Cycling in Africa: Cycling in Rwanda: From taxi driver to professional

Rwanda is an amazing cycling country. It is true that you can hardly find a driver from Rwanda in the top ranks in the professional sport results lists. But the streets are full of people who ride their bikes every day and often transport huge loads. Next year the World Championships are coming to the country, the first ever global road title fights in Africa. Hosting important competitions is part of an investment strategy. The state development agency Rwanda Development Board (RDB) hopes to use sport to become more attractive to tourists.

“Visit Rwanda” is written on the yellow jersey of the Tour du Rwanda. This is the state tour, which was held for the 16th time from February 18th to 25th. Professional teams from Europe were at the start, the winner Joseph Blackmore comes from Great Britain and is under contract with the Israel Premier Tech racing team. A few days earlier, his teammate, Israeli champion Itamar Einhorn, had already worn the yellow jersey.

The shirt sponsorship is part of an advertising campaign by the Rwanda Development Board. “Since we started working with Arsenal FC in 2018, we have been able to increase the number of tourists from Great Britain by 30 percent,” reports the RDB. Other football clubs are now the advertising medium, such as Paris St.-Germain and, since last year, Bayern Munich. The development agency explains to “nd” that they hope for similar effects in France and Germany.

Figures on the advertising effect of the Tour du Rwanda were not available. But a very touching symbolic effect could not be overlooked. Professional cyclist Itamar Einhorn alluded to the connection between the genocide in Rwanda and the Holocaust, which led to the creation of the State of Israel: “There is a very special connection between our two countries. I hope for a better world and that these wars end and everyone agrees to live together.” The professionals and employees of the Israeli racing team also visited genocide memorials in Rwanda. »We have been coming here again and again for several years. We are also building the “Field of Dreams” training center for girls here. In the past we have often spoken about the Holocaust and the suffering that unites our two countries. This year, however, the memorials here are bringing back the memory of the October 7th attacks and all the Hamas atrocities,” says Tsadok Yecheskeli, supervisor at Israel Premier Tech, “nd.”

And so, for a brief moment during a reception at the “Field of Dreams” cycling school south of the capital Kigali, the pain over the many deaths on three continents overshadowed cycling. The joy of the children quickly prevailed again as they raced on the newly built pump track, a mountain bike course with artificial hills. Chris Froome, four-time winner of the Tour de France, also tried his hand at this discipline. The Kenyan-British professional also took part in a women’s and girls’ cycling school race.

Froome made a better impression in both events than he did later in the actual race, the Tour du Rwanda. He lost his colleagues’ rear wheel in the team time trial at the start. “We started a little too quickly,” explained teammate Einhorn “nd”. And even when he attempted to break away on the queen stage, he was quickly caught again, long before the peloton reached the actual high point, the “Wall of Kigali” – an up to 20 percent steep climb that leads to the summit that also gives the capital its name gave.

Mont Kigali will be part of the 2025 World Championship road race route. »The climb is really brutal. You get in at the bottom, first you have a steeper section, then it becomes flatter again, then steeper again. The last kilometer is really hard,” says Bike Aid professional Vinzent Dorn, describing his experiences. »Some will fall behind at the World Cup and only the very strongest will make it through. It’s a super selective mountain.”

Local drivers who know the increase from daily training also warn against it. “It will be one of the most difficult World Cup courses in recent years,” says Eric Manizabayo. The 26-year-old took part in the last two World Championship road races, in Glasgow and in Wollongong, Australia, but did not make it to the finish line in either case. However, he is looking forward to Mont Kigali in 2025: “It’s good when it goes steeply up.” At the current Mont Kigali stage, he crossed the finish line in tenth place. Not a bad result considering that a few years ago Manizabayo was still earning money as a bike taxi driver and regular training was out of the question.

Bike taxi driving is a serious profession in Rwanda. Hundreds of mostly young boys wait on street corners with their brightly painted bikes for passengers to take a seat on the padded seat in the back. One kilometer costs 100 Rwandan francs, about seven cents. So the boys have to drive a long way to pay the price for their bike, about $100 for a used one. But even small money is money. And in addition to people, the drivers also transport things: large sacks of firewood, mountains of bananas, doors, roof battens, pipes or a live domestic pig. “It’s a huge talent pool,” enthuses David Louvet. The Frenchman has been national coach in Rwanda since last year. »When we set off on a training ride, we are quickly surrounded by many bike taxi drivers. Despite riding on very heavy bikes with only one gear, many can keep up with us. “You just can’t outrun them,” he says with a laugh.

A lot of riders have gotten into racing this way since American Jock Boyer founded his first cycling school in Rwanda in 2007. Boyer, once the first Tour de France participant from the USA, has now moved on to Benin – for his next African cycling adventure. The infrastructure he built, the Team Africa Rising training center in the mountains in the north of the country, will continue to be used by the national team and also smaller cycling clubs. Even the French professional racing team Total Energies held a training camp lasting several weeks here in January. »We will definitely come back. The conditions are good. You can train at altitude and the roads are in good condition. The time difference is only one hour, so the body doesn’t have to adjust too much. The location is ideal, especially in the European winter,” explains Lylian Lebreton, sporting director of the racing team, “nd”.

Lebreton even sees Rwanda as a future alternative for the classic training camps in northern Spain because of the generally good conditions. Rwanda’s national coach Louvet also believes that the north of the country, which is characterized by majestic volcanoes, is predestined to become the new Teide. This is the volcano on the Canary Islands to which professional cyclists have been making pilgrimages for decades, to the altitude training camp in preparation for the big tours. The many new red blood cells that they encourage their bodies to produce at altitude could also be produced in Rwanda, says Louvet. He cannot yet accurately estimate the effects. He has not yet received devices from the association to determine the value of VO2max, the oxygen absorption capacity of the blood.

Rwanda’s cycling association hopes that as more and more professional teams and their coaches discover the country as a training ground, more and more expertise and thus better material will arrive. “We see the World Cup as a driving force so that something can develop in local cycling,” says association president Samson Ndayishimiye to “nd”. He found the Tour du Rwanda to be a good dress rehearsal for the world title fights next year. There were actually no breakdowns. The support from institutions in the country is great. The police are providing the barriers and sections of the road will be quickly resurfaced if this is necessary. All efforts are directed towards being a good host. And the RDB is already busy putting together packages for World Cup visitors to lure them not only to the sporting event but also to the national parks with gorillas, elephants, zebras and rhinos.

The call to “Visit Rwanda” would of course become even more attractive if conditions in the country were more democratic, if a presidential candidate no longer won the elections with over 90 percent and critics did not have to fear being locked up in prison or persecuted by hit squads abroad. Human Rights Watch has compiled the most glaring and chilling examples in the booklet “Join us or Die,” published in 2023. Aside from cycling, there is still a lot to do for the World Cup hosts.

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