The chances to gather UCI points on the road and deliver a performance that can help with the task of catching the eye of a professional team are far from plentiful, even in a good year, in the Oceania region but the cycling federation has confirmed they will be even slimmer in 2025.
The Oceania Road Championships are usually held in the early months of the year, after the Australian and New Zealand Championships and the key UCI racing block in Australia, but well before winter hits. However, this year the months kept ticking by and no announcement was made about when they would take place and then the confirmation came through in recent days that there would be no Oceania road titles handed out in 2025.
The Oceania Cycling Confederation (OCC) said that over recent months it had worked with member federations and potential hosts to try and find a date and location to no avail, ultimately having to make the ‘difficult decision’ not to hold the road championships for the region this year.
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“We understand this news will be disappointing to riders, teams and fans and the OCC is committed to hosting the Championships in 2026,” said Oceania Cycling Confederation President and UCI Management Committee Member Tony Mitchell in a statement. “The OCC extends its thanks to Member Federations for their support as we have worked through this and for working towards securing a host for 2026.”
The strong cycling nations of Australia and New Zealand usually dominate at the Oceania Road Championships, but the OCC also includes Fiji, Belau, Guam Samoa, Cook Islands, American Samoa, Nauru, Solomon Islands, New-Caledonia, Northern Mariana Islands and Tahiti.
UCI-ranked road races in the region, and the points and prestige that goes with them, are largely only found in the January and early February block in Australia that includes the Santos Tour Down Under and Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. The national championships are the only other road listings from the Oceania region on the UCI race calendar in 2025, with the Australia and New Zealand title battles also drawing WorldTour riders into the competition with early season time slots that fit in with the southern hemisphere summer racing and the European off-season.
The Oceania Championships – which for the last three years has been held around April in the Australian state of Queensland – however, has been largely the territory of the domestic riders. It’s usually a rare chance to chase UCI points close to home and a result that carries a level of global recognition.
The UCI points on offer for a win at a continental championships are 250 for the elite road race and 70 for the time trial, scaling down to one for 40th place in the men’s road race and to three for 30th in the women’s elite road race. Under 23 riders can also gather as many as 125 points for the road race win and 50 for the time trial, though of course riders only get this opportunity if a continental championships is being held in their region.
The points opportunity is lost in Oceania for 2025 but the jersey will stay in circulation. The lack of a race, said the federation, will mean that the 2024 winners get to keep wearing their stripes until a new championships is held, leaving 2024 elite road race winners Ryan Cavanagh and Katelyn Nicholson in the white and blue of an Oceania road champion for two seasons.
Oceania Championships have still taken place across other disciplines with 2025 continental titles already awarded in track, BMX and mountain biking.
