Glory and rainbow jerseys are in sight for the contenders of the 2025 UCI Cycling Esports World Championships, taking place on Saturday 15 November in Abu Dhabi (UAE), home to an in-person final for the second year in a row. The 44 riders (22 women and 22 men) who qualified from the semi-finals – including both defending UCI World Champions Mary Kate McCarthy (NZL) and Jason Osborne (GER) – will tackle a three-stage event requiring strength, strategy and endurance to be in with a chance to win this fifth edition.
Three stages to separate the cream of the crop
For the second consecutive year, the UCI Cycling Esports Worlds take the riders to a custom-built virtual world on the MyWhoosh platform. Gathered in Abu Dhabi’s Space42 Arena, the contenders will race on Elite Justo 2 smart trainers that have been verified by the UCI to ensure fairness and accuracy of the competition.
Standings will be established with a points-based system cumulated across three separate stages: the Mountain’s Verdict, the Puncher’s Playground and the Sprinter’s Paradise. Each stage presents distinctive challenges and a specific scoring system.
In the Mountain’s Verdict, riders take on a relentless virtual climb. Over 8.4 kilometres, the gradient steadily increases, up to 20%. A chase line will start two minutes after the riders and determine the pace everyone must sustain: riders earn points for every five seconds they remain ahead of the chase line, and are eliminated when the chase line catches up to them.
The Puncher’s Playground is a 12km loop featuring 300 metres of elevation gain and five checkpoints: Sprint 1, Climb 1, Sprint 2, Climb 2, Finish. Points are awarded to the top-20 riders at every checkpoint (40 points for the first rider, then 38, 36, 34… down to 2 for the 20th rider). The variety of the terrain, with a series of undulations and a steep kicker (1km at 9.8%) as well as the spreadsheet of scoring opportunities will encourage tactical racing to stay in contention.
Finally, the Sprinter’s Paradise will be raced over eight laps of a 1.5km circuit, for a total distance of 12km. The first 20 riders on each lap score points: 20 for the first rider, down to 1 point for 20th position. The final lap will see double points awarded to the top 20 riders across the line.
Global talents to challenge defending UCI World Champions
The different qualifiers staged by National Federations and MyWhoosh, followed by the semi-finals hosted virtually on 3 October 2025, paved the way to the live final, bringing together 22 women and 22 men from extremely varied backgrounds. Seventeen nations will be represented on stage in Abu Dhabi, with Belgians making the biggest contingent (7 riders).
They have established themselves as dominant forces in Esports environments, including strong results at the UCI Worlds, as have their European neighbours. Germany’s Jason Osborne has featured on the podium of every edition, claiming gold in 2020 and 2024, silver in 2023 and bronze in 2022. Denmark’s Bjørn Andreassen was crowned in 2023 and will chase another rainbow jersey. Second last year, Belgium’s Lionel Vujasin returns for another shot at gold, and so does bronze medallist Kasper Borremans (Finland), the youngest rider in the field at 19 years old.
At the other end of the age spectrum, Sweden’s Anna Svärdström (born in 1967) mastered the semi-finals tactically to qualify for another global event, four years after claiming two bronze medals at the Tokyo Paralympic Games, where she was a pilot for Louise Jannering.
In Abu Dhabi, Svärdström races alongside four countrywomen, making Sweden the jointly most represented nation in the women’s competition alongside the USA, led by Jaquie Godbe (bronze in 2023). Along with defending UCI World Champion Mary Kate McCarthy back in action is 2024 runner-up Gabriela Guerra (Brazil). The stage is set for a stellar battle.