With Africa hosting the UCI Cycling Road World Championships in 2025 for the first time in September in Kigali (22-28th, Rwanda), we are launching this new Africa Rising Live Blog to report on key moments and developments in the build-up to the event, and we will then deliver, as always, our #FromThePaddock updates during the racing. Let us know anything you would like us to feature!
3 June: Today is World Bicycle Day across the globe and we will be celebrating the progress we have seen by the young men and women of Africa in the cycling world over the last 12 months! With around 150 of these riders currently under contract with professional teams, it is truly a good time for Africa. Of course there is a lot more to be done, and we need to see more riders progress into the Pro Continental and World Tour levels in 2026.
On the men’s side, we have to start with Eritrea of course. As a nation they lead the way in Africa (see 27 May post below) and Biniam Girmay continues to inspire a continent, having amassed 3,460 points, putting him at #8 in the world overall. The highest sustained position for an African male cyclist in history. The challenge is that #2 in Africa (Henok Mulubrhan) has 747 points, with 3rd (Natnael Tesfatsion) with 346, and the tenth rider at just 233 points. For riders to attract teams, the reality in the ‘league’ structure of pro cycling is that they need to show they can bring points to the team as well as performance. Lets hope we see some strong results in the many national championships coming up at the end of June.
On the women’s side, Kim Le Court leads the way, sitting in #14 worldwide, and as Africa’s leading woman. Her recent win at Liege-Bastogne-Liege still giving us all goosebumps! She hasn’t raced since though, and we are happy to see her named in the AG Insurance – Soudal Team’s squad for the Tour of Britain, starting on 5 June. We are very happy to see that the organisers have invited two UK continental teams who support African cyclists, so Kim will be joined by South African’s Tiffany Keep (DAS – Hutchinson) and S’annara Grove (CJ O’Shea Racing) who both raced this race in 2024. Three African women is the highest number of Africans in this race and we wish them all well.
The evergreen Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Africa #2 women) just finished the 2-stage Women’s Tour of Norway, riding as the captain of the team and finishing in a great 6th place after working hard for her team. She won 40 UCI points for herself. You can read her great review of her performance on her LinkedIn page. We are seeing some great performances at the lower levels by the young African women on the Africa 2025 project, run by the UCI’s World Cycling Centre. We have supported several of the women on this pogramme, and very impressed with their efforts, especially those of the two young Beninoise – Georgette Vignonfodo and Vanette Houssou. Reports from the WCC training team are very positive about their ability, attitude and ambition. Go ladies! Happy World Bicycle Day!
30 May: In 4 days time (4 June), the UCI 2.2 rated Tour of Cameroon will begin. With (currently) 10 teams registered, three from the host nation, plus national teams from Benin, Ivory Coast and Algeria, the African riders will be hoping to amass points to move up the UCI rankings. Algeria are currently ranked third nation in Africa, but only 226 points behind South Africa so will be hoping to shorten this gap. This will potentially be augmented by the Algerian-registered Continental team (Madar Pro Cycling) who are also racing this week at the Tour of Estonia, and the Tour of Lithuania in early July.
27 May: The UCI Nations rankings were updated today and Eritrea are sitting in 17th spot globally, with 5,200 points so far in 2025. With New Zealand around 850 points behind, it looks likely that Eritrea will remain as top African country, and in the top 20 by the Worlds deadline on 19 August. South Africa are currently 31st, with Algeria in 35th, Morocco in 34th and Mauritius in 35th. Rwanda sit in a precarious 49th spot, with four teams within 100 points, but luckily as hosts they qualify automatically (see below).
13 May: The UCI’s #Africa2025 project has published a cool video to showcase their work with the young male & female riders in the project, as they prepare for the World Championships. Check it out here:
12 May: So, onto the tricky matter of qualification for the UCI Cycling World Championships.
Qualification for African riders
All qualification decisions will be based on rankings and points on 19 August 2025*.
*Folk might have been surprised that the African Continental Championships have been hastily arranged by CAC (the Confederation of African Cycling) for 9-12 August, however you can now see the logic behind this…
Men Elite: There are six ways to qualify for this race: (i) Nations ranked 1-50 can enter 1-8 riders; (ii) Nations with a rider ranked 1-200 in the UCI Individual World Ranking on 19 August 2025 and not yet
qualified after provision 1 may enter 1 rider to start; (iii) the reigning Men Elite Road Race Olympic Champion and reigning Men Elite Road Race Continental Champions may take part; (iv) the reigning Men Elite Road Race UCI World Champion may take part: (v) up to 6 riders from the host nation may take part; (vi) The UCI can decide to award a maximum of 3 non-qualified nations the opportunity to enter 1 rider to
start.
Women Elite: There are six ways to qualify for this race: (i) Nations ranked 1-20 can enter 5-7 riders; (ii) Other nations and non-ranked nations may enter 3 riders to start; (iii) the reigning Women Elite Road Race Olympic Champion and reigning Women Elite Road Race Continental Champions may take part; (iv) the reigning Women Elite Road Race UCI World Champion may take part; (v) up to 4 riders from the host nation may take part;
Men U23: There are five ways to qualify for this race: (i) The first 5 nations in the Men Under 23 ranking by nations of the UCI Africa Tour will qualify for automatic entries: the nation ranked 1st may enter 5 riders to start; the nation ranked 2nd may enter 4 riders to start; and the nations ranked 3rd to 5th may enter 3 riders to start; (ii) African nations not qualified through provision 1 and with at least one Men Under 23 rider ranked among the first 60 in the Men Elite individual ranking of the UCI Africa Tour may enter 1
rider to start; (iii) the reigning Men Under 23 Road Race African Continental Champion may take part; (iv) up to 4 riders from the host nation may take part; and (v) The UCI can decide to award a maximum of 3 non-qualified nations the opportunity to enter 1 rider to start.
NOTE: U23 riders who have participated in the Men Elite individual road race at a previous World Championships may not participate in the individual road race for U23 riders. U23 riders who are registered with a UCI WorldTeam or a UCI ProTeam are not authorised to participate in the individual road race for U23 riders.
NEW: Women U23: There are three ways to qualify for this race: (i) Each nation may enter 5 riders to start; (ii) The reigning Women Under 23 Road Race African Continental Champion may take part; (iii) The reigning Women Under 23 Road Race UCI World Champion may take part.
Men Junior: There are four ways to qualify for this race: (i) Qualification through the UCI Nations’ Cup Men Junior rankings (3-5 riders based on ranking); (ii) Other nations and non-ranked nations may enter 2 riders to start; (iii) the reigning Men Junior Road Race African Continental Champion may take part; and (iv) The reigning Men Junior Road Race UCI World Champion may take part.
Women Junior: There are four ways to qualify for this race: (i) Qualification through the UCI Nations’ Cup Women Junior rankings (The nations ranked 1 to 5 may enter 5 riders to start.); (ii) Other nations and non-ranked nations may enter 4 riders to start; (iii) the reigning Women Junior Road Race African Continental Champion may take part; and (iv) The reigning Women Junior Road Race UCI World Champion may take part.
Individual Time Trial (ITT): Each nation may enter 2 riders to start in all categories.
Team Time Trial – Mixed Relay: The nations interested in taking part in this event shall have to apply for an invitation before 1 June 2025.
For the full qualification details, you can review on the UCI website here.
10 May: The ‘Kigali 2025’ Road World Cycling Championships will mark the first time the event will be hosted on the African continent. The event will feature time trials and road races for various categories, including a new stand-alone Under-23 (U23) women’s road race.
These are all the events which will take place in September:
- Individual Time Trial: Elite Men, Elite Women, Under-23 Men, Under-23 Women, Junior Men, Junior Women
- Team Time Trial Mixed Relay: Elite Men, Elite Women
- Road Races: Elite Men, Elite Women, U23 Men, U23 Women, Junior Men, Junior Women
You can see the full schedule for the week of competition on the UCI website here.
8 May: An in-depth article with Bénin Cycling’s President Romuald Hazoumè was published on BBC Sport today in which he talks about the rise of Bénin/West African cycling, with the World Championships firmly in their sights for their Junior and Women riders. The full article is here.
5 May: A comprehensive update on the UCI Cycling World Championships was published today, with full information on the courses for each discipline, timelines for entries, accreditation and all other logistical aspects of the event. You can download this document from the UCI website here.
24 April: It was leaked today that the 2025 African Continental Championships will take place on 9-12 August in Brazzaville (Republic of Congo). This is a bit of a shock as its right in the middle of the race calendar so many of the c.150 African men and women professional riders will struggle to make time to get there and back and not disrupt their race season. With the World Champs qualification deadline on 19 August, this might be a strategy by CAC to help African nations qualify for more places, but we are not sure the points gained will have much of an effect in reality. More on this closer to the time…
Earlier: Media noise earlier in the year about possible re-scheduling of the World Championships away from Rwanda has largely now died out. Team Africa Rising was working hard at the time to ensure the African point of view was at the forefront of many journalists’ minds when writing about this sensitive topic:
“If we lose this race, it will destroy cycling in Africa.” This is what Team Africa Rising CEO Kimberly Coats said to Germany’s DW magazine in a major article published on 3 April 2025. You can read the full article HERE.
“There Is No Plan B.” This is what UCI President David Lappartient said to our marketing and communications consultant Jeremy Ford when they met 1-2-1 for an in-depth interview for Cyclingnews during the 2025 Tour du Rwanda. You can read the full article HERE.
Please do follow our social media channels (we are on all main platforms) for more breaking news and stories around African pro and grass-roots cycling as always #AfricaRising #AfricaCycling
