What does the UCI charge for a World Championships?

The UCI has called for another round of bids to host World Championships across cycling's disciplines this week, and in doing so has revealed the latest fees for securing the rights to run the rainbow jersey races.

Unsurprisingly, the fees to the cycling governing body vary dramatically across the disciplines, with its flagship UCI Road World Championships attracting by far the biggest fee at a proposed 10 million Swiss francs (CHF) (€10.7 million) for 2032, which is now open for bids in the current cycle. That's eight times more than any other discipline and up from the 8 million CHF (€8.6 million) outlined in the bid guide for the next edition in 2026, to be held in Montreal.

The next biggest fee is for Urban Cycling – BMX Freestyle Flatland, Park and Trials – at 1.25 million CHF (€1.3 million), then the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships, which for 2032 has a fee of 1.1 million CHF (€1.2 million). Track for that year is at 900,000 CHF (€964,000), cyclocross at 525,000 CHF (€562,000), while the next available UCI Gravel World Championships in 2030 has a fee of 400,000 CHF (€428,000), plus 10 CHF per participant – not an insubstantial amount given there were nearly 3,000 riders at the 2025 event.

The winning candidates from the latest round of bidding are set to be announced at the next UCI Congress, which will be held in Montréal, Canada, in September during the Road World Championships.

Outside the once-in-every-four-years boost of Olympic Games revenues, hosting fees are the biggest single source of revenue for the UCI, with the organisation's 2024 annual report outlining a hosting fee haul of 13.9 million CHF (€14.9 million) in 2024 and 15.03 million CHF (€16.1 million) in 2023.

Still, there will be a major dent in the budget in 2025, with the UCI warning that the move to hold the first UCI Road World Championships in Africa came with a financial price.

"When the UCI Road World Championships were awarded to Kigali, the Management Committee exceptionally approved a reduced organisation rights fee. It was considered that this initiative, which was part of the UCI's development and solidarity mission, justified a financial effort," said the UCI in its 2024 annual report.

"However, given the surpluses of the last two cycles, the UCI has an excellent financial base, and the 2025 budget will not put the UCI's finances under pressure," it later added.

Reserves were up to 53.2 million CHF (€57 million) at the end of 2024, an all-time high and far outstripping the 20 million CHF (€21.4 million) target set by the management committee.