Rwanda is in advanced preparations for the much-anticipated 2025 UCI Road World Championship which will take place in Kigali from September 21-28. Just two weeks after the race’s official presentation at the International Cycling Union (UCI) Congress in Zurich, Switzerland, the union president David Lappartient traveled to host city Kigali last week to observe the preparation progress of the race. ALSO READ: Clock ticks for 2025 UCI Road World Championships During his visit, Lappartient met Rwandan Sports Minister Richard Nyirishema and local cycling governing body (Ferwacy) president Samson Ndayishimiye with whom he toured different parts where the race will cross, including the BK Arena which will be the official starting line for the Time Trial. In an exclusive interview with The New Times, he shares his observations on Kigali’s readiness for the global cycling event and what it means for Africa among other aspects. Excerpts: The 2025 World Road Championship come to Rwanda in nearly 12 months’ time. What was/ were your observation(s) from your visit? It's less than one year to go. I had the opportunity to meet with the Minister of Sports and (Ferwacy president) Samson, at Zurich World Championship last month, and at the UCI Congress when they made an official presentation about the Kigali 2025. I now wanted to come here to discuss about the organization and visit some infrastructures. That will be the first time ever for us to have the start for the individual time trial in an arena. That's something unique. I think it's great because it will be the first time in Rwanda, and Africa, after 125 years of the UCI. The roads, of course, are already vetted so I know the roads will be perfect. You have beautiful and large roads but it will be a really demanding and very difficult World Championship. It was a hard race this year where there was 4300 metres’ elevation. Next year, there is 5500 metres, which is 1000 more metres. So that will be a really tough one. What specific areas do you believe need further improvement or attention to ensure a successful World Championship event? One year to go, time is running because we awarded the Championship three years ago. But I'm not afraid. I know Rwanda has the capacity to deliver. We need something a little bit special that keeps the spirit of the UCI World Championship, but that will also aggregate the spirit of Rwanda and Africa. Of course there are still some challenges. There are some construction or modifications on the roads to be delivered. There are all the discussions with the National Federation for the accommodations and so on, because we have 205 national federations and more than half of them will be on site. It's a huge challenge to have this kind of competition but, from what I understood, I don't have any big warning. We just have to focus and be on time to deliver everything. Some infrastructures are probably not completely available here in Africa because you don't have so many events at this very worldwide level in cycling. But I'm not afraid, we will find solution for everything. So yes, it seems that it's moving positively. FERWACY, the Ministry (of Sports), the Kigali Municipality are really involved, and we have a lot of bilateral meetings between UCI and the organising committee. Do you think Kigali will be ready for the Championship within the next 12 months? For sure, Kigali will be ready and, as I said, the city will even bring probably more with the spirit you will have. For a lot of young people or for a lot of athletes, it will be the first time, not only in Rwanda, but in Africa. It's great that they will also discover the best from Africa here. So Pogacar said ‘I want to go’. Jonas Vingegaard, I think he has to go too...that could be a revenge of Tour de France. So you can have the top riders to ride this race. ALSO READ: Munyangaju promises memorable 2025 Road World Championships I can really tell you that our national federations, our members can't wait to witness Kigali 2025. The Kigali municipality has everything. You have large roads which are clearly in really good shape, which is great. You have hotel accommodations at the highest level. You have conference centers that will be hosting the UCI Congress and the elections. We are on time, so I’m relaxed. What legacy does UCI hope to leave behind in Kigali after the 2025 World Championship? That's the key question we discussed with the minister. When I met President Kagame two years ago, this is also something he mentioned to me because that's an event in Africa and the first time ever for us. So there must be a before and after. For this, we have different ways. Firstly, we will open a UCI Continental satellite of the World Cycling Center in three different areas namely Musanze, Rwamagana and Bugesera, and the decision has been taken already. This will be a strong legacy because it will be a way to bring athletes, not only from Rwanda, but from other countries, neighboring countries at the highest level. The other thing is that we believe that cycling will be more popular, there will be more races, it will be more structured in Rwanda. We are also working together with the Association of National Olympic Committee of Africa (ACNOA) and International Olympic Committee with the Solidarity Funds where we have a project called Africa 2025 whose goal is to bring the athletes from a lot of countries at the highest level. As I said, the dream is to have an African as a world champion. I don't know if this will happen this time, but one day it can happen. How does the UCI view the potential for cycling development in Africa, and what role can events like the 2025 World Championship play in driving that growth? I think there is a huge potential for cycling in Africa. That's for sure. You have top athletes riding at the highest level in the World Tour, so I am sure that tomorrow there will be much more than this and it will continue to grow. But for this, we need to structure a little bit because it's not as well structured as we want. And to open satellites of the World Cycling Centre will clearly help for this. But we need to have more races at the national level, because we can speak about international level, but we need solid roots; we need more kids, more young people to ride a bike, to do competitions not only in road cycling but we have many disciplines, mountain bike, BMX freestyle, BMX racing... So, I'm sure you can have much more than this in Africa. The Continental Championship took place in Kenya, and it is clearly a game changer because they completely switched the model of the organization. So now we have a very solid continental championship for the first time ever. Before, it was not organized in a very professional way, I would say, now it is organized on a very professional way which is really great and it will help structure cycling in Africa because the top riders will come. So it's a question of dynamic. The move is positive and we have clearly more countries interested in cycling, 54 national Olympic committees in Africa have a cycling federation and I think what will help us all is for Africa to see this event on live TV, on all African countries, because it's in our continent. We have our athletes who are capable, it's step by step but, this year, the fact that Biniam Girmay won the Green Jersey for the best sprinter at the Tour de France, shows that cycling is growing here. There is still a lot of work to be done, if we are honest, but we are on the right way and UCI will help. How does the UCI plan to engage with local communities and involve them in the event, and what initiatives are being considered to enhance the fan experience? First of all, I think the World Championship in Kigali will be very special because that will be probably the most crowded championship. In Belgium, two years ago, we had a 1 million people on a Sunday but I think here, on the circuit, we can have 1 million without any problem; and during the week we'll have a lot of people along the roads. That will be great. And it will show worldwide the passion Rwandan people have for cycling. And of course, after this, then you also create an interest for the sport. And then you have fans, then you have followers, then they will want their kids to do cycling, and so on. So I do believe that this will clearly help to grow the community. In addition to this, and that's something we discussed with the Minister, we will have some fan zones where we can engage with different local communities during the World Championship and, that way, you can go and see for free. That's something unique in cycling. And this is why, in fact, you bring the top athletes, the best race in the world, for free, at your door. So I'm quite confident that everybody will be impressed by the event.
