will be made tomorrow (Friday).”

The East African country originally bid for the 2025 championship in 2019 and remained a favourite, with support from UCI president David Lappartient despite Morocco also making a bid, CyclingNews reported.

UCI is the world body for sports cycling and has been hosting the Road World Championship each year in September since 1921.

The Road World Championship is one of the biggest cycling tournaments in the world, attracting 5,000 cyclists and more than 20,000 delegates, according to The New Times.

– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Yaron Blecher