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‘It’s going to be insane’, according to ten-time Indian national champion Naveen John, who unpacks the vision, context, and possible route of the Worlds in Pune
Large crowds gathered around the podium ceremonies at the Pune Grand Tour in January. Image: Burgos-Burpellet-BH
Burgos-Burpellet-BH, Bajaj Pune Grand Tour
There has been mixed reaction to the announcement that the 2032 UCI Road World Championships will be hosted in the city of Pune in western India. It will be the first time that such an event will be held in India; a nation with so little heritage in professional cycling, but almost endless potential.
Some instant feedback to the announcement during last week’s UCI Congress questioned India’s viability as a host due to the country’s apparent lack of expertise, the political machinations at the heart of the deal, and India’s environmental and air quality shortcomings. Others praised the potential to see the sport open up into a new market and looked forward to what will surely be a vibrant Worlds, much like Africa’s first World Championships last year in Kigali.
Everyone has their own unconscious biases, their own imagined pictures of what India is like, whether one has visited the world’s most populous nation or not. Everyone has their own ideas of what the World Championships in 2032 will be like, too.
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But what is the view from within India and its growing cycling community? What will this historic World Championships look like? And what might its legacy be? To gain a clearer picture, Escape spoke to the only Indian rider ever to race for a UCI-registered team. Ten-time national champion Naveen John has been racing and working to develop the sport in India for 15 years. He also competed in the World Championships in Doha in 2016 and has spent summers racing the kermesse scene in Belgium for more than a decade.
“I think the people who actually come here and experience it, the athletes themselves, are going to be just floored,” John told Escape over a video call from his home in Bangalore a few days after the announcement. “The number of people that are going to be on the side of the road, man, it’s going to be insane.”
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