The UCI has awarded the first Road World Championships to the world's largest country, handing the 2032 event to Pune, India.
Pune, southwest of Mumbai, put in a late bid to host the 2023 Road Worlds and were in competition with Groningen and the Drenthe region of the Netherlands.
UCI President David Lappartient announced that there were "two very, very solid bids, and I think we've been able for the two organisers to find two good solutions, and that's why we will propose two different awards."
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The Management Committee decided to award the 2034 UCI Road World and Para-cycling Championships to Groningen and Drenthe, Lappartient said.
Pune hosted India's first-ever UCI stage race, the 2.2-ranked Bajaj Pune Grand Tour in the state of Maharashtra from January 19 to 23, and Maninder Pal Singh, secretary general of the Cycling Federation of India (CFI), told The Athletic that their bid for Worlds took shape earlier in the summer, well after the UCI's normal December 31 deadline.
"Three months ago, probably nobody believed that we could host an event of the stature of the UCI Road World Championships, but I think it's going to be the biggest, grandest World Championships if we get it, which I believe we will," Singh said, adding that there are plans to bring the region "the world's fourth Grand Tour… I'm not talking about an event like the Tour de France - I want it to be bigger than the Tour de France".
The UCI Road World Championships have historically been the domain of Western Europe, but Canada held the first event outside Europe in 1974.
The USA held the event in Colorado Springs in 1986. Utsunomiya, Japan hosted the race in 1990, but Asia wouldn't get another chance until Road Worlds were held Doha, Qatar in 2016, where the sprinters got a rare opportunity.
Rwanda became the first African nation to host this prestigious event in 2025, with a highly selective course in Kigali.
Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates have already been awarded the 2028 Road Worlds, making India the fourth held on the Asian continent.
More to come.
