Speaking at a press briefing on Friday, September 26, 2025, Lappartient praised the successful staging of the UCI Road World Championships in Kigali, the first time the event has been held in Africa.
He said the event was 'really perfectly organised', adding that even officials who had doubts were convinced once they arrived: 'When they arrived here, they thought, 'Wow, that's really perfectly organised.''
Lappartient also highlighted the hospitality and atmosphere in Kigali: 'It's safe, it's beautiful, and the people are very friendly, happy to be here. A lot of smiles on their faces… I can feel also the African spirit, and that's something really nice.'
He noted that many of his colleagues had never been to Africa and came with different expectations: 'They had the image of Africa that is not really at the level of Rwanda that we can witness today. They were really impressed by everything here.'
Asked whether Africa could host more major competitions, Lappartient affirmed, highlighting Rwanda as a potential host for the Mountain Bike World Championships.
'Yes, I think it will be possible. I'm sure that mountain biking can be organised one day. You have everything needed to host it.'
He stressed the importance of ensuring that cycling grows beyond Europe, saying the UCI is 'always very careful to really have the events worldwide, not only located in Europe.'
Looking ahead, he pointed to Rwanda's potential to host more regular races as a legacy of the 2025 championships: 'It would be good that, as a kind of legacy of these championships, we can even have more races here in the country… You need to compete, and we will not be able to bring everybody to race in Europe. So we need to have races here.'
Lappartient, who was recently re-elected to lead the UCI until 2029, also underlined the federation's global vision. After Kigali, the next cities set to host the UCI Road World Championships are Montreal, Canada (2026); the French Alps, France (2027); Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (2028); Roskilde, Denmark (2029); Brussels, Belgium (2030); and Trentino, Italy (2031).
IGIHE
