An inspection team from the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) is expected in Rwanda in May to assess whether Rwanda fulfills all the requirements needed to host the 2025 UCI Road World Championships.

In September 2019, Rwanda officially submitted a bid to host World Championships 2025 and now faces stiff competition from Morocco, which is also interested in hosting the world cycling event.

With host nations until 2024 already known, Rwanda would be the first African country to host the world’s biggest cycling event since its inception in 1921.

The 2020 edition of the Road World Championships was relocated to Italy after initial host nation Switzerland opted out following the Swiss Federal Council’s ban on events convening more than 1000 people.

Belgium will host this year’s edition while Australia (2022), the United Kingdom (2023) and Switzerland (2024) will host the next three editions.  

Rwanda’s bid to host the 2025 Road World Championships was one of the key talking points that Rwanda Cycling Federation (FERWACY) president Abdallah Murenzi discussed with UCI President David Lappartient when the duo met at the African Cycling Confederations elective Congress held on March 14 in Cairo, Egypt.

Murenzi told Times Sport that he was informed that UCI will send a technical team to visit Rwanda in May to assess whether what Rwanda presented on paper is what is on ground.

"A technical team from UCI is expected in Rwanda in May to assess whether what we presented in the document of submission are the same as what is on ground,” Murenzi said.

Murenzi is confident that Rwanda has all it takes to host the race as presented in the document submitted to the UCI but insists upcoming inspections will be decisive on the country's chances of hosting the global cycling race.

"We have received positive feedback about our bid, but that won’t be enough for us to win the bid because we still face competition from Morocco. What the inspection team will observe during their field visit will decide who wins the bid,” Murenzi said.

Similar inspections will be conducted in Morocco before UCI announces the winner of the bid during this year’s Road World Championships race slated in September in Belgium.

The UCI Road World Championships consist of events for Road Race, Individual Time Trial and, as of 2019, a mixed team relay.

All the world championship events are competed for by national teams, not trade teams as in most other major races. The winner of each category is entitled to wear the rainbow jersey in races of that category (either mass start or time trial) until the next championships.