Mattias Skjelmose and Egan Bernal will carry the hopes of their countries in Kigali

The Kigali World Champioships are rapidly approaching and it's slowly becoming clear who will, and who won't travel to Rwanda to compete for the 2025 rainbow jersey. Despite some of the previously announced absences (such as Mathieu van der Poel, Mads Pedersen and Jonas Vingegaard), we can still look forward to an exciting week of racing during which we will find out whether Tadej Pogacar will spend another year in the special jersey, or if we will know a new world champion at the end of September.

Until that, there are still three weeks to go, but we've already learnt some of the lineups that will, under normal circumstances travel to Africa. Next to Belgium, Netherlands and Australia, two more power houses have announced their selections.

First is Colombia, who will put their hopes in the country's beloved Egan Bernal. The Colombian champion both at road and the time trial is currently chasing a good GC result at the Vuelta a Espana after which he should travel almost immediately to Kigali. He'll have a company on the flight in form of his friend and INEOS Grenadiers teammate Brandon Rivera.

The Colombian selection will be completed by a possible co-leader Harold Tejada who is currently in Spain too, and six-time Pan-American time trial champion Walter Vargas. The rider of continental Team Medellín - EPM is also expected to represent Colombia in the individual time trial.

Danish national team had a bit of a trouble putting together their team for Kigali, but eventually they found a leader worth backing with a fully dedicated supporting team. The Scandinavian country will not compete in the youth categories, participating only in elite. In absence of 2019 world champion Mads Pedersen and superstar Jonas Vingegaard, we might have not seen the Danish flags in Kigali at all though.

Fortunately, Mattias Skjelmose didn't withdraw desptite the discomfort of travelling across the globe and will lead Denmark's charge at a potential medal result. The 24-year-old Dane has experience with the role of a leader at such a big event and even a top-10 result to back that up. In 2022, Skjelmose snuck into a 10th place in a reduced sprint in Wollongong.

Where could be Denmark's weakness is the team strength. While the team around Skjelmose includes the likes of Michael Valgren - a bronze medallist at the 2021 World Championships in Leuven, in case super-teams such as Belgium make the race hard, Skjelmose could find himself isolated rather quickly.

The Lidl-Trek climber will be accompanied by Classics men Anders Foldager, Anthon Charmig and EF Education-EasyPost's duo Mikkel Honoré and Michael Valgren. All-rounders Casper Pedersen and Christopher Juul-Jensen are expected to take some early shifts at the front while climber Asbjorn Hellemose could play a role of a satellite rider.