Pogacar eyes gold in Rwanda in 1st African world championships

LONDON – Rwanda is known as the ‘land of a thousand hills’, so from a sporting perspective it is fitting that its capital Kigali will stage the first UCI World Road Championships in Africa.
The verdant country has a rich cycling culture and thousands of fans are expected to line the routes of the races that begin this Sunday with the women’s and men’s elite time trials.
A week later it culminates with cycling superstar Tadej Pogacar favourite for the men’s road race on a 265km course being touted as the toughest in the history of the event.
While no doubt a landmark event for cycling and Rwanda, the decision to stage it in a country bordering war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo and which backs the M23 rebel group has brought accusations by rights groups of ‘sportswashing’.
Security fears have dogged the build-up but International Cycling Union (UCI) head David Lappartient said there was no Plan B and prefers to see it as an opportunity to globalise the sport and inspire a future generation of African riders.
“It’s a bit of blue sky on a grey day,” Lappartient said recently in an interview with Cyclist magazine, when highlighting sport’s power to build bridges.
“I believe the right thing to do is to go to Rwanda. We have never been to Africa. We knew there would be challenges but we will have wonderful races, wonderful images worldwide.”
While there are some notable absentees from the line-up, a stellar cast of riders will assemble in Kigali.
Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel will be favourite to win the men’s time trial gold for a third successive year on Sunday and will start heavy favourite on the 40.6km course that starts at the BK Arena, the largest indoor stadium in east Africa.
Slovenia’s Pogacar will have his eyes on the following weekend’s road race, but the hilly nature of the TT course will peak his interest, while Australia’s Jay Vine and Dutchman Thymen Arensman could also push Olympic champion Evenepoel hard.
With 2024 women’s TT champion Grace Brown having retired, American Chloe Dygert, a two-time world champion in the discipline, is favourite to win gold on the 31.2km course.
Including juniors and under 23s, 13 world titles are up for grabs in Rwanda — but none will be more eagerly anticipated than the elite road races on the second weekend.
If defending champion Pogacar was to design a world championship course to suit his formidable skill set it would probably look something like the one he will race on Sept. 28.
Nine laps of a 15km city circuit will be followed by a middle section with three climbs, one of which takes the riders to an elevation of 1,771 metres on Mount Kigali and a far shorter, but horribly steep, one which includes cobbles.
Four-time Tour de France winner Pogacar will not have his usual UAE Team Emirates XRG back-up but will have a formidable teammate in the shape of Primoz Roglic who will also fancy a medal.
“This year will be harder than last year, because everyone expects us to defend the jersey,” Uros Murn, part of the Slovenia coaching set-up, said.
Pogacar will be wary of Evenepoel and Britain’s Tom Pidcock while Mexico’s Isaac Del Toro, second at this year’s Giro, will also find the terrain to his liking.
Belgium’s Lotte Kopecky has opted not to defend her women’s title and while it would be hard to look beyond a Dutch team led by Demi Vollering for the favourite on a 164km route, France’s versatile veteran Pauline Ferrand-Prevot remains a threat.