Pune awarded 2032 UCI Road World Championships as Groningen and Drenthe secure 2034 edition

Pune will host the 2032 UCI Road World Championships, taking the event to India for the first time after the UCI chose the Maharashtra city ahead of a rival bid from Groningen and Drenthe.

The Dutch bid has not missed out entirely. The UCI has instead awarded Groningen and Drenthe the 2034 Road World Championships, together with the Para-cycling Road World Championships, giving both bidding groups a major event from a process that had initially centred on 2032.

The decisions were announced during the UCI Congress in Montréal on Wednesday, as the 2026 UCI Road World Championships continue in Canada.

Pune takes Worlds to India for the first time

The 2032 championships will be the first Road Worlds held in India and continue the UCI’s recent expansion of its biggest annual road event beyond its traditional European heartland.

Pune, around 120km southeast of Mumbai, emerged as a contender comparatively late in the bidding process. A UCI delegation visited the city earlier in September to inspect proposed race routes and infrastructure, including possible start and finish facilities around the Balewadi Sports Complex.

The bid followed the inaugural Bajaj Pune Grand Tour, a UCI 2.2 stage race held in Maharashtra in January 2026. The event was India’s first UCI-sanctioned multi-stage road race and formed part of a broader attempt to establish the region as a major international cycling centre.

UCI president David Lappartient had already spoken positively about the development of cycling in India following a presentation on the Pune Grand Tour to the UCI Management Committee earlier this year.

The country’s eventual World Championships bid arrived after the UCI’s normal bidding deadlines, but was accepted for consideration alongside the proposal from Groningen and Drenthe.

Groningen and Drenthe handed 2034 Worlds

Rather than choosing one proposal and rejecting the other outright, the UCI ultimately found space for both.

Lappartient described them as “two very, very solid bids”, with the Dutch organisers instead offered the championships two years later in 2034.

That will take the Road Worlds back to the Netherlands for the first time since Valkenburg hosted the championships in 2012.

Groningen and Drenthe had been working towards a potential World Championships bid for several years. Their 2034 event will also incorporate the UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships.

It creates an unusually long lead time of eight years for the Dutch organisers, while also filling another position in a World Championships calendar that is increasingly being mapped out well in advance.

India continues the global expansion of the Road Worlds

The Road World Championships were almost exclusively European for much of their history.

Montréal changed that in 1974 when Canada became the first country outside Europe to host the event. Colorado Springs followed for the United States in 1986 before Utsunomiya took the championships to Asia for the first time in 1990.

Doha became Asia’s second host in 2016, while Abu Dhabi is already scheduled to stage the 2028 edition.

Pune will therefore become the fourth Asian host when the World Championships arrive in India four years later.

The expansion has accelerated during the current decade. Kigali staged the first African Road World Championships in 2025, Montréal has brought the event back to North America in 2026, and the next six years include championships in France, the United Arab Emirates, Denmark, Belgium, Italy and India.

The history of the rainbow jerseys and previous championship hosts is covered in our Road World Championships winners and records guide.

Photo Credit: Montreal2026

Upcoming UCI Road World Championships hosts

The 2027 and 2031 editions form part of the larger UCI Cycling World Championships, which combine the road championships with numerous other cycling disciplines. Trentino’s 2031 event was confirmed as the third edition of the multi-discipline Worlds after Glasgow in 2023 and Haute-Savoie in 2027.

Denmark’s 2029 championships will use several cities, with the individual time trials based in Aarhus and the road races finishing in Copenhagen. Brussels then hosts in 2030 before the multi-discipline championships move to Trentino the following year.

Details of Pune’s 2032 routes, individual venues and championship programme are still to be finalised, but the award gives India six years to prepare for its first Road World Championships.