IN BRIEF
The 2032 Road World Championships will be held in Pune, India: according to the UCI, it will be the first time the country hosts them. The UCI unveiled the award on 23 September in Montreal, at its 195th Congress, alongside that of the 2034 edition, road and para-cycling road, given to the Dutch provinces of Groningen and Drenthe. The two bids were competing for 2032; it was the UCI Management Committee that made the decision. According to Cyclingnews, Pune hosted India’s first UCI stage race in January 2026.
From 20 to 27 September, Montreal hosted the 2026 Road World Championships, and with them the annual Congress of the Union Cycliste Internationale. During a ceremony, delegates discovered the host cities of 19 World Championships, in 11 countries, awarded for the 2027-2034 period by the UCI Management Committee at its recent meeting. Among them: the 2032 Road World Championships in Pune.
2032 Road World Championships: Pune beats Groningen
Two bids were vying for the 2032 edition: Pune, in the state of Maharashtra, and the Dutch provinces of Groningen and Drenthe. According to Cyclingnews, Pune submitted its bid late, after the 31 December deadline. The British outlet reports that David Lappartient, president of the UCI, was so impressed by the Indian proposal that he and the Management Committee took the unusual decision to award the 2034 edition to Groningen and Drenthe right away, well ahead of the application deadline. That 2034 edition will combine the Road and Para-cycling Road World Championships.
“I am particularly delighted that India will host the UCI Road World Championships for the first time, in 2032. In a country that accounts for nearly a fifth of the world’s population, this event can become a tremendous catalyst for both competitive cycling and everyday bike riding,” David Lappartient said in the UCI press release.
A stage race as a calling card
According to Cyclingnews, Pune organised India’s first-ever UCI stage race this year, from 19 to 23 January: the Bajaj Pune Grand Tour, rated category 2.2. According to the UCI, an Indian delegation led by Jitendra Dudi, the senior civil servant at the head of Pune district (District Collector), had presented its results to the Management Committee: 1.5 million spectators on the final stage. “First of all, we were really impressed by the level of the organization for the first year,” David Lappartient told Cyclingnews.
On the Indian side, the ambitions are clear. Maninder Pal Singh, secretary general of the Cycling Federation of India, said, as quoted by IDL Pro Cycling: “I want it to be bigger than the Tour de France.” According to the same outlet, India will become the fourth Asian country to host the Road World Championships, after Japan (Utsunomiya, 1990), Qatar (Doha, 2016) and Abu Dhabi, already chosen for 2028. In the Netherlands, Bauke Mollema, ambassador for the Groningen and Drenthe bid, was delighted: “It’s brilliant that this is happening, it’s really a dream.”
Events in France too
The list unveiled in Montreal also includes several events in France: the 2027 Snow Bike World Championships in Châtel, the 2032 BMX Racing World Championships, and the 2028 and 2029 Track Masters World Championships in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. The Congress also presented the 2027 Haute-Savoie Mont-Blanc World Championships, which will bring together 20 separate World Championships from 25 August to 5 September 2027. It also voted to affiliate the Kiribati federation, bringing the number of national federations that are members of the UCI to 207, and approved the 2027 budget.
