Somewhat surprisingly in the Ivory Coast, the African Continental MTB Championships are taking place over three days, in the XCC (short track), XCO (Olympic cross‑country) categories for Elite, U23 and Junior Men & Women.
It is good to move events around the continent for sure, but the Ivory Coast is pretty untested in hosting and delivering cycling events at this level, so we hope it all goes well. With the new CAC (Confederation of African Cycling) President from Ivory Coast, it is somewhat inevitable there would be some ‘land grabs’ for premium events, but with Ivory Coast failing to turn up at the Tour du Benin a few weeks ago, the jury is very much out on cycling development there.
2025 vs. 2026
Looking at the 2025 event, hosted in Pietermaritzburg (South Africa) at the Cascades MTB Park, the key focus will be decent start-lists across categories to make the racing, and medals truly valuable.
Sadly, the participant numbers look low. The Men’s Elite/U23 XCO race had 34 riders last year; this year, it’s 19. The Junior Men XCO will have 11riders this year, compared to 20 last year.
It was truly sad to see only four women on the start-list for the Women’s Elite/U23 race in South Africa, and at this point, there are seven for this year, so it is a small improvement there, which is good to see. The more worrying fact is the very low Women Junior number (3). Juniors are the future.
Athlete Table
As you would expect with the travel and overhead costs, it looks like pretty much the same riders are taking part in the XCO and the XCC races. The final official start-lists are here:
| Nation | ME XCO | MU23 XCO | MJ XCO | WE XCO | WU23 XCO | WJ XCO | TOTAL |
| Cote d’Ivoire | 8 | – | 1 | – | 1 | 1 | 11 |
| South Africa | 4 | 1 | – | – | – | – | 5 |
| Namibia | – | – | 4 | – | – | 1 | 5 |
| Zimbabwe | 1 | – | 2 | 1 | – | – | 4 |
| Nigeria | 2 | – | – | 2 | – | – | 4 |
| Zambia | – | 1 | 1 | – | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Mauritius | 1 | – | – | 1 | – | – | 2 |
| Tunisia | – | – | 2 | – | – | – | 2 |
| Algeria | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | 1 |
| Cameroon | – | – | – | – | 1 | – | 1 |
| Rwanda | – | 1 | – | – | – | – | 1 |
| TOTAL | 16 | 3 | 11 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 40 |
Outside of the host nation, the top four nations are all from southern Africa and the medals are expected to be shared among these nations most likely. We have been hearing very good things about Tunisia Cycling’s mountain-biking development recently so maybe they could be a surprise.
We are a bit surprised the Mauritius delegation is only two riders, but with Tour of Mauritius on at the same time, maybe Mauritius Cycling’s MTB riders have opted to race on the road?
Where are the Others?
With the history of 2012 XCO MTB Rwandan cyclist, Adrien NIyonshuti, becoming the first Black African to complete this event at the Olympic Games, and considerable investment in mountain biking in Rwanda in recent times (with a UCI MTB coach on the ground for many years), we are most surprised to see Rwandan Cycling invest in only one rider for these Continental Championships. With the recent success of rising star Jonathan Rafiki Muhawenimana, son of Rafiki Uwimana, who won the Rwandan Junior National MTB Championships just a few weeks ago – listen to our Africa Rising Cycling Podcast with him and his father link below – we were hoping he would also be a strong medal hope for his nation at these Championships.
It is also very surprising that, after sending riders to the recent UCI City Mountain Bike Eliminator Race in Addis Ababa, there are no riders from Ugandan Cycling present? And where is the host of the recent Eliminator Race in Ethiopia? Investing in these showcase events and not sending Junior or U23 riders to Continental Championships in that discipline seems like an untargeted way to invest in the sport.
We will post the results here as we receive the information. Good luck to all those racing!
