The 2026 UCI Para cycling Road World Championships take place in Huntsville, Alabama from Saturday to Tuesday 5-8 September (NZT). We offer a preview of the event which will be another step on the road to the LA28 Paralympic Games for the competing Kiwi Para cyclists.
Tell me more about location for the 2026 event?
Huntsville also known as ‘Rocket City’ became the heart of the American space programme after rocket scientists arrived there in the 1950s. Developing the Saturn V rocket that sent astronauts to the moon, it has remained a hub for space and technology. Huntsville has previously staged global Para cycling events having hosted a World Cup event in 2023.
Tell me about how the event works?
Held at Cummings Research Park, the event will feature individual time trial and road races across all Para cycling divisions for handcycle, tricycle, cycle and tandem. Additionally, it will also stage a Mixed H1-5 Team Relay. A lap of the time trial course is 14.6km in length and a total 74m of elevation. A lap of the road course is 13.8km with an elevation of 75m
Which Kiwis are competing?
Paralympian #221 Rory Mead and Paralympian #222 Nicole Murray PLY will take to the start line in Huntsville. Unfortunately, Paralympian #194 Emma Foy and pilot Jessie Hodges, the double Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games gold medallists, have withdrawn after Hodges picked up a bout of flu.
Tell me more about Rory’s chances?
The US-based handcyclist will come into the competition full of confidence. Based an eight-hour drive away in Ohio the two-time Paralympian, who finished fourth in the Men’s Road Race H1-2 and fifth in the Men’s Individual Time Trial H2 at Paris 2024, has enjoyed a successful year. Working since the end of last year with a new coach, New Zealand-based Dan Gardner, he had adopted a fresh approach to training which appears to be paying dividends. In April he won bronze medals in the Men’s Time Trial H2 and Men’s Road Race H2 at the UCI Para cycling Road World Cup in Gistel, Belgium. He added a bronze medal at the UCI Para cycling Road World Cup in the Men’s Time Trial H2 at Abruzzo, Italy in May.
Earlier this year the 39-year-old who hails from Porirua said of the Huntsville course: “I’ve raced there a few times, including at a World Cup event in 2023,” he says. “It’s a fun circuit around a business park that’s reasonably flat with quite a few turns. I think it will make for a good World Championships course. The fact the event is relatively close to me, and I can drive there in the van, will make travel much more straightforward.”
What about Nicole’s chances?
Nicole is a hugely experienced international performer on both the road and track. A multiple world champion she claimed her first Paralympic medal with bronze in the Women’s 3000m Individual Pursuit C5 at Paris 2024.
She arrives in Huntsville in great form having claimed a Commonwealth Games bronze medal in the Women’s 4000m Individual Pursuit C4-5 in Glasgow. The 33-year-old Cambridge-based athlete also has excellent pedigree on the road and at the 2025 UCI Para cycling Road Championships in Ronse, Belgium she snared a bronze medal in the Women’s Individual Time Trial C5.
When do Rory and Nicole compete?
Rory is first up in the 14.6km Men’s Time Trial H2 from 6am (NZT) on Saturday September 5. He concludes his programme in the 55.2km Men’s Road Race H2 at 2am (NZT) on Monday 7 September. Nicole will open her account in the 29.2km Women’s Time Trial C5 at 7.15am on Sunday 6 September. She will also be in action over 69km in the Women ‘s Road Race C5 at 3.15am on Tuesday September 8.
How can I follow the action?
For results and updates go here.
