It was announced today that a partnership between multiple Grand-Tour-winning cycling team, INEOS Grenadiers, double Olympic champion, and world-record holder Eliud Kipchoge and INEOS will work together to create the new cycling academy at the renowned Kaptagat camp – Eliud Kipchoge’s elite training center in Kenya.

This is a very welcome announcement indeed. It has long been a key focus of our campaigning and work here at Team Africa Rising to see an increased focus on sustained and effective development of local cycling talent across the continent. This new academy will for sure help to harness even more raw talent in Kenya, and hopefully East Africa more widely. The success of Kenyan-born Chris Froome at the World Tour level with this team is well documented and we hope this new academy will inspire and produce a whole new generation of Kenyan cyclists.

The level of professionalism that INEOS Grenadiers and Eliud Kipchoge combined will bring to this academy is much needed. We hope to see some amazing results in the future for Kenyan cycling, and with the UCI World Championships in Rwanda coming up in 2025.

The full release can be found below:

 22 June 2022 – INEOS is investing in the development of a new cycling academy in Kenya, deepening its commitment to sport in Africa. 

In partnership with multiple Grand-Tour-winning cycling team, INEOS Grenadiers, and double Olympic champion and world-record holder Eliud Kipchoge the teams are working together to create the new academy at the renowned Kaptagat camp – Eliud Kipchoge’s Kenyan training centre. 

INEOS Chairman, Sir Jim Ratcliffe said: “There is such exciting sporting talent, passion and ambition in Africa and at INEOS we want to continue to invest to help realise its maximum potential. I visited the Kaptagat facility in Kenya recently and came away convinced that this partnership can do something truly different and unique for cycling – as well as for aspiring young African athletes.” 

INEOS’ Director of Sport and INEOS Grenadiers Team Principal, Sir Dave Brailsford said: “This is a significant and exciting development in world cycling – it has the power to drive lasting change by developing new riders from Africa. We all know the talent is there – we’ve seen it this year with Biniam Girmay’s history-making successes at the Giro d’Italia and Gent-Wevelgem, and I saw it first-hand in the inspiring young athletes I met in Kaptagat. Their passion, dedication and love of sport is a perfect fit with the INEOS Grenadiers’ spirit of giving it all to race and be your best. Together I believe we can achieve something unique and important for cycling in Kenya, Africa, and the sport itself.” 

Eliud Kipchoge said: “I’m proud that we are expanding our Kaptagat based training camp from a purely athletics focussed training camp towards a wider kind of sports academy. The INEOS Eliud Kipchoge Cycling Academy is a very natural fit with great potential to enable our young talented cyclists to make the next steps towards the top level of cycling.” 

The INEOS Eliud Kipchoge Cycling Academy will be headed up by Valentijn Trouw and the wider Kaptagat team. Trouw has over 30 years’ experience in identifying and nurturing long distance running talent in Kenya, creating a pathway for some of the greatest distance runners ever to compete on the world stage. It is the ambition of this project to utilise this knowledge, combined with that of the INEOS Grenadiers cycling team, to create a world-class, sustainable academy in Kenya. 

Valentijn Trouw said: “We work with the great potential of east African long-distance runners for over 30 years, and I believe the exceptional local endurance talent combined with the great training environment at Kaptagat will be perfect for developing quality cyclists. Working together with Sir Dave Brailsford, the INEOS Grenadiers Cycling Team and tapping into the broader INEOS sporting family will bring us the world’s best practice in competitive cycling.” 

“I am excited by the opportunity to build a relatively new sport in Kenya, in good harmony and collaboration with the Kenyan Cycling Federation, bringing together our collective knowledge and insights from running and cycling for the benefit of the sport.”