"Responsible financial decision" - Denmark won't bring Junior and U23 teams for World Championships in Rwanda

The Danish Cycling Union has made the difficult decision that the Danish U19 and U23 national teams will not participate in the 2025 Road Cycling World Championships in Rwanda. The demanding course in Kigali will thus be only for the elites.

The decision to keep the young riders at home was made partly on the basis of finances, but also the fact that the World Championships in Rwanda will be held at an altitude of 1,500-1,700 meters, which according to the federation requires special preparations, which will of course also cost both extra money and resources. Maybe a lack of big favourite for next year's parcours could be seen as an underlining motive...

Elite manager Morten Bennekou elaborates on the decision as follows: "From a purely sporting perspective, we are of course very sad that we have had to make a decision not to participate in either the U19 or U23 World Championships for both men and women in 2025. However, the journey to and stay in Rwanda is very costly, and each individual rider group and the extra staff, etc. that a rider group triggers, make it so expensive that we have had to make a responsible financial decision in a year where the elite budget will already have to be cut compared to 2024. However, I would like to emphasize that our decision for 2025 does not necessarily create a precedent in relation to the coming years, where the World Road Championships will also in several cases be held overseas."

This is the first time that Denmark has not started at World Championships in the U23 category, while previously they have opted out of the U19 World Championships several times, most recently in Wollongong 2022. Normally, this should not affect Denmark's start at the European Championships in France.