The first round of the 2025 UCI Artistic Cycling World Cup took place in Prague, Czechia, on 1st March. UCI World Champions, defending UCI World Cup winners and outsiders demonstrated impressive form, which led to intense competition and year-best scores in four categories.
Pairs Open: Rödiger/Styber start with a tough win
Preparation for the reigning UCI World Champions in the Pairs Open, Nico Rödiger and Lea Styber (Langenselbold/GER), had not gone to plan, so the start of a new UCI Artistic Cycling World Cup campaign was an opportunity to try to put things right.
“Several illnesses and a severe tendonitis in my right hand caused a lot of training losses, so we had to travel to Prague quite unprepared,” said Lea Styber.
With 137 points, Rödiger/Styber nevertheless achieved a world best performance for the year, although, according to Styber: “We remained well below our expectations.” She explained that the pair lost time due to an early mistake, which in turn caused them to perform in a more hectic manner, with more mistakes creeping in.
The performance was enough for last year’s overall UCI World Cup winners to take first place in Prague ahead of the German pair Alexander Stark and Daniel Stark (Bernlohe, 130.91 points) and the 2024 UCI Indoor Cycling World Championships silver medalists, Niklas Kreuzmann and Celine Stapf (Soden/GER, 117.27 points).
Single Men: Rapp delivers
Philipp-Thies Rapp (Tailfingen/ GER) delivered a strong performance, confirming his status of favourite for the opening UCI World Cup round. The 2024 UCI World Championships silver medalist recorded this year’s world best score of 208.81 points after a flawless performance. Jonas Beiter (Trillfingen/ GER) followed, 26 points behind.
Yat Nam Chan (South China Athletic Association/ HKG) took a surprise third place, while last year’s UCI World Cup overall second placed athlete, Simon Köcher (Öschelbronn/ GER), had to settle for fourth.
Pairs Women: strong scoring continues
UCI World Champions Antonia Bärk and Henny Kirst (Bonn-Duisdorf/GER) made a perfect start to the season in the Pairs Women competition. They increased their personal best to 146.36 points and thus also achieved a world best performance for the year.
The other podium positions went with form as second place was confirmed by UCI World Championships silver medalists Kim Schlüter / Neele Jodeleit (Knetterheide/ GER, 121.97 points) ahead of UCI World Championships bronze medalists Simona Lucca / Larissa Tanner (Stäfa/Dürnten / SUI, 115.25 points).
ACT4: a perfect start
Tijem Karata, Milena Schwarz, Stella Rosenbach and Annika Rosenbach (Mainz-Ebersheim/GER) also got off to a perfect start for their 2025 UCI World Cup campaign in the ACT4. They set a world best of the year so far, with 241.13 points. Their high score put them well clear of their rivals, despite strong performances from both the UCI World Champions Stefanie Haas, Valerie Unternährer, Selina Niedermann and Sarah Manser (Uzwil/SUI, 223.55 points) and the German quartet Nadine Jechen, Hannah Schulze, Anna Kathleen Buchwald and Charlott Boden (Wiednitz, 218.69 points).
Single Women: Lara Füller leads
Finally, there was a German triple success in the Single Women, where the reigning UCI World Champion Lara Füller (Poppenweiler, 187.15 points) prevailed ahead of the 2023 UCI World Cup title holder, Ramona Dandl (Bruckmühl, 180.23 points), and the 2022 UCI World Champion Jana Pfann (Bruckmühl, 163.70 points).
The second round of the 2025 UCI Artistic Cycling World Cup will take place in in Langenselbold, Germany, on 5 July.