Wed, Nov 26, 2014 page18

• FEATURE: Rwanda race bids to take African cycling up a gear

  • AFP, KIGALI
  • • 
    • 
    • 

  Three years ago, Janvier Hadi pedaled a single-speed bicycle taxi: Last week, he won the prologue of the Tour of Rwanda, a success mirroring the growth of cycling in his country.

  Born into a family of modest farmers, the 23-year-old took the sport up seriously after participating in a race in the southern Rwandan town of Butare.

  “I heard there was a race for a single-speed bike ... it was like a test and I won, I got first place,” he said. “At first I thought that because I was young, I didn’t have the strength like some of the others ... but when I beat them, I thought: ‘Finally, I can do this cycling,’” he said smiling and proudly wearing his winner’s yellow jersey after his win in the capital, Kigali.

  

  Eritrean cyclist Mekseb Debesay sprays champagne after winning the first stage of the Tour of Rwanda in Kigali on Nov. 17. Warning: Excessive consumption of alcohol can damage your health

  Photo: AFP

  As in the rest of Africa, cycling is growing as a sport in Rwanda.

  “We started with five riders and five-speed cycles from the 1980s, but most of the gears were not working, they were wrecks,” said Jonathan Boyer, the first American to have raced the Tour de France in 1981 and who in 2006 became the first coach of Team Rwanda.

  Cycling in Rwanda “grows gradually,” Boyer said, adding that like Hadi, many racers are former bicycle taxi drivers who transported people and goods, building strong muscles pedaling up and down Rwanda’s rolling hills.

  “Cycling in Rwanda is still very young,” said Aimable Bayingana, president of the Rwanda Cycling Federation, which has about 100 members. “We have not really a long history of cycling, we are building the sport, evolving at the same time as the Tour of Rwanda.”

  In June, the country opened a training center in the northern town of Musanze with modern equipment, which is hoped to become a regional training center for African cycling. The Tour of Rwanda is gradually gaining a place as a key race on the continent.

  Experts say that the tour of Rwanda — dubbed the land of “1,000 hills” — is one of the toughest races in Africa.

  Riders on the eight-day tour, which finished on Sunday, battle over 934km and climbing about 19,500m, with peaks rising to 2,500m of altitude. Cyclists race up and down through coffee, tea and banana plantations.

  “This is a country where the hills are really tough,” Cameroonian competitor Damien Tekou said. “But we came to win.”

  The race’s reputation is growing, with 14 teams taking part this year comprised of cyclists from across the continent — including Algeria, Burundi, Morocco, Eritrea and Ethiopia — as well as from France, Germany and Switzerland.

  “When we compete with Europeans here it means that we Africans are developing,” Tekou said, adding that his dream is for the continent to rise up the ranks of cycling on a wider international stage.

  Yves Beau from the team Bike Aid — including Eritrean cyclist Mekseb Debesay, who is in the running to win the Africa Tour ranking of the International Cycling Union — said the sport is becoming more organized.

  There are increasing number of competitions held each year across the continent, he added.

  While for now, African cyclists are sometimes hampered by a lack of often expensive kit and the best cycles, Beau said he believes things will improve in the future.

  “I think they really have the qualities to make good cyclists,” he said.

  Boyer points not only to Rwanda, but to Ethiopia and Eritrea, which he said have a large pool of talent, although tapping that will require serious training and investment.

  For Rwanda, cycling offers more than sport alone.

  Hadi said it provides a different image of the country abroad that is more than just the memories of the 1994 genocide in which an estimated 800,000 people were killed in just 100 days.

  “We must move forward, to change the image of the country, so that people think not just of genocide, but say: ‘Rwanda has good cyclists,’” Hadi said. “Like in Kenya, people talk about their marathon runners, so in Rwanda, we in Rwanda [say] we have strong riders.”
• Most Popular

  • 1

    Taiwan to produce more than 1,200 new missiles

  • 2

    Taiwan firms eye Philippines amid shift to non-China supply chains: CIER

  • 3

    Taiwan wants bilingual, AI-ready graduates — but tests for yesteryear

  • 4

    Marijuana driving rule change planned

  • 5

    ‘Sunflower queen’ deported from US, returns to Taiwan to face charges