India to host first-ever UCI 2.2 cycling event in Bajaj Pune Grand Tour next month

New Delhi, Dec 16 (PTI) A historic moment awaits India's cycling landscape as the country is set to host the first-ever UCI 2.2 Bajaj Pune Grand Tour 2026, a continental men's team elite road race from January 19 to 23 in Pune district.

The tour will kick-start the international cycling calendar with a four-stage, multi-day challenge.

The Bajaj Pune Grand Tour is a four-day, four-stage 437-km continental team men's road race, expected to witness over 150 professional international cyclists from 26 countries in action.

The race is being organised by the Government of Maharashtra and Pune District Administration, along with the Cycling Federation of India.

"From 1960s to 1990s cycle was a mode of transportation for India. But after 2000 everybody became conscious about fitness and then cycling entered out life as a pressure and we accepted it as it is in our nature to accept things which comes under pressure," Sports Minister Mansuykh Mandaviya said during the unveiling of the Bajaj Pune Grand Tour 2026 trophy here on Tuesday.

"Cycling is the best exercise and that is why cycling has become a part of FIT India now." Besides Mandaviya, the other dignitaries to grace the occasion were Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president PT Usha, Cycling Federation of India (CFI) president Pankaj Singh, CFI Chairman Onkar Singh and secretary general Maninder Pal Singh.

Crafted by the coppersmiths of Pune, famously known as the Tambat Aali community, the Pune Grand Tour Trophy is a symbol of new India's spirit, scale and ambition to achieve newer heights.

Over the next 15-days, the glittering trophy will travel across India covering Rajasthan, Gujarat, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra state, carrying a message that India is ready to take its place on the global cycling map. Maninder hopes to make the Bajaj Pune Grand Tour an annual event in the UCI calendar.

"Cycling is one sport which has picked up popularity worldwide. India somewhere were missing it. The whole concept originated about 8-9 months back when the Government of Maharashtra and CFI met on a platform and the whole discussion was about how to develop Maharashtra and specifically Pune as a tourist destination. And then the whole concept of getting cycling into the scheme of things happened," he said.

"And then we went UCI and requested for registration osf this event as UCI 2.2 event which India has never hosted and we were successful.

"The whole concept of conducting the event is to be a one-off event, the idea is to bring it to the level of Tour de France and Giro d'Italia, both world tour events. It is definitely not going to be a one-off event," he added. PTI SSC SSC PDS PDS