You can find all your African Continental Cycling Championships information here for the week’s events.
24 November: It is Monday night here in Kenya and the party has been going on all day at the Eritrean team hotel. The guys and ladies were in their hotel pool most of the morning, playing water polo to relax and have fun. They truly are a special unit of riders and staff, finishing second in the overall medal table with three new African Champions.
Two of these medals came in the final event of the week, the mixed Men’s 163.8km Elite & U23 Road Race, featuring 108 riders from 24 nations. Merhawi Kudus crossed the line hand in hand with Awet Aman who worked incredibly hard to get Merhawi to the line, despite some heroic work by Oussama Abdellah Mimouni (Algeria), with the latter taking Bronze in the overall race, and silver in the Elite. His season with Madar Pro Cycling has clearly given the U23 Algerian a great foundation. We expect to see a lot more from him in 2026!
Seeing Merhawi win the Men’s Elite Road Race was a special moment as we have known and worked with him for nearly fifteen years, and he is truly one of the good guys. You can read an interview with him following his win in CyclingNews, by James Moultrie.
Awet becoming the new Men’s U23 Champion was also special, as we have been helping him since 2020 as well. There was an Eritrean ‘stage invasion’ following his jersey presentation which was truly wonderful to witness – see below:
However, Team South Africa topped the medals table overall, with four new Africa Champion jerseys to take home. Their women led the way with Hayley Preen winning the Women’s Elite Road Race, with Eritrea’s Birikti Fessehaye coming in second. You can see an interview with Hayley and other riders here:
Continuing South Africa’s Africa Champion jersey wins, Lucy Young won the Women’s Elite ITT and the men did not do too badly as well, with Brandon Downes winning the Men’s Elite ITT and Josh Dike the Men’s U23 ITT. Kudos to them all!
The ‘third place’ spot in the ‘gold medal table’ was split equally between four nations: Algeria, Ethiopia, Mauritius and Rwanda, each winning two African Champion jerseys each. Egypt, Morocco, Namibia, Uganda and Zimbabwe all then took one Africa Champion jersey each.
All individual race results can be found on ProCyclingStats as always so we urge you to check them out there rather than us regurgitating them. PCS are the experts!
Of course the key focus was on the athletes themselves, but we wanted to shout-out the hardworking mechanics and staff who all worked late into the night, and early in the morning to keep bikes in top working order, standing in the feedzones for hours on end in the 35C sunshine, helping their riders stay in the race. Kudos to you all. Vital work.
In Conclusion
There are some big US$ numbers being mentioned when it comes to how much it cost to run these championships, and although it is of course essential that they take place, the scale of the cost should be considered. For an event designed around laps (volume based on category) of a pretty standard rectangular road circuit (with a 28km roll out to a hardcore climb for the road races) but no grandstands, big TV(s), fan-zone, exhibition/show etc for fans etc. Our main hope is the event next year take place somewhere equally accessible, safe, and within the UCI season dates to avoid conflicting some of the big names who begin their off-season recovery in November. The Eritrean dominance in the men’s race is without four World Tour riders for example!
What Happens Next?
Following this event, the most important thing will be ‘The Reckoning’ in regards 2026 rider contracts for some of the key teams who support African riders. The performances and results of these Championships will for sure influence some of these decisions. Many of the big names have already confirmed their 2026 teams, and you can see all these on our Live Contracts Tracker for more information. Some snippets from discussions we had across the week include:
Madar Pro Cycling (Algeria) – who rank as Africa’s #1 pro team and World #44 – have yet to announce their 2026 squad and with 16 riders in 2025, across South Africa and Algeria, they are a major employer of African riders! Mimouni’s ride in the Mens Elite/U23 race will for sure have guaranteed him a new deal, and with riders like Yacine Hamza and Youcef Reguigui having great seasons as well, their squad looks strong. Madar have two young South African riders also, but we hear there is some competition from the rising Tshenolo team back home, who are looking to get a South African Continental team back in the mix for 2026. Madar’s General Manager confirmed they will announce their 2026 squad shortly.
Team BIKE AID (Germany) had three Eritreans in 2025, but with rumour of Milkias Maekele moving to a World Tour development team, there will be some changes. We hear at least two new Eritrean faces on BIKE AID for 2026. We are also hearing that some of the Eritreans racing for teams from China and Turkey might be moving on for 2026, potentially to European teams.
There were three UCI Continental teams registered in Rwanda in 2025. However with the 10-man Java-Inovotec team not continuing at Continental level in 2026, those riders face a hard task of finding new homes. In some good news, Shafik Mugalu (Uganda) is rumoured to be joining fellow Rwandan team Team Amani so this will hopefully keep him racing, maybe others also might move across?
Team Amani is another of the Rwanda-registered teams who employ a large number of African riders (14 on the squad in 2025) and we hear there will be some changes there too. Riders like Charles Kagimu (Uganda) who is now 27yo, Felix Habimana and Jean Nepo Bigirimana (Rwanda) have barely raced in 2025 so might be let go to allow room for new blood. 28yo Edwin Ndungu departed in September, and a rumour that 19yo Tekle Alemayo might be off to a big Continental team in China mean we could see a good few new names on this squad for 2025. There might not be enough Rwandan riders on their squad to fulfil UCI registration requirements, but with their recent launch of a women’s Continental team which will be registered in Ethiopia, and with our good friend Tsgabu Grmay as the head coach, having both teams registered in Ethiopia would make a lot of sense for training and team-building.
We also wait to see if the May Stars men’s team re-register at the Continental level for 2026. We have heard no rumours of riders in or out at this time but will keep an eye on this.
On the women’s side, again we have shared all confirmed 2026 contracts on our Live Tracker, but there were a few stories going around we will share: The UCI’s World Cycling Centre women’s Continental Team sounds like it is going to be a much bigger force than in recent years, with the hire of a World Tour head coach (TBA) and no less than four of Africa’s rising star riders signed up. As previously shared, the flying Ethiopian Tsige Kahsay Kiros is on her way to a World Tour development team for 2026 as well.
Our live Contract Tracker only includes information confirmed by the teams themselves, but on this wire we can share more (still to be confirmed!) intel: Benin’s Georgette Vignonfodo will join a European women’s Continental team in 2026! The 18yo is the first ever Benin rider to achieve this in their history! After only three years of work by the incredible Adrien Niyonshuti – with a little bit of Team Africa Rising in there too – this is a wonderful achievement and a testament to his prowess as a coach.
Adrien’s fellow Rwandan, Jazilla Mwamikazi – a product of the brilliant Ndabaga Women’s Team in Rwanda, run by the impactful Bookmobile NGO – has also signed her first contract, and will race with a great women’s team headquartered in Switzerland in 2026!
Lucie Lagesse of Mauritius will get her first professional contract in 2026, after impressing many with her efforts this year. Having two female riders from Mauritius out there in the pro peloton is a real testament to the work done by that Federation. Lagesse marries fellow cyclist Alexandre Mayer in a week, to create what some in the cycling media, well us TBH, are calling the “Beckhams of African Cycling”!
There were five African women on the great CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto Generation women’s Continental development team in 2025, but with none of them making a strong enough challenge for the jump to the senior team there, we believe several, if not most of the African women will be let go. This is sport, however the positive news is that the team is actively looking at new African talent for 2026. Watch this space!
Other titbits we heard include: a potential first contract for 23yo Serkalen Taye Watango (Ethiopia) after her #2 in the Ethiopian National Champs and strong #5 in the Women’s Elite Road Race) with a Women’s Continental team headquartered in Europe; Nesrine Houili (Algeria) – winner of the Women’s Elite ITT – will continue to race with the support of the Madar Pro Cycling Team (with some noises that they could launch a Continental women’s team for 2027…); and last but not least, we mentioned the rumour that the Tshenolo Pro Cycling Team from South Africa will launch a men’s Continental team for 2026, but more/equally exciting will be the launch of a women’s Continental team for 2027, with rumours flying that many of South Africa’s best female riders are being lined up to join this team in 2027!
And finally….
Last but not least, as mentioned below, we have been sharing hundreds of hydration tablets and dozens of new bidons with many riders from the smaller teams present who simply did not have these resources. With racing in the mid/late 30 degrees Celsius, these were vital. Many thanks indeed to our friends at Precision Fuel & Hydration for their continued support, and also The Pedal Club in the UK, for a recent donation which helped fund even more hydration and electrolytes for the participants.
Thank you and goodbye from Mombasa, Kenya!
22 November: We are getting into the sharp end of these Cycling Championships here in Kenya, with the combined Women’s U23 and Elite 107.6km race. The race consisted of six laps of a pretty uneventful rectangular loop, and then peeling off for a c.30km blast up and down some rollers and then a pretty nasty double climb finish, hitting 9%.
Earlier in the morning a load of the men’s teams were out training on this route, mainly the last 30km section, and we had a look as well. Out there we came across Team Mauritius, fresh from their Mixed Relay gold medal, and looking motivated. To see how motivated they are, check out this incredible clip they posted on Instagram last night HERE. Top work, the bar is set for bike race winner celebrations!
The Mauritius and Benin teams then joined up on a power ride back, and both teams were going at it. Was great to see teams from East and West Africa with a common language enjoying their sport so much!
We headed back to the race area and helped many teams prepare. Due to the incredible kindness of our donors and supporters, our team headed to Kenya fully loaded with a pile of the best hydration tablets and gels from our good friends at Precision Fuel & Hydration. We also had a load of super cool ‘Ride With Friends’ bidons by Cafe du Cycliste in Nice (France) donated by some good friends. We have been supplying both to the men and women of over a dozen teams here who don’t have access to these elite resources. With the racing in temperatures of c.35C, hydration and electrolytes are vital.
There was a gold medal win yesterday by a rider to whom we supplied electrolyte tabs. Won’t take their glory away, but just sayin’ is all! Our friends at Team Benin are super happy to be fuelled by Precision:
So to the racing… As mentioned, the circuit is pretty dull, but not without its challenges with a rough surface and varied skill levels of the participants. Many of the more experienced riders headed straight to the front of the peloton and stayed there. We lost 3-4 riders by about lap 4 to various mechanicals, but sadly on lap five, due to some over-vigorous disc-braking by a rider, Charlotte Metoevi of Benin took a major tumble, and had some nasty facial injuries. She got back on the bike and tried valiantly to get back to the peloton, egged on brilliantly by the guys in the Benin team car, but the group stayed 3-400m out of reach and she couldn’t get back. Abandoning the race later.
Up front, Claudette Nyirarukundo (Rwanda) broke solo and took it to around two minutes before the peloton got its act together and chased her down. Then an Eritrean and Ethiopian rider went off the front on the climb and got a gap, but it got shut down as the peloton turned on the gas.
With all the main teams fighting it out, the South Africans had looked really organised and powerful and put together a simply brilliant team effort to put Hayley Preen on the front for the win! Proper bike racing on show, kudos to the team and management. Their team manager (Thabiso Rengane, pictured far right below) works with the up and coming Tshenolo Pro Cycling team there, whose men’s team will go to UCI Continental level in 2026, and it showed. Rumours of a women’s Continental team for 2027 also!
Claudette held on and took the U23 title brilliantly as well! Full results on ProCyclingStats as always.
Tomorrow, the combined Men’s Elite & U23 race. Bring it on.
21 November: So a pretty eventful day, with some absolute highs, some ‘near misses’ and some results entirely to form. Lets get into it…
First up was the Mixed Relay TTT. This is a relatively new discipline and we will be honest, it took a while for us to warm-up to it, but today’s race really showed the beauty, and the agony of this format!
There were nine teams registered, of three men and three women. Guinea-Bissau were a no show, so eight teams took to the start ramp, with the three men going off first, followed by the three women. Some big teams in this race, with Eritrea, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Mauritius and Algeria being the big five in this discipline, with fast rising Benin a contender and outside chance for a medal if all went right.
The racing was fast, with the big five teams’ men putting down the hammer, and hitting average speeds of c. 50km/h. The Mauritians were first to record a strong time, putting in a group average speed of 47.455km/h to go top of the results. The Eritrea men came in and were confident, they had gunned it. The others all came in happy with their runs. As the women began to cross the finish line, the Mauritian time was holding strong, Eritrea came through, in a surprising fourth, Rwanda sitting second, and Algeria came in not able to match Mauritius who ended up winning by a margin of 0.300 They take the Championship crown, felicitations! Cue big celebrations:
Next up, the Women’s Junior Road Race. This is a key race at these championships, as it shows the future, shows the nations that have been investing in rider development and have a very good future programme. Eritrea and Ethiopia led the way with four riders each, with Algeria fielding three.
As you will have seen, we have been talking about Tsige Kahsay Kiros a lot this year, and she was the rider to watch in this race. The race was a 64.5km loop of five laps of the pretty flat and uneventful course. Sadly, it was a bit of a procession with no breakaways or meaningful attacks, and an average speed of 31.472km/h. It was going to be all about the finish sprint and it proved to be so, with Tsige commanding the race and taking her second Women’s Junior champion jersey of the week!
We cannot wait to share on which international team she will be racing in 2026, but suffice it to say, we spoke to them after the race and an Ethiopian champion jersey is being made by their kit supplier. Cool! It was a brilliant race, with three of the top four coming from Ethiopia.
A mention for Munu Ditona Martinie (Congo) who was hospitalised after a nasty crash. We saw some photos of her after and she was ok in the hospital. Be well Ditona!
Next up was the Youth/Cadets race, with 16 starters in the women’s category, and 20 in the men’s. The women raced over 28km and with only Algeria of the big nations present, this was an open one for a strong move to win it. And Donatha Akimana of Rwanda did exactly this, and won by a gap of +2:14 to Joudy El Sayed of Egypt, with Olivia Beamish of Zimbabwe in third at +5:24.
The men youth raced over 42km and again, the start-list was a little mixed, but wow, an Algerian 1-2-3 was the most dominant result of the event so far! Saad Bechelaghem took the win solo, with a gap of +1:42 to his colleagues who finished together. Kudos Algeria!
Tomorrow is the 107km Women’s Elite and U23 combined race, starting at 13:30 local time. There are 52 entries, from 16 nations. This is the beginning of the ‘big’ races at these Championships. The combined Elite and U23 category makes it more stressful for the peloton, as they will be looking at who goes in breakaways from each category, or just one, and having to make decisions on what to do! The added challenge is this is the first race to see the climb finish. The non-climbers might be starting to make some pacts, as being all together when that climb hits will see off a lot of riders, and hand the advantage to the climbers like Eritrea, Ethiopia and Rwanda. We will report on it all as always…
20 November: Well, we were about to launch into an overview of the winners but the ProCyclingStats homepage has been taken over by African cycling, check it out:
Just kidding, of course we have to talk about the results! Let us look at the Elite categories first: a clean sweep by South Africa, with Lucy Youngs winning the women’s crown by an impressive 39 seconds to Aurelie Halbwachs (Mauritius), with Rwanda’s Xaverine Nirere almost a minute down in third place. Brilliant work Lucy, and all the more impressive with her not being a full-time cyclist. Kudos!
In the men’s race it was much more tight, with a South Africa 1-2 of Brandon Downes just pipping Reinardt Janse van Rensburg by just nine seconds! Alexandre Mayer (Mauritius) was just 20 seconds down as well, and all three told us at the finish that, although the race was shortened to just 14km (from the originally planned 42km!)
In the U23 categories, Algeria’s Nesrine Houili (Madar Pro Cycling) put in a huge effort to take the crown, with an impressive 42.968km/h average speed. Comparisons are not very helpful, but for context this time would have put her in the top 15 of the U23 men today! Congrats Nesrine!
The top four in the Men’s U23 race really represented the current power-nations in African cycling, with the lovely Joshua Dike (South Africa) taking gold, with Biniam Girmay’s younger brother Meweal coming in second at +15s, and Morocco’s Driss El Alouani comng in third at +25s. Driss races for the Agadir Velo Propulsion Continental Team out of Morocco. Oussama Abdellah Mimouni (Algeria & Madar Pro Cycling) finished just outside the UCI rankings.
In the Juniors, as we predicted, the incredible Tsige Kahsay Kiros took the WJ ITT crown, just 10 seconds ahead of Eritrea’s Adiam Tesfu. I wonderful moment as she can take a Regional Champ jersey into the next stage in her career. In the men’s race, our ‘pre-match focus’ was on young Nshom Efriem, after his impressive #11 finish in the road race, but it was not to be and Mauritius’ Tristan Hardy took the win over Nahom by 21 seconds. South Africa’s Dean Woolley was just one second back in third.
Tomorrow sees the Mixed Relay at 0930, followed by the Women Junior Road Race, and the two ‘cadet/youth’ Male and Female races. Click on the links for the start-lists and more information on each.
18 November: The start-lists for the Time Trial races have now been published by ProCyclingStats. Links below, and our thoughts on the best prospects for each:
- 20 November: Men Elite/U23 ITT
- 20 November: Women Elite/U23 ITT
- 20 November: Men Junior ITT
- 20 November: Women Junior ITT
- 20 November: Mixed Relay TTT
Men Elite/U23: 49 riders from 22 countries for three laps of the 14km flat course. Reinardt Janse van Rensburg (South Africa), Youcef Reguigui and Islam Mansouri (Algeria) are the highest PCS ranked riders on the start-list.
Women Elite/U23: 23 riders from 14 countries for two laps of the 14km flat course. Serkalem Taye Watango and Fkadu Brhan Abrha (Ethiopia) and Xaverine Nirere (Rwanda) are the highest PCS-ranked riders on the start-list.
Men Junior: 45 riders from 19 countries for two laps of the 14km flat course.
Women Junior: 23riders from 9 countries for one lap of the 14km flat course.
Overview
17 November: In two days the 2026 African Continental Cycling Championships (ACCC) will take place in Kwale County, Kenya. This is the second year in a row the event has taken place in Kenya. But this time, the more flat southeastern corner of Kenya.
These championships will for sure see new Elite Road Race continental champions. Both Eritrea’s Henok Mulubrhan and South Africa’s Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio confirmed they will not participate.
As always, we will be on the ground reporting on all the developments. We will share all news and results on this NewsFeed and across our social media. Our partners ProCyclingStats will of course be our official race results and rider biography provider.
It was confirmed today that riders from 29 nations will participate! We will share actual start-lists when they are confirmed after rider registration this week.
Some Riders To Watch
Ethiopia
18yo Ethiopian sensation Tsige Kahsay Kiros — she will ride for a pro team in Europe in 2026 (more news soon) — is the big star of the Ethiopian squad at the ACCC. She will be targeted by other nations for sure. Will she simply put down some big attacks as she did at the Kigali Worlds? The course does not suit her entirely, but this rider seems pretty unchallenged by most things! The strong duo of Serkalen Taye Watango and Hadush Merhawit Asgodom are great riders. However, a long flat course might not suit them. We do not know the Ethiopian men attending yet so more on them later.
Eritrea
31yo Merhawi Kudus is the big name of the Eritrean delegation. The 2x Eritrean National Champ, and 3 x Tour du Rwanda stage winner has the pedigree. Could he pull off the win? 18 Eritrean Nahom Efriem is another one to watch. He lit up the MJ RR in Kigali. We can reveal he will ride for a top Euro team in 2026. Sprinter Milkias Maekele had a great first year as a pro rider and could be there to help Merhawi? His team – Team BIKE AID (long term supporters of East African riders) have helped him grow a lot, finishing as Africa Tour #6 in 2025. He will ride pro for sure in 2026 with rumours of a big move. There are ten women in the squad, with several new faces we will present over the coming days.
Mauritius
Team Mauritius are planning a big presence so top riders like Alex Mayer and Lucie Lagesse will be there to impress. Alex has a contract with Burgos Burpellet BH through 2026. Rumours are that Lucie – a stage winner at the recent Pupkewitz Megabuild Windhoek Women Tour – has signed for a European Continental women’s team as well. Will either (or both!) of them take the Conti Champ jersey home?
Algeria
The Algerian federation largely skipped the World Champs to concentrate on rider development. They return to ACCC with a massive 29 rider squad packed with riders from the brilliant Madar Pro Cycling Team – Africa’s #1 pro team. They also have a very strong African women’s programme running so expect some power there too! Their squad consists of: 8 Elite Men, 1 Elite Woman, 3 U23 Women, 2 U23 Men and a bunch of Junior Boys and Girls. They are coming for results!
Rwanda
Best hope for a medal for Rwanda is probably from the women. Jazilla Mwamikazi looking in great shape after a strong training block across 2025 with the UCI’s World Cycling Centre #Africa2025 programme. Rumours she has a pro contract for a European Continental Team for 2026 are confirmed. 23yo Xaverine Nirere was beaten into third place by Jazilla at the Rwanda National Champs in June. However, she was recently announced as the first rider to sign for the Amani Women’s Continental Team, so could be hunting a result? There are no Rwanda men in the Africa Tour top 35 ranked riders this year so medal hopes will be tough to justify as these men have little / no competitive UCI level racing in 2025.
Benin
After a very positive year on the WCC programme also, Benin’s Georgette Vignonfodo has been looking strong but had a big operation back in August. She might be back to good form by the Championships, and rumours flying she has a 2026 European Continental Team contract as well.
Uganda
27yo Charles Kagimu is hoping for a hat-trick of ME ITT wins, can he bring that jersey home again?
South Africa
Hard to call on South Africa, evergreen 36yo Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg was a surprise on the start-list, does he want to finish his career with an African Champ jersey? Lucy Young was 10m down on the Ethiopian ladies at the Pupkewitz Megabuild Windhoek Women Tour in August, but just a minute back on Kim Le Court at the recent Ride Joburg. Could she be hunting that winner’s jersey?
Who do you fancy for a medal? 
