Australia clung onto the Mixed Relay rainbow in Kigali by the narrowest of cushions after an hour of pure needle on a savage circuit that never stopped kicking. The recipe was simple on paper and horrible in practice: two identical 21.2 km laps from the Kigali Convention Centre, first by the men, then by the women, each stuffed with the Côte de Nyanza at 2.5 km at 5.8% and the cobbled Côte de Kimihurura at 1.3 km at 6.3%. In between came quick, exposed descents and a drag back into town that punished any pacing error. Handovers happened right on the doorstep of the Convention Centre, turning the top of Kimihurura into both a finish line and a starting gun.
The early waves set the tone. Spain laid down a tidy benchmark, and Belgium’s men tried to match it until they were suddenly two against gravity when their third rider lost contact on the ramps before Nyanza. That forced a damage limitation job into the handover and parked them in the chasing queue before the women had even clipped in. It was a reminder that the format is ruthless: you can’t hide a weak link on these slopes and the clock shows no mercy.
Then the big hitters rolled. Switzerland’s trio flowed through the first time check with a light touch, all aero tidiness and even turns, threading the descent cleanly and landing a slim advantage on the split. France answered with a metronomic effort of their own, inching ahead by tenths, and Italy hovered just behind, two riders doing the lion’s share once the third had succumbed to the gradient. And then Australia detonated the script. They hit the opening lap with a far punchier cadence, rocking onto Kimihurura with speed to burn and cresting with the fastest split of the day. By the change, they had opened a half-minute cushion on France, more on the rest. It looked decisive, but Kigali has a way of calling your bluff.
The women’s race flipped the board almost instantly. Switzerland blasted out of the box and were roughly 20 seconds to the good at the first intermediate. The rhythm was obvious to the naked eye: a long, seated torque on the drags, compact over the crests, and then committed through the fast bends. But halfway down the run to Kimihurura, calamity. Their engine had to coast to a halt with a mechanical. Two white jerseys pressed on, the gap bleeding away metre by metre as they nursed the pace and waited for salvation. It arrived late but blazing. Recovered and raging, their leader surged back to the front on the cobbles, lifted the tempo and clawed back precious seconds, but the damage was on the sheet and you can’t unspend time.
Photo Credit: SWPix.comFrance, which had started their women a chunk down on Australia, smelled opportunity. They set a steady, suffocating tempo, shed their third rider on Kimihurura’s lower pitches and rode the remaining duo like a pursuit. At the 37.1 km split the deficit to the early benchmark was down to the teens. Every junction, every manhole cover on the cobbles seemed to matter. France danced past the Swiss mark at the finish by a handful of seconds, parked themselves in the hot seat and turned to stare back down the road.
Australia’s women had begun with the luxury of a buffer but soon faced their own arithmetic. The fourth split showed the cushion eroding. By the time the gradient bit on Kimihurura, the gap was within touching distance. They were down to two, fighting through the steepest cobbled pitches, the front rider trying to smooth the blows while her shadow clung grimly to the line. You could feel the elastic straining. The finish gantry loomed, the timing beam flashed, and the margin that remained was the sort of number you count on one hand.
Italy’s late push wasn’t enough to reshuffle the podium. Germany was tidy but never truly in the gold conversation. Spain’s early promise faded on the women’s lap. Belgium’s early mishap left them stuck in the second tier. The day, in the end, belonged to the thin slices that separate a golden defence from a silver upset and to a mechanical that probably cost Switzerland a proper tilt at the stripes. Kigali’s Mixed Relay served up everything the format promises: team craft on hostile terrain, rising heart rates on the cobbles, and a finish where two breaths either way would have rewritten the story.
2025 World Championships Mixed Relay TTT result
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
Main photo credit: SWPix.com
