Over the past two decades, cycling in Rwanda has transitioned from a means of transport to a sport. Now the country has a strong national team and is a hub for competitive cycling, attracting internationally recognised events such as the UCI Road World Cycling Championships this September. Inzozi traces the rise of the sport in Rwanda and looks at the projects intent on sustaining this strong cycling culture.

From September 21 to 28 this year, Kigali will become the first African city to host the week-long UCI Road World Cycling Championships, one of the most prestigious events in the world professional cycling calendar.

Just a couple of decades ago, Rwanda was not part of the global cycling conversation. However, there was latent talent in the country. When iconic US bike designer Tom Ritchey visited Rwanda in 2005 to tour the country on his mountain bike, he found that many locals cycled, especially in rural areas, but it was on rudimentary, often wooden, bikes and for business, carrying farm produce or human passengers, not pleasure, and certainly not for racing.

Still, cycling each day in ‘the land of a thousand hills’ had made these Rwandan riders fit and fast. Tom, who had been part of the US National Road Racing team, found many locals could comfortably keep pace with him even when riding bikes weighed down with sacks of potatoes or coffee beans.

Tom was inspired to start up Project Rwanda in 2006, lending his design skills to create a range of mountain bikes for workers in the rural coffee industry and health sector. The charity also established an annual race, the Wooden Bike Classic, in which hundreds of Rwandans came to race their wooden coffee bikes against professional cyclists from Europe, the US and across Africa.

Among the international competitors was Ritchey’s friend and the first American to race in the Tour de France, Jonathan ‘Jock’ Boyer. Moved by the Rwandan riders’ talent and passion for cycling, the pair hatched a plan to develop a world-class team from the most promising local riders. In 2007, Team Rwanda Cycling was born.

The effect of the country’s first-ever professional cycling team was transformational. The riders, now equipped with top-tier bikes and their raw talent honed with a structured training regimen, excelled at home and abroad. Suddenly, Rwandans had their own riders to cheer for on the UCI Africa circuit of races and even, in the case of Team Rwanda star Adrien Niyonshuti, at the Olympics. At home, the Tour du Rwanda, a regional race started in 1988, has grown to become an internationally recognised event. The success in the sport became a galvanising source of pride and positivity for a country still stigmatised by the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsis.

Kimberly Coats, the co-founder of Team Rwanda Cycling, along with Jock, has witnessed the cycling revolution in Rwanda at close quarters. She says: “In 2007, Rwanda had zero points on the UCI Africa Tour rankings, and there was no programme in place to develop the sport to this current level. By 2012, Rwanda had reached the top of the rankings, boasted the highest quality race on the continent, fielded an Olympian, and had a cyclist competing at the highest levels of the sport in Europe.”

As the years progressed, the crowds along the Tour du Rwanda course grew exponentially, and now average over three million spectators each year. The Rwandans loved their cyclists and came out to support local races. Kids started knowing all the riders and talking about them as they would about their favourite football players.”

American Kimberly left her logistics job in Las Vegas in 2009 in search of more meaningful employment. The keen cyclist found it with Project Rwanda. “By the first week in the country, I was hooked. Jock, who was running the team at the time, asked for my help in organising race registrations and travel. I loved working with the riders and wanted to stay.”

She says the growth in men’s and women’s cycling in Rwanda has proved a catalyst for the development of the sport across Africa. “Seeing a country go from not even registering points to leading the points on the Africa Tour gave other countries and riders belief,” she says. “There is tremendous pride not just in Rwanda but throughout the continent. African cycling has arrived. It’s legitimate, and it’s only going to continue growing.”

Kimberly and Jock are now helping other African countries with the skills and knowledge they deployed in Rwanda. Team Rwanda Cycling has become Team Africa Rising. Its new Pan-African approach has seen the non-profit work in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Togo, and Algeria. The latest focus is Benin, where Kimberly has teamed up again with Adrien Niyonshuti, now the coach of the Benin national cycling team, to prepare the country’s best riders for the UCI Road World Championships in Kigali.

In 2017, Team Rwanda Cycling carefully transitioned all aspects of the team's management of the Rwanda National Cycling team to the Rwandan Cycling Federation (Ferwacy). “Our plan was never to stay forever,” she says. “Both Jock and I wanted to ensure we built something sustainable with the input of the Rwanda government, the Ministry of Sport, and the Cycling Federation. It was up to them to continue to move their sport forward.”

Under Ferwacy’s governance, professional Rwandan cycling teams currently rank sixth in Africa, according to UCI ranking points. However, the federation got a big win in securing the hosting rights to the UCI Road Cycling World Championships. As the host country, Rwanda will have plenty of cyclists, men and women, participating over the week.

Ferwacy has been training Rwandan riders at the state-of-the-art Africa Rising Training Centre in Musanze, which the federation took over in 2017. The centre and two more, in Bugesera and Rwamagana, have become UCI-affiliated training hubs to prepare African athletes for the UCI event. Ferwacy has also launched a series of initiatives to identify young talent and train them for future cycling careers, including the Rwanda Junior Tour and monthly youth races.

Kimberly says the UCI Road World Championships in Rwanda are a source of enormous pride and a pivotal moment for African cycling. “This event is not the pinnacle for African cycling but rather the opening of another door for these athletes. The world will meet African cycling on their home continent, which will encourage more consistent, long-term investment in the sport.”

Tugende: Coffee, cakes and cycling expertise

Riders will cross the finish line at the UCI Road World Championships next to the Convention Centre and just 200 metres from the Kigali cycling hub Tugende. The hope is that where one bike ride ends, many more will begin.

Tugende, the name which means ‘Let’s go’ in Kinyarwanda, offers a space for cyclists to enjoy food and drinks while also providing bike hire and maintenance services. It was set up by Meg Geddis and Simon De Schutter, two athletic expats with a shared love of cycling. Meg says: “Simon and I connected over the belief that a ‘home’ for cyclists could be created in Kigali to attract local riders, build community, create skills advancement and career opportunities for Rwandan youth, and serve as a catalyst for the growing cycling industry in Rwanda.”

To encourage the next generation of young local riders, Tugende runs the ‘Rwanda Beyond’ programme that offers discounted rates on bike servicing and retail purchases. Meg says, “Our mission is to deliver high-quality servicing at fair prices to anyone who needs it and to get as many people on bicycles in Rwanda as possible.”

Visitors include cyclists on multi-day adventures in Rwanda, who stop off at Tugende for some much-needed bike TLC and a good night’s sleep. – The centre has a budgetfriendly hostel. Tugende offers its own two-wheeled treks through its brand Rwandan Adventures, with tours including mountain bike trips on the Congo Nile Trail for all levels of riders.

It is also set to launch inter-city Kigali bike tours with an e-bike option. Meg says: “Kigali is an incredible place to cycle, especially if you hit the roads during the early morning hours. There are nearly endless opportunities to explore by bike within Kigali and the surrounding regions. Tugende has recommended routes on its website, but we are always happy to build routes for our clients or join them if they want friendly company or a guide.”

Meg hopes that the UCI Road World Championships will showcase the capital as the bike-friendly city she knows and loves. “Once the best road cyclists in the world hit the beautiful tarmac roads, ride up the steep climbs, and witness the beauty of the landscapes, we are confident that Rwanda will end up on the radar of every road cycling lover across the globe. We will offer cycling tours and bike rentals before and after the UCI Road World Champs for anyone who wants to get a taste of what the world’s best road cyclists will experience during the event.”

To book a stay at Tugende, explore the café’s menu or plot your cycle ride in Kigali, visit www.tugende.rw