Pogačar, Ferrand-Prévot, Evenepoel, Dygert headline historic and brutally hilly Kigali road worlds. Here’s all you need to know to follow along.
Updated September 17, 2025 04:22AM
Tadej Pogačar, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, Remco Evenepoel, and Chloé Dygert are among the cycling superstars who will stamp their passports in Rwanda this week for the UCI Road World Championships.
Starting Sunday September 21, rainbow jerseys will be awarded across the age categories in road racing and time trials. The team time trial mixed relay also returns for a sixth time.
The Kigali road worlds wrap up the following weekend with marquee road races for the elite women on Saturday September 27 and elite men on Sunday Septeber 28.
This year’s championships won’t be like any seen before.
The 2025 championships are the first on African soil, and the relentless, high-altitude courses out of Kigali are touted to be the hardest in modern history.
In fact, the parcours are so punishing that classics crushers Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert, Mads Pedersen won’t even show up.
Reigning world and Olympic champions Lotte Kopecky and Kristen Faulkner, and grand tour star Jonas Vingegaard, are other high-profile athletes who will not start due to injury or calendar conflicts.
Beyond that, the long, costly trip to Rwanda has deterred teams from sending full delegations or skipping certain disciplines altogether.
But don’t let that get you down.
Two new elite women’s champions will be crowned in the next week – neither the retired Grace Brown nor the injured Kopecky will be there.
Reigning rainbow jerseys Evenepoel and Pogačar will face-off in battles of the titans in both the road race and the time trial.
Demi Vollering, Tom Pidcock, Anna van der Breggen, Juan Ayuso, and Primož Roglič bring even more star power.
And while many top Americans are missing, Dygert, Quinn Simmons, and Kevin Vermaerke give USA a chance at medals in Kigali.
Here are the key things to know ahead of the Rwanda road worlds:
2025 UCI road world championship schedule:
USA’s 2023 time trial world champion Dygert will be in action in the opening race in Kigali. (Photo: Dario Belingheri/Getty Images)
Sunday 21: Women elite time trial, men elite time trial
Monday 22: Women U23 time trial, men U23 time trial
Tuesday 23: Women junior time trial, men junior time trial
Wednesday 24: Team time trial mixed relay
Thursday 25: Women U23 road race
Friday 26: Men junior road race, men U23 road race
Saturday 27: Women junior road race, women elite road race
Sunday 28: Men elite road race
Elite race essentials:
Women’s elite time trial, Sunday 21: 31.2km / 460m+
Scheduled finish: 12:55 CAT / 06:55 ET / 12:55 CET
Rider to watch: Dygert, Vollering, Kiesenhofer, Reusser
2024 winner: Brown (retired)
Men’s elite time trial, Sunday 21: 460km / 680m+
Scheduled finish: 16:50 CAT / 10:50 ET / 16:50 CET
Riders to watch: Evenepoel, Pogačar, Vine, Armirail, Küng
2024 winner: Evenepoel
Women’s elite road race, Saturday 27: 165km / 3,350m+
Scheduled finish: 16:45 CAT / 10:45 ET / 16:45 CET
Riders to watch: Ferrand-Prévot, Vollering, Reusser, Le Court, Niewiadoma, Longo Borghini
2024 winner: Kopecky (not racing)
Men’s elite road race, Sunday 28: 268km / 5,475m+
Scheduled finish: 16:45 CAT / 10:45 ET / 16:45 CET
Riders to watch: Pogačar, Evenepoel, Del Toro, Ayuso, Pidcock
2024 winner: Pogačar
TV and streaming: How to watch the 2025 road worlds:
USA and Canada: FloBikes
UK: TNT / Discovery+, BBC
Europe: HBO Max, Eurosport, and local broadcasters including TVE (Spain), VRT (Belgium), TV2 (Norway and Denmark), and NOS (Netherlands)
Australia: STAN