'When we talk about legacy, things don't happen just by a one-off event' – One year later, what is the lasting impact of the Kigali World Championships?

Africa's first Road World Championships, held last year in Kigali, Rwanda, was a breakthrough moment for professional cycling on the continent. However, the intention was not just to create an historic event, but to build a legacy extending far beyond one momentous week in the 'land of a thousand hills'.

Cycling's governing body, the UCI, is seeking to globalise the sport, expanding beyond cycling's popularity in Europe to grow in new markets around the world. Kigali 2025 was seen as a key landmark in that effort.

"The organisation of the 2025 UCI Road World Championships in Kigali was a historic milestone for our sport and for the African continent, being the first edition held in Africa," UCI President David Lappartient said recently in an interview with Peace & Sport.

"Our goal is to support the development of cycling on every continent by working with national federations, strengthening local capacities, and creating concrete opportunities for athletes, organisers, and younger generations," Lappartient continued. "Africa plays a crucial role in this regard, with considerable potential that we want to continue to develop."

The likes of Kim Le Court-Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal) and Biniam Girmay (NSN) have broken the barriers of what's possible for African riders in recent years. However, despite their success in some of the world's biggest races, the numbers of African riders racing at the professional level has been in decline since its peak a decade ago when there were 16 Africans in the men's and women's WorldTours combined. In 2026 there were seven, and that number is set to decrease again next year.

Kigali 2025 was intended to catalyse a change to that reality. Africa's Worlds presented an unprecedented platform for young African talent to show themselves against the world's best, to inspire African nations not currently enchanted with pro cycling to invest in developing the sport and show that Africa is capable of hosting major cycling events.

But one year on from this historic World Championships, has any meaningful change taken effect? Was Kigali 2025 a one-off event, or is its legacy set to shape the future of African cycling and the UCI's wider push for globalisation?

Developing a generation of African talent

It's a story long been told that there is a wealth of talented cyclists in Africa waiting for opportunities to reveal themselves. Kigali 2025 provided the perfect opportunity to do just that, with its proximity to home, courses on familiar road-styles and the absence of visa restrictions.

It would still be a difficult challenge for the African racers to secure results among the world's best and on a course among the toughest in Worlds history. In the elite and under-23 categories, most struggled with the pace. However, two riders particularly impressed in the junior road races, signing contracts with European UCI teams directly off the back of their performances in Kigali.

Tsige Kahsay Kiros is thought of as Africa's brightest young talent. Even before the 2025 World Championships, the Ethiopian rider had impressed at the Tour de l'Avenir Femmes, finishing 22nd overall as the only junior in the race. After her 7th place finish at the Worlds in the junior women's road race, Kiros signed a three-year deal with Canyon-SRAM Generation and has been building her experience in Europe this year - although she has also faced the reality of visa restrictions, and has been unable to race in Europe since May.

In the junior men's race, Eritrean youngster Nahom Efriem stayed with the best of the chasers behind British escapee Harry Hudson to finish in 11th place. Efriem did this despite being more naturally suited to flatter terrain and thriving in the sprints. Efriem signed for German continental outfit Bike Aid this season and has scored impressive results at races including the Tour of Hellas and Tour de l'Avenir.

Kiros and Efriem's stories tangibly demonstrate a legacy of African riders progressing in their careers as a result of Africa's first World Championships. However, the UCI and others involved with developing the sport on the continent want much more. They see Kigali 2025 as a first step towards not only highlighting Africa's talents, but building infrastructure and support that creates a pathway for young African riders to succeed at the very top levels.

Jean Hubert Nkurayija is one of the men tasked with capitalising on the success of the World Championships. A former cyclist and the nephew of Rwanda's best-ever rider, Adrien Niyonshuti, Nkurayija was appointed as the President of FERWACY, the Rwandan cycling federation, in May.

"When the World Championships came in, it became a different story," Nkurayija told Cyclingnews, reflecting on the impact of the Worlds. "Talking about cycling in Rwanda, it is now taking another level from the period of the World Championships."

Nkurayija, who previously worked as the race director of the Tour du Rwanda, looks back on the Worlds with pride, but also with a feeling that Rwandan cycling is not where it needs to be. Rwanda had just four finishers out of twenty-two starters across all six road races, with none cracking the top-40. His primary mission as federation President is to see the level of his athletes, and their results, improve.

"At one moment, it gave me pride. But at another point, we still have a long way to go to be able to have riders who can compete at a high level," he said.

"The vision for the next four years by 2030 is to have riders who can finish top-10 in the World Championships at the junior level. That is my North Star, if I may say. If all goes well, by 2030 we will be having riders again winning the Tour of Rwanda."

There has not been a Rwandan winner of the stage race since 2018, before it was upgraded to UCI 2.1 status.

'Changing the perspective'

FERWACY, in collaboration with the UCI, is putting a number of elements in place to develop the next generation of stars from Rwanda and beyond.

The UCI has agreed to set up a satellite site of the World Cycling Centre (WCC) in Rwanda across three sites; Musanze, Bugesera and Rwamagana. This centre is intended as an elite training facility for riders from across Africa. Although the satellite was announced in February 2025, it is not yet operational.

A key building block in developing African cycling is to improve the racing calendar. There are very few UCI races in Africa, and many are of a poor standard. Following the World Championships, Nkurayija sees the potential for Rwanda to be a racing hub for African riders.

The Tour du Rwanda has taken place as a UCI race since 2009 and will continue as Africa's biggest race. Additionally, Nkurayija is planning on launching a women's UCI stage race in 2027 and a series of one-day UCI races over the coming seasons. FERWACY is also set to organise UCI races at junior level.

"[We want] a racing environment that equals to Europe," he said. "Europe is now the way to go for everyone. You can't count how many UCI races are there. To gain UCI points you have to be in Europe. Now we are changing the perspective. We want to make Rwanda a cycling destination for Africans.

"Rwanda is visa free. For example, in East Africa, to come to Rwanda from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, DRC, Burundi, South Sudan, Ethiopia, you just take a bus. We want to create more races at the level of the UCI so that Africans can also have equal opportunity without necessarily having to always ask for visas - which mostly they are being denied."

There is a confidence within FERWACY that Rwanda can now run a series of high-level races, and Nkurayija believes that external perspectives on what is possible in Africa are now shifting as a result of Kigali 2025, too.

Xylon van Eyck, a South African communications specialist who has spent more than a decade in the area of African cycling development, and is now working with Team Amani, agrees. "I think hopefully the World Championships have shown the capability of hosting events like that in Africa," he told Cyclingnews.

"There's less apprehension to come because you've seen that events can take place perfectly at a really good level in a safe environment. I think that's what we need."

While the progress since the championships has been encouraging, Van Eyck would have preferred to see a more strategic, thought-through approach.

"When we talk about legacy, things don't happen just by a one-off event happening. It actually takes infrastructure and planning," Van Eyck said. "I would have liked to see something at a very high level being like; this is a marquee event, this is setting us up for X, Y and Z in the future. I don't have details of those things, they might reveal themselves in the future."

Africa's ongoing barriers - can cycling ever overcome them?

The UCI wants to see more African riders participating in and winning the biggest races in the world. The current reality, however, is that fewer Africans are joining professional teams now than they were a decade ago.

The disadvantages that African riders are faced with are the same as they have always been. A lack of resources, racing opportunities and freedom of movement chief among them. One or two talented riders may be given a chance to race at a higher level each year, but they are the exceptions, rather than proof of an improving situation.

The question now becomes whether professional cycling can ever truly be a sport that facilitates a true and equal pathway for African riders to succeed at the highest levels. Hosting a World Championships in Rwanda was one step, but it did not solve all of African cycling's problems.

However, there are several independent initiatives and teams looking to address these challenges. Team Amani is an East African team which now includes UCI Continental squads for both men and women. The ambition for the women's team is to compete in the Tour de France Femmes in 2028, while the men's squad continues to develop with racing across Africa and Asia.

Amani has brought on a number of high profile sponsors over the past few years, including Factor, POC and Rapha. The investment from these sponsors and others has enabled the team to race in Europe this season. The cold truth, according to Van Eyck, is that although Africans face an uphill battle to reach the sport's higher levels, investment can overcome a great deal of things.

"Money and infrastructure fixes everything," he said, adding that Amani is actively seeking greater investment as they seek to build their women's team to a point in which they can compete in the Tour de France Femmes.

Significant levels of finance can provide world class equipment and nutrition, the ability to travel for racing and elite level coaching. Just like any other cycling team, attracting significant sponsorship is make or break.

Going global

"Africa is not a finish line; it's a starting point. This is part of our global strategy," David Lappartient said during last year's World Championships. While Kigali 2025 was a history-making event, the UCI wants to go further and faster in its efforts to globalise professional cycling. Those involved see the Worlds in Rwanda as a proof of concept, showing that major cycling events can take place across the globe.

The UCI has awarded the 2032 road World Championships to India, following the success of the inaugural Pune Grand Tour in January, where 2.5 million spectators lined the roadside to watch India's first-ever UCI stage race. There is also talk that Japan is preparing a bid for the 2035 'Super Worlds' and the UCI calendar gradually continues to become more international with each passing year.

More imminently, the UAE will host the road World Championships in 2028, with a likely sprinter-friendly course in Abu Dhabi. Ahead of that event, just the third of its kind ever to be held in Asia, the World Cycling Centre has launched its Global 2028 strategy, in which it hopes to develop a generation of stars from around the world.

As part of this initiative, the WCC has hosted riders from every continent in training camps in Brittany, where they are benefitting from coaching and getting local racing opportunities. The WCC is also working with several national federations from around the world in order to strengthen local race scenes, creating more effective development pathways - in the same vein as is being planned in Rwanda over the coming years.

The ambition is to improve the prospects for cyclists from what the WCC calls 'emerging' nations, shortening the gap between them and the professional level in Europe. "The ultimate goal is basically having them come through our programme and then move upward, move upward up the pathway," Jacques Landry, the World Cycling Centre's former director told Escape Collective in April (Landry recently left the position). "We're giving another rung in that ladder. Instead of having too much gap between the two rungs, we're an intermediate rung to help those athletes," he added.

The UCI, and many others within the sport, see globalisation as the future. For more than a century, professional cycling has been rooted in its rich western European culture. That will always be the case, but successful modern sports are global enterprises, reaching out to markets across the world.

The UCI has been trying for many years to do the same, and Kigali 2025 was an important step in that mission. It may not yet have borne fruit regarding the development of African cycling, but that, and professional cycling's broader internationalisation, is only in its very early stages.