{"id":140918,"date":"2025-09-16T10:24:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T10:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/140918\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T10:24:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T10:24:06","slug":"juan-ayuso-julian-alaphilippe-and-pauline-ferrand-prevot-lead-spain-and-france-teams-for-rwanda-world-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/140918\/","title":{"rendered":"Juan Ayuso, Julian Alaphilippe and Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot lead Spain and France teams for Rwanda World Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spain and France are the latest teams to confirm their selections for the UCI Road World Championships<\/a> in Rwanda (September 21-28), adding the likes of Juan Ayuso<\/a>, Julian Alaphilippe and Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot<\/a> to the start lists of the elite races.<\/p>\n

Despite some high-profile drop-outs in recent weeks, and riders like Jonas Vingegaard<\/a>, Mathieu van der Poel and Lotte Kopecky<\/a> skipping the Rwanda Worlds, many of the biggest cycling nations are still assembling strong teams, with Grand Tour winners and stage winners among those lining up for next weekend’s road races.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

For Spain, Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a<\/a> stage winners Juan Ayuso and Marc Soler will lead the eight-man selection for the elite men’s road race, taking on their UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammate Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/a> on the climber-friendly course in Kigali.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

They’ll be joined by Abel Balderstone, Iv\u00e1n Romeo, Carlos Verona, Carlos Canal, Roger Adri\u00e0 and Ra\u00fal Garc\u00eda Pierna in what is shaping up to be a strong team for the nation that last won a men’s road race title in 2018 \u2013 with Alejandro Valverde, who is now the national coach. Mikel Landa<\/a>, still recovering from a back injury, is absent from the selection.<\/p>\n

Garc\u00eda Pierna and last year’s under-23 time trial world champion Romeo will line up for Spain in Sunday’s elite time trial.<\/p>\n

Ayuso has never previously ridden a World Championships as an elite rider, but will immediately be on the list of potential winners alongside Poga\u010dar and Remco Evenepoel, given his recent successes at the Vuelta and the volume of climbing in Kigali.<\/p>\n

The women’s road race team will be led by Mavi Garc\u00eda<\/a>, whilst Mireia Benito is selected for the women’s elite time trial.<\/p>\n

The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

France also announced their strong team on Monday, with GP Qu\u00e9bec winner Julian Alaphilippe<\/a> and Tour de France Femmes<\/a> winner Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot spearheading their road race squads.<\/p>\n

In the men’s race, Alaphilippe \u2013 back-to-back world champion in 2020 and 2021 \u2013 will be flanked by a team that includes the young phenom Paul Seixas<\/a>, who just won the Tour de l’Avenir. Despite still only being 18, the UCI have reverted to the rule that WorldTour riders may not race the under-23 events at Worlds<\/a>, so Seixas will ride in the elite category, racing both the road race and TT.<\/p>\n

Bruno Armirail will also ride the TT for France, though he isn’t part of the road race selection.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot, also a former world champion on the road, will count on the likes of Juliette Labous, \u00c9vita Muzic and double Tour stage winner Ma\u00ebva Squiban<\/a> for support on a course that is well-suited to her abilities, with Labous and C\u00e9drine Kerbaol representing France in the women’s time trial.<\/p>\n

With Belgium, Australia, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the USA and Germany all now confirming their elite line-ups, the provisional start lists for the biggest World Championship races are beginning to come together, with nations like Italy and Great Britain among the countries still yet to announce their selections.<\/p>\n

France selection for Worlds 2025Elite women TTC\u00e9drine KerbaolJuliette LabousElite women road raceL\u00e9a CurinierPauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9votC\u00e9drine KerbaolJuliette LabousMarie Le Net\u00c9vita MuzicMa\u00ebva SquibanElite men TTBruno ArmirailPaul SeixasElite men road raceJulian AlaphilippeLouis Barr\u00e9Julien BernardJordan JegatValentin MadouasValentin Paret-PeintrePaul SeixasPavel SivakovMixed relay TTTBruno ArmirailPaul SeixasPavel SivakovC\u00e9drine KerbaolJuliette LabousMa\u00ebva SquibanSpain selection for Worlds 2025Elite women TTElite women road raceAlicia Gonz\u00e1lezUsoa OstolazaAne SantestebanSara Mart\u00ednMireia BenitoMavi Garc\u00edaElite men TTIv\u00e1n RomeoRa\u00fal Garc\u00eda PiernaElite men road raceJuan AyusoAbel BalderstoneMarc SolerIvan Rom\u00e9oCarlos VeronaCarlos CanalRoger Adri\u00e0Ra\u00fal Garc\u00eda PiernaMixed relay TTT<\/p>\n

TBC<\/p>\n

Subscribe to Cyclingnews to unlock unlimited access to our coverage of the first-ever UCI Road World Championships on African soil. Our team of journalists will bring you all the major storylines, in-depth analysis, and more directly from the action in Rwanda as the next rainbow jerseys are decided. Find out more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spain and France are the latest teams to confirm their selections for the UCI Road World Championships in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-140918","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}