Beyond Kigali: the Road World Championships after 2025

Montreal last staged the Worlds in 1974, when Eddy Merckx subdued Mount Royal and everyone on it. In 2026 the peloton will return to those same slopes. The Côte Camillien-Houde, 1.8 km at close to 8%, will be climbed again and again, the circuit turning the city’s green mountain into a slow-burning executioner. For the men, some 270 km of attrition; for the women, a shorter but equally unforgiving test. The finale on Avenue du Parc promises a raucous urban backdrop, on a circuit that will closely resemble the GP Montréal, the same one Tadej Pogačar handed to teammate Brandon McNulty earlier this month.

The time trials will flatten the picture. A fast course on the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve and across the Saint Lawrence will suit the pure specialists. Montreal’s second Worlds will balance past and present, Merckx’s memory and a modern city spectacle.

If Montreal is defined by a single climb, Haute-Savoie will be defined by a range. The Pays du Mont-Blanc will host the second Super Worlds, with road racing at its core. The Sallanches–Domancy circuit needs little introduction. In 1980 Bernard Hinault won there by sheer destruction, and the route remains just as brutal.

The men will race 266 km, twenty laps of 13.3 km, each including the Côte de Domancy, 2.5 km at 9.4%. That adds up to almost 5,700 metres of climbing, a route built to strip the peloton bare. The women face the same circuit, and by the final laps the races will come down to who can keep turning the pedals on that slope.

The time trials, set around Lake Annecy, will show another side of the Alps. Wide roads, rolling terrain, a Tour de France echo. Where Domancy will grind the peloton down, Annecy will reward the rouleurs, a steadier test against postcard scenery.

After three climbing Worlds, Abu Dhabi offers a stark change of pace. It will be the first edition in the United Arab Emirates and only the second in the Middle East after Doha 2016. The terrain is flat, the roads are wide, and heat and wind will matter as much as the legs.

On paper it looks like a sprinters’ Worlds. Yet the UAE Tour shows on a yearly basis how quickly crosswinds can turn order into chaos. Doha 2016 told the same story, when Peter Sagan outsprinted Mark Cavendish after echelons ripped the race apart. Abu Dhabi could follow that script, or it might finish in a mass sprint under the city lights. The time trials will be pure power, raced on boulevards or perhaps Yas Marina’s F1 circuit.

The heat will also be a player. The 2016 Worlds in Qatar were pushed into October to avoid the worst of summer, and Abu Dhabi will face similar scheduling questions. Expect early starts, evening finishes and plenty of cooling measures.

From the desert the Worlds return to cycling’s heartland. In 2029 Denmark will host for the third time, after Copenhagen 1921 and 2011, and once again the capital will provide the stage.

The road races are expected to finish in Copenhagen but begin elsewhere, perhaps Roskilde for the men and Helsingør for the women, before funnelling into the capital as in 2011 when Mark Cavendish won on the boulevards.

Denmark is flat by World Championship standards, its highest point barely 171 metres. A bunch sprint looks the likeliest outcome, yet the wind could change everything. As Abu Dhabi will show a year earlier, crosswinds can dismantle a race in moments, and Denmark’s exposed roads are equally unforgiving.

The time trials will unfold in Aarhus, 300 km from the capital, on flat roads along the bay or new cycle highways. Specialists will like the profile, though here too the wind could intervene.

For Denmark the Worlds will be more than racing. Fan zones, mass rides and street parties will turn the country into one vast cycling festival. And perhaps Mads Pedersen, the 2019 world champion, will be chasing another rainbow jersey on home soil, cheered on by his own.

The journey ends, for now, in Brussels. It will be the eleventh Belgian edition, more than any other nation, but the first to finish in the capital. The timing is perfect: 2030 marks the 200th anniversary of Belgium’s independence. For a country that reveres cycling, crowning new champions in Brussels will be celebration and statement alike.

The course is still being drawn, but organisers confirm it will cross both Flanders and Wallonia. Expect a rolling route, cobbled climbs from the Flemish classics, steeper drags from Walloon Brabant. Something harder than flat, lighter than Alpine, more Leuven 2021 than Haute-Savoie 2027.

The narrative almost writes itself. Remco Evenepoel, already world champion in 2022, will be 30 and racing in his home country. Another rainbow in Brussels would be career-defining, magnified by bicentennial fervour.

The time trials are also expected to stay in the region, using the capital’s wide boulevards or rolling highways. Here too the thought of Evenepoel chasing gold will hover, a reminder of how personal this Worlds could be for Belgium’s brightest star.

The World Championships in Rwanda run from 21-28 September:

👉 Explore the full race schedule
👉 How to watch the World Championships