Pogačar faces the hardest UCI world championship course ever
Pogačar claimed the 2024 UCI road race world title in Zurich with a daring and dominant display, but this year’s challenge in Rwanda is a very different test. Kigali’s men’s elite course—marking the first UCI Road World Championships ever held on African soil—sits 1,000 metres higher than the Swiss circuit where he triumphed last year. UCI President David Lappartient described the course as “probably the hardest UCI World Championship course ever,” as he welcomed participants to the land of a thousand hills.
The numbers are daunting: The 40.6 kilometre time trial that Evenepoel excelled at featured 680 metres of climbing, but the road race stretches 267.5 kilometres with 5,400 metres of elevation gain. The course includes the gruelling Mont Kigali ascent (5.9km at a 6.9-percent gradient) and the punishing 450 metres of cobblestones on the famed Mur de Kigali. Rwanda’s altitude and humid conditions promise to add another layer of difficulty.
Since the time trial, Pogačar has been sharing glimpses of his training rides on social media alongside his Slovenian teammate Urška Žigart and members of the Rwandan national team.
If he is successful in defending his title on Sunday, 28 September, it would mark an unprecedented double-double: back-to-back Tour de France victories and consecutive UCI Road World Championship titles.