Danish Cycling opts against taking junior and U23 riders to 2025 World Championships in Rwanda

The Danish Cycling Union has announced that it will not take any junior or under-23 riders to the 2025 UCI Road World Championships in Rwanda.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the federation cited "financial considerations" and "the special preparations required" to compete at high altitude in Kigali.

The next Worlds, running from September 21-28, will be the first held in Africa and at an altitude between 1,500 and 1,700 metres above sea level. The cost and resources necessary to compete with a full team at the event would not be possible, the federation stated.

"The Danish Cycling Union has made the difficult decision that the Danish U19 and U23 national teams will not participate in the 2025 Road Cycling World Championships in Rwanda," the statement read.

"The decision was made based on financial considerations and the special preparations required to compete at altitudes between 1,500 and 1,700 metres… which requires special preparations, which will, of course, also cost both extra money and resources.

"Therefore, it has been decided that the Danish Cycling Union will only field teams in the men's and women's elite races."

According to the federation, it marks the first time that Denmark will be without a U23 team at the Worlds. In 2022 they opted to head to Australia without the junior squads.

The nation will instead send a full lineup of riders – elite, U23 and junior for a total of around 35 – to the UEC European Championships in France, which runs from October 1-5.

Denmark's elite manager Morten Bennekou said the federation is "very sad" to have to make that decision but acknowledged that it is a "responsible financial decision".

"From a purely sporting perspective, we are of course very sad that we have had to make a decision not to participate in either the U19 or U23 World Championships for both men and women in 2025," he said.

"However, the journey to and stay in Rwanda is very costly, and each individual rider group and the extra staff, etc. that a rider group triggers, make it so expensive that we have had to make a responsible financial decision in a year where the elite budget will already have to be cut compared to 2024.

"However, I would like to emphasize that our decision for 2025 does not necessarily create a precedent in relation to the coming years, where the World Road Championships will also in several cases be held overseas," he concluded, referring to the coming Worlds in Montréal, Haute-Savoie and Abu Dhabi, before they return home to Copenhagen in 2029.