World Cycling Championships 2025 Rwanda: The top favourites for the women's road race

There will definitely be a jersey swap in Kigali. Defending champion Lotte Kopecky will not be at the start. The Belgian, who recently struggled to find her top form at the Tour de France, broke her back at the Tour de l'Ardèche shortly before the World Championships - but had not planned to start at the World Championships beforehand. Over the 164.6 kilometre course in Kigali, the elevation gain adds up to that of a real mountain stage - namely 3350 m. However, there are no very long climbs in the women's race, it adds up over eleven laps of the 15 kilometre loop through Kigali. The Cote de Kigali Golf is halfway through the lap - 800 metres long and with an average gradient of 8.1 per cent. The first half of the ramp has double-digit gradients, with the first 200 metres being 12.4 per cent steep. The Cote de Kimihurura in particular offers terrain for classic specialists. After a sharp hairpin bend, the route enters the executioner of the race, with a gradient of almost ten per cent in the first 300 metres. Traction is also important: the section of the route is paved. Shortly after the crest, the Flamme Rouge hangs over the course - so it's almost exactly one kilometre to the finish. With an average gradient of 3.9 per cent, the last 1000 metres don't really roll either. And all this in difficult conditions in tropical Africa and at an altitude of around 1400 to 1500 metres. Heat resistance and performance in thin air are further requirements. The favourites with the best chances on this route in the TOUR-Check.

Women's World Championship road race: The most important facts in brief

• Date: Saturday 27.9.2025
• Time: 12:05 - approx. 16:45
• Length: 164.6 kilometres
• Altitude metres: 3350
• TV broadcast: Eurosport 1, 11:45 - 17:15 - ZDF (from 15:15)
• Live stream: Discovery Plus, ZDF
• The routes of the 2025 World Cycling Championships at a glance
• The favourites for the men's race

The TOUR favourites by stars

***** Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (France)

**** Demi Vollering (Netherlands), Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy), Marlen Reusser (Switzerland)

*** Kimberly Le Court Pienaar (Mauritius), Anna van der Breggen (Netherlands)

** Liane Lippert (Germany), Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Poland)

* - in the extended circle: Elise Chabbey (Switzerland), Juliette Labous, Cédrine Kerbaol, Maeva Squiban (all France), Antonia Niedermaier (Germany)

* The more stars a driver receives, the higher her chances are rated

***** Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (France)

As the winner of the Tour de France, she is naturally the top favourite for this particularly mountainous World Championships: Just as Pauline Ferrand-Prévot outsprinted all her rivals on the way to the stage finish on the Col de la Madeleine during the Tour a few weeks ago, she should also be hard for her rivals to hold back in the hills of Kigali. What's more, she probably has the strongest team at her side: France is starting the race with a handful of world-class mountain racers: Juliette Labous, Évita Muzic, Cédrine Kerbaol and two-time Tour stage winner Maeva Squiban are all strong enough to go on the hunt for a medal themselves on the demanding course in the mountain air of Kigali. It won't be enough for the competition to just watch out for the Tour winner. However, things did not go smoothly for the 33-year-old French World Championship favourite. At first, she didn't even want to start at the World Championships because she felt exhausted and empty after winning the Tour. And then her journey to Rwanda was delayed because her plane could not take off as planned due to the IT chaos at many airports. She was already world champion in 2014 and managed the feat of also winning the mountain bike and cyclocross titles within the space of a year. No one else in elite cycling has ever achieved this.

**** Demi Vollering (Netherlands)

The Tour winner in 2023 and Tour runner-up in 2022, 2024 and 2025 is likely to be the main challenger to the favourite Frenchwoman. Most recently, the 28-year-old Dutchwoman was the closest rider to Ferrand-Prévot on the mountain. The 2023 World Championship silver medallist also accompanies a strong team - however, there have recently been repeated conflicts of loyalty among the Dutch women. The strongest cycling nation in the world often failed to maximise its potential. This time Marianne Vos, who cancelled her participation in the World Championships at short notice for personal reasons, and Puck Pieterse, who concentrated fully on the Mountain Bike World Championships and is therefore not in the line-up, will be missing. Optionally strongest helper and toughest internal rival: Anna van der Breggen. For the first time in many years, the Dutch women are likely to find an equal opponent in the French team at this World Championships.

**** Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy)

It's been quiet around her lately - but Elisa Longo Borghini has been working on her big project unobserved: Becoming world champion! She showed her strong form by winning the Giro d'Italia at the beginning of July. In the Tour de France that followed, she finished after three stages. But after a break, she won the Kreiz Breizh one-day race as soon as she returned - as a soloist, of course. Italy usually performs as a strong team at world championships. However, the challenging course in Kigali is likely to be decided more by the legs than by team tactics. The Italian champion cannot count on much team support in the final. Unlike her rivals from France and the Netherlands, she will probably have to follow all the attacks in the final herself.

**** Marlen Reusser (Switzerland)

She reached her destination last Sunday, one day after her 34th birthday. Finally. Marlen Reusser won the World Championship title in the individual time trial, which she had repeatedly missed out on in the past. She had already won silver twice. Recently, she struggled with her form and also seemed mentally challenged. At the World Championships in Glasgow 2023, she came off her bike during the battle against the clock - she had fallen into a motivational hole in the middle of the competition. Further low points followed. Last year, she had to miss the Olympic Games and the home World Championships in Zurich due to a long COVID illness. This season she came back stronger than ever before: the long-time time trial specialist has also developed into a strong climbing specialist, as her victories at the Tour of Burgos and Tour de Suisse as well as her second places at the Vuelta and Giro d'Italia proved. She was unable to show her potential at the Tour, where she abandoned on the first stage after a crash. In Elise Chabbey, who like Reusser has already worked as a doctor, she has a strong Swiss team-mate at her side who could shake up the field for the Swiss number one with her attacking spirit. Reusser has never been rated so highly at a Road World Championships.

*** Kimberley Le Court Pienaar (Mauritius)

It would be a real sign of life for African cycling if a woman from Africa were to win a medal at the first Road World Championships on the black continent. Perhaps the only candidate is Kim Le Court Pienaar. The 29-year-old cyclist is this season's shooting star. She has only been racing regularly at the highest international level since last year. She put the island state of Mauritius on the world cycling map when she won the Liège-Bastogne-Liège classic in April. This was followed by a stage win at the Tour de France and she also wore the yellow jersey on four stages. Her path into the sport, for which she spent many years in South Africa, was presumably not as difficult as for some of her gender - for example from Rwanda, who sometimes had to secretly get on her bike for training because girls and women are still not welcome on the saddle in many parts of Africa (see link). Pienaar can climb and is extremely fast in sprints - only very long mountains don't really suit the ex-mountain biker. The island state of Mauritius is also unable to provide her with a team on a par with the world's best.

*** Anna van der Breggen (Netherlands)

She is a bit of an enigma - Anna van der Breggen's form and tactics are currently difficult to assess. After her comeback, the 35-year-old Niederlage showed strong races, but was unable to follow her rivals on the long mountains at the Tour, unlike in the past. However, the Olympic champion and two-time world champion knows how to be fit to the point and can read races. With her silver medal in the individual time trial just one week before the road race, she showed that she is in top form and copes well with the conditions in Rwanda. In the battle against the clock, she was faster than team-mate Demi Vollering. Her trump card: And she senses when the time is right to attack - also to slip into the leading role in the Oranje team at the decisive moment. When a Women's World Championship was as difficult as this year, van der Breggen was victorious: In Imola in 2020, she celebrated her second World Championship title after 3500 metres of climbing. A year later, she temporarily ended her career after finishing 89th in the World Championships in Leuven, Belgium, and worked as a sports director at Team SD Worx from 2022 to 2024 before feeling the desire to race again.

** Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Poland)

She is the eternal attacking force: Katarzyna Niewiadoma. This season, the woman is not only wearing Poland's national colours at the World Cup, as her country's current champion she is also wearing white and red with an eagle on her shirt. The 31-year-old Polish rider often seems too impetuous to make the right decision in tactically difficult situations. Last year's Tour winner, she was at best number three this year when the going got tough. One thing is certain: "Kasia" will be looking for her chance. Her tenacity could be the decisive trump card on the course in Rwanda. Even if her Polish team could soon be thinned out because it is not as strong as the Italian or Dutch teams.

** Liane Lippert (Germany)

Germany also has an iron in the fire in Africa's tropical heat: Liane Lippert has often come close to a medal in recent years. Last year in Zurich, she finished in a thankless fourth place, as she did in Wollongong in 2022. Five years ago, she was fifth at the World Championships. It's about time the 27-year-old from Friederichshafen had a little more vigour. Looking at the metres in altitude to be covered on the circuit in the capital of Rwanda, one might think: a little too much climbing for the woman who has already won stages in the Giro and Tour. But the climbs are not extremely long and with a good eye, she could ride with the best until the finale - and she is certainly fast enough for a sprint from a small group. "After her two stage wins in the Giro, she is one of the favourites on this course," says national coach André Korff. "The demanding course will suit her." However, Lippert had to cancel her start in the mixed relay three days before the road race due to indisposition. She has strong helpers at her side, such as German champion Franziska Koch and Antonia Niedermaier. The latter is regarded as a great tour and time trial specialist, but has not been in the best of form this year. However, the long-time ski mountaineer can definitely climb and could be good for a surprise in Rwanda. Ricarda Bauernfeind will be missing, having cancelled her World Championship start at short notice due to a persistent infection. Not unimportant: the Germans will have to compete in threes against the seven-man teams from France, the Netherlands and Italy.