Pune: The city has won the bid to host the Road World Cycling Championships in 2032 in a major push to the country’s prospects of hosting big-ticket sporting events.The International Cycling Association (UCI: Union Cycliste Internationale) awarded the prestigious championships to India and Pune after it defeated a strong contender, Netherlands. The bid ceremony was held in Montreal, Canada, on Wednesday night.Pune became the first Indian city to host the Pune Grand Tour (PGT), a UCI 2.2 race, in Jan this year.District collector Jitendra Dudi, who was instrumental in planning and executing the Pune Grand Tour’s first edition, attended the event in Montreal. The bid was backed by the state as well as central govts.“We have already made PGT an annual event. We will be hosting it every year around the same time, so getting the World Championships in Pune was a gradual progression to what we had started,” Dudi told TOI. “There are six years to the World meet. By then, we would have completed seven editions of PGT. We are trying to upgrade the race. We also expect that before the World meet, PGT would be upgraded to World Series in at least two editions.”When asked about the infrastructural preparedness, Dudi said, “Every year, we will make new roads in and around the city. The World meets need roads of a certain standard. We will aspire to make our roads as per European standards.”Dudi said the UCI has approved a route of 270km for the World meet. “Almost 70% of the route falls in Pune city limits, so it is natural that the city should have roads that would not only be spotless, but also of international standards,” he said.When asked about the budget, Dudi said, “Like PGT, we will not allocate any special budget for infrastructural developments like roads and beautification of the city. Instead, we will use the funds that are allocated to various departments like municipal corporations, the Public Works Department and the road development authority,” he said.“The operational cost for the event will be covered by the sponsors we already have for PGT and private sponsors that we get before the World event,” he added.Dudi said traffic management and riders’ safety are paramount. “We hosted the first edition of PGT on weekdays and were able to manage traffic and diversions. Over the next few years, we will start hosting PGT on Sundays so that we can manage traffic while also giving citizens a chance to witness the races.”The collector added that clinching this bid would strengthen India’s chances to win the bid for the 2036 Olympics. “Stakeholders in UCI now trust India’s capability of hosting big events. Winning a bid like this would give similar confidence to members of the International Olympic Committee,” he said.UCI president David Lappartient said in a statement: “We received two wonderful bids for the Road World Championships and the UCI management committee decided to reward the first one to Pune (2032) and the next (2033) jointly to Groningen and Drenthe in The Netherlands.”Maninder Pal Singh, secretary general of Cycling Federation of India, said, “I thank UCI for giving us this honour and would like to declare that the 2032 championships will be the biggest and the grandest World Championships ever.”
