Welcome to our Live Blog / News Service on all things African women’s cycling! We will try and capture all breaking news, key developments, race results, and anything else we think you will enjoy reading…

June 2025

22 June: This weekend sees a lot of National Championships action across the world, and includes five African nations – Benin, Burkina Faso, Eritrea, Mauritius and Tunisia (see 21 June update on our ‘Road to the Worlds Newsfeed for more information) with more next week. Some early women’s road race results:

Benin: Women: Charlotte Metoevi (Charlotte is U23 but won the combined race) / Junior Women: Georgette Vignonfodo (Georgette just returned from the World Cycling Centre #Africa2025 program)

Burkina Faso: Elite Women: Awa Bamago

Mauritius: Elite Women: Kim Le Court (ITT & Road)

19 June: The 19 June is known as Juneteenth in the USA, a national holiday on the day in 1865 when the last enslaved African Americans in the United States were finally informed of their freedom – two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln. To mark this, we were so excited to announce today that we have partnered with the State of Maryland & the City of Baltimore to arrange for the Benin National Women’s Team to race in The Maryland Classic in September, the debut of the women’s race at this prestigious US event!

This will be a huge moment for these West African women – known as Les Amazones – in their preparations for the UCI Cycling World Championships! It is also the first time an African women’s UCI team has raced in the USA – history is being made. You can read all about it in the press release, and it has starting hitting the cycling media also, with our friends at CyclingNews writing about it already!

17 June: BREAKING NEWS! Our friends at The Cyclists’ Alliance (“TCA”) have teamed up with MAAP to launch the Radical Women of Cycling initiative, to empower female riders and support them at every stage of their careers, advocating for fairness, equal opportunities, and a more sustainable future in the sport. From June 12–July 13, folk can join women-led rides, inspiring talks and strength sessions all around the world.

TCA President Grace Brown will be leading events in Australia and there are events around the world listed on the dedicated pages for North America, AsiaPac and EU/UK/Africa. These are all female-led, community-driven, and taking place in safe, welcoming spaces.

Team Africa Rising has got involved with this project to get Africa on the MA(A)P too and, partnering with our long-term friends at the Masaka Cycling Club Foundation, there will now be a DEBUT African event on the Radical Women of Cycling calendar, taking place in Uganda on 12 July.

The Radical Women of Cycling event in Uganda, the first of its kind on African soil, will be a 50km social ride led by 17-year-old Mirembe Immaculate, a rising star in Ugandan cycling and a young mother who’s using sport to transform her future.

This ride will roll from Masaka Cycling Club to the Bukakata Fishing Village on Lake Victoria, celebrating women in sport across East Africa. Immaculate is part of the Masaka Cycling Club’s Development Scholarship Program and will be racing her first Junior National Championships in June.

All details here if you can join this unique ride in Uganda on 12 July.

16 June: Our CEO (Kimberly Coats) is on the ground in Benin at the moment, renewing and refreshing some of their equipment, working out training strategy for the next 6 months with head coach Adrien Niyonshuti (which includes Benin National Champs, Africa Conti Champs in August, World Champs in September + one HUGE secret race on which we will share more information soon…) and working with the Cycling Federation to ensure everything there is on track.

It is a 24/7 environment and she is working hard in the heat to get all this working smoothly. She is also working with the US embassy there on our relationship with them, to ensure future travel in and out of the USA for the Benin riders is organised and possible.

Alongside all this, she also found the time to organise a ZWIFT DAY! A bunch of our female and male riders took on challenges, races and sprint training on their Wahoo KICKR smart trainers, and HEADWIND fans – it is 90 degrees Fahrenheit – 30 degrees Celsius right now – with cash prizes for the sprint winners!

You can see footage of several of these races on our Instagram account- the racing was tough and competitive, and was great to see winners from Junior to Elite levels – the future is bright!

Kim also came across her 2003 Cannondale road bike at the team house, showing how everything is re-used, re-cycled at all times. Great to see this machine still going strong!

15 June: Final results from stage three of the Tour Féminin International des Pyrénées, Kisanet finished strongly coming in #73 on the stage for her WCC Team, jumping 14 places in the GC to a final place of #83 of 112 original starters. Sadly Maude Le Roux was a DNF on stage three. Full results and race statistics on ProCyclingStats as always.

14 June: Couple of tough days at the fourth Tour Féminin International des Pyrénées– a UCI 2.1 classified women’s race – for Maude Le Roux (South Africa) on the CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto Generation team, and Kisanet Weldemichael (Eritrea) on the UCI World Cycling Centre Team, with them sitting #94 and #97 respectively on GC after the second of three stages. Really good experience of these two African women though, racing with some great talent from across Europe and the world.

With the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift less than two months away, we saw the the team behind the IRIS cycling brand, who put together an awesome women’s cycling celebration (“The Cheer Squad”) at the race in 2024, are back for 2025, and going even bigger than last year! They have announced that their big party will be on the Col du Granier (Chambéry) on Stage Seven of this year’s race, which takes place on 1 August.

You can read more about the Cheer Squad and plans for 2025 on their website, and do try and join them if you are in France that day.

12 June: We wanted to share an awesome video produced by our friends at the Masaka Cycling Foundation (“Masaka”). Masaka has been operating in Uganda for several years now, and have produced some great male and female talent, with riders like Florence Nakagwa now racing on the CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto Generation team in 2025 and more in the pipeline!

We have worked with Masaka for many years, and they were one of the early adopters of using Zwift & Wahoo – especially for their women – , and now have a highly sophisticated e-training / racing programme in place. Check out their recent update on their women’s programme here:

10 June: We wanted to share a great piece of writing from the awesome Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio today. Ever the professional, she was virtually training on Zwift whilst watching the 2025 Lloyds Women’s Tour of Britain, and musing on women’s cycling. She talked about how important this individual race has been in the evolution of the women’s side of our sport. Ashleigh has kindly agreed that we can reproduce some of her article today to share her thoughts with our audience:

“For much of my early career, women’s racing felt like a well-kept secret. We poured our hearts into races that barely made it onto the radar – no live TV, only the occasional highlights package uploaded hours later, if at all. Following the sport meant refreshing Twitter feeds or trawling obscure websites. It often felt like the only people who truly followed women’s cycling were those with a direct connection to a female rider.

We often felt like we were on our own – doing it for the love of the sport, yes, but without the infrastructure to support a real professional career path.

The Women’s Tour of Britain changed that: It was one of the first races to take women’s cycling seriously – not just as sport, but as a product worth building, marketing, and sharing with the world. The same organisation that ran the Men’s Tour of Britain brought the same level of professionalism to the women’s race. And it showed.

Personally, finishing second overall in the 2016 edition of the Women’s Tour remains one of the proudest moments of my career. It was a turning point that gave me the confidence to keep pushing – to believe that this dream could become a sustainable, professional reality.

Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted everything. But in a strange and unexpected way, it also acted as a springboard for women’s cycling. With traditional racing halted, Zwift became the epicentre of the sport. And when ASO approached Zwift to host a virtual Tour de France in 2020, Zwift only agreed on the condition that the women’s event be treated with complete parity — equal stages, equal coverage, equal opportunity. It was the first time the women’s peloton raced under the Tour de France name.

But during that virtual Tour de France, broadcast around the world, people watched. People cared. The popularity and engagement proved what we had always known – that women’s cycling had a real audience, a real business case, and a bright future. That moment opened the door to the rebirth of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, and it changed the trajectory of the sport.

Still, none of that progress would have been possible without the early pioneers. The Women’s Tour of Britain was a trailblazer – a race that led by example and showed what women’s cycling could become with the right support and belief behind it.

And here’s to the riders – past and present – who fought for this sport when few were watching. We ride on your shoulders. And we ride with purpose, with pride, and with deep, deep gratitude.”

You can read the whole piece on Ashleigh’s Squarespace page.

8 June: Another brilliant ride by 31yo South African S’annara Grove (CJ O’Shea Racing) at the Lloyds Tour of Britain today, finishing in the bunch in 39th place on the final stage four, and maintaining her top 50 slot in the overall GC (#44), just one place behind the incredible Lizzie Deignan (Lidl-Trek. S’annara was also the top finisher for her team!

Her countrywomen 24yo Tiffany Keep (DAS-Hutchinson) finished in 84th today, and taking #77 in the overall GC. Great work both ladies indeed!

Sad news from the Volta Ciclista Catalunya Femenina though, with Maude Le Roux (South Africa) reported as a DNF today. We hope she is ok.

7 June: More racing action for women from Africa today, with 28yo South African Maude Le Roux (CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto Generation) finishing in a brilliant #55 on stage two of the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya Femenina in Spain. It looks a hard stage with 12 OTLs, and 4 DNFs! Kudos Maude!

6 June: WOW! More good news from the UK: What a day yesterday for African cycling, after her first Monument win at LBL, Kim Le Court takes her second stage win at a UCI 2.WWT classified stage race – the Tour of Britain – and her fifth victory for her AG Insurance – Soudal team! Huge congrats to Kim, making Mauritius’ debut at this race.

After the race, Kim shared: “I am very happy, not just with this victory, but also with being back here. We came into this stage with a plan and executed it perfectly.”

“I attacked at kilometer 44, had Kirsten come with me, and we managed to hold off the chasers, both of us being strong engines. It was pretty close at the finish, but I am delighted I could pull it off. I now look forward to the next stages, where we want to fight for some more good results.”

The current Women’s National Champion of Mauritius attacked on Lingburn’s Bank, a 5.6% climb over 2.3km, and was joined by another rider. They worked together and kept a time gap for most of the rest of the race. As the peloton closed quickly towards the end of the stage, Kim sprinted away from the other breakaway rider and took the win, just ten years and ten days shy of her debut at this race.

Sadly, as the race is a 2.WWT classified race, she only wins 50 UCI points for this effort. Good to have them in the bank though and she defends the yellow jersey from today so more to come we hope. Good luck Kim and her team! Results will be shared across our socials and our Results Service online as always.

4 June: Good news from the UK: 23yo Trhas Teklehaimanot Tesfay took the win in a London race series last night! ‘TT’, the 2023 Women’s Elite National Champ (Road & ITT) of Ethiopia is an asylum seeker in the UK, and still awaiting her decision. We have been following her story, and supporting her as much as we can. She has signed for the UCI World Cycling Centre Women’s Team for 2025, but the inability to travel is hampering her development hugely. Check out our dedicated blog for more info.

3 June: Today is World Bicycle Day! We are celebrating as you would expect! On the pro women’s cycling side, Kim Le Court leads the way in the latest UCI rankings (published today), sitting in #14 worldwide, and Africa’s leading woman. Her recent win at Liege-Bastogne-Liege still giving us all goosebumps!

Kim hasn’t raced since, and we are happy to see her named in the AG Insurance – Soudal Team’s squad for the Tour of Britain, starting this week on 5 June. We are very happy to see that the organisers have invited two UK continental teams who support African cyclists, so Kim will be joined by South African’s Tiffany Keep (DAS – Hutchinson) and S’annara Grove (CJ O’Shea Racing) who both raced this race in 2024. Three African women is the highest number of Africans in this race and we wish them all well! We will report on progress here, and on our socials.

At the development level, we are seeing some great performances by the young African women on the #Africa2025 project – run by the UCI’s World Cycling Centre – in preparation for the Cycling Worlds.

We have supported several of the women to get onto this programme with our friends at the UCI, and very impressed with their efforts, especially those of the two young Beninoise – Georgette Vignonfodo and Vanette Houssou. Reports from the WCC training team are very positive about their ability, attitude and ambition. Rwanda’s Djazilla Umwamikazi is also impressing them. Happy World Bicycle Day ladies!

1 June: The evergreen Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Africa #2 women) finished the 2-stage Women’s Tour of Norway today, riding as the captain of the team and finishing in a great 6th place after working hard for her team. She won 40 UCI points for herself. You can read her great review of her performance on her LinkedIn page.

May 2025

27 May: The UCI have updated their Rider Rankings and Africa’s #1 female rider Kim Le Court (Mauritius) has moved up to #14 in the world! Congrats Kim, incredible year for you! Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (South Africa) is going strong at #74 to mark the two African women in the world’s Top 100 riders. To see the full list of African women professionals, check out our online Tracker on our website.

24 May: Our regular Newsletter has been published and emailed to subscribers on our Mailing List. This issue goes deep into the amazing developments we are seeing in Benin, especially around women’s cycling! It features an interview with Georgette Vignonfodo and Cycling President Romuald Hazoume, and profile of our Good Dirt Ride fundraiser, check it out for more!

20 May: Three of the African ladies on the CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto Generation team lined up today for the 24th “Durango-Durango Emakumeen Saria” UCI 1.1 rated women’s one day race. It was a hard race, with only Maude Le Roux finishing in #68, and only 73 of the 125 starters finishing the race. Worringly, it was Rwandan Diane Ingabire’s seventh consecutive DNF. This is her third season as a professional rider on this team, and many questions will be being asked about the lack of development she has been able to manage. Ugandan Florence Nakagwa also logged her fourth DNF of the year, which is also worrying, but less so than with Diane, as its Florence’s first real year racing at this level.

17 May: “Every pedal stroke is one step closer to recognition, equality and inspiration to the younger generation.” We have helped the team at BBC Africa’s famous #FocusOnAfrica podcast with interviews with Georgette Vignonfodo (young Benin female talent) and Benin Cycling President Romuald Hazoume. Check out the interview on BBC World website, it starts at 27:10.

12 May: Our World Champs Live Blog has been updated with the just released qualification data for the Worlds in September. Have a look at the ’12 May’ update for all qualification info for the women. With all nations allowed to send up to five women for the new stand-alone U23 Women’s Race, expect to see some serious entrant numbers from across Africa! Check out the blog for more info.

5 May: Today we launched a new Live Blog to chart developments and progress towards the first UCI Cycling Road World Championships on African soil, due to take place in Rwanda in September 2025. Alongside the Elite and Junior categories for women, these World Champs will see the debut of a stand-alone U23 women’s road race. Check out the blog for more information.

4 May: Today marked a historic moment in African women’s cycling, specifically the launch of the first ever women’s Grand Prix du Cotonou in Benin! A strong field was in attendance for this circuit race, taking place around central Cotonou, under the watchful gaze of the bronze 30metre-high ‘Amazone’ statue celebrating Benin’s strong female culture.

Awa Bamago of neighbouring Burkina Faso took the win, with her countrywoman Zougrana Lamoussa in second in a strong breakaway 1-2 race win. Check out their celebrations on our TikTok channel! Young Benin talent Charlotte Metoevi sprinted to third in a mass sprint finish of the peloton. Full results of the race are on ProCyclingStats and we hope to see an even bigger race in 2026!

April 2025

30 April: We are celebrating 20yo Mary Aleper of Uganda (racing for the Black Mambas Cycling Team) who dominated the 2025 Tour du Lunsar women’s race in Sierra Leone. She won both stages and led the GC by a significant margin. We are proud to be the sponsor’s of the Women’s GC jersey (see below)

Mary has been on the African cycling scene since 2021 when she took 4th in the African Junior Conti Champs ITT and 6th in the Road Event. She was right there with Nesrine Houili (Algeria) who later went on to race professionally for Canyon/SRAM Wildlife Generation and is racing for Algerian Continental Team, Madar Pro Cycling in 2025.

27 April: WOW WOW WOW! WHAT A DAY! Mauritius’ Kim Le Court wins the women’s Liege-Bastogne-Liege! This is one of the biggest ‘Monument’ races in professional cycling, and she makes history as the FIRST AFRICAN to ever win a Monument.

“On the downhills I almost died five times!”Check out this awesome article by our friends at The Escape Collective on Kim and her win.

24 April: It was leaked today that the 2025 African Continental Championships will take place on 9-12 August in Brazzaville (Republic of Congo). This is a bit of a shock as its right in the middle of the race calendar so many of the c.150 African men and women professional riders will struggle to make time to get there and back and not disrupt their race season. With the World Champs qualification deadline on 19 August, this might be a strategy by CAC to help African nations qualify for more places, but we are not sure the points gained will have much of an effect in reality. More on this closer to the time…

23 April: Wow, a fantastic ride by Mauritius’ Kim Le Court today, taking 6th! Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio finished strongly in 21st position also.

20 April: Some gutsy performances by South Africa’s Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio and Mauritius’ Kim Le Court (both on the AG Insurance – Soudal team) at the Amstel Gold Race – Ladies Edition, with Ashleigh finishing in 11th and Kim in 31st. It is great to have Africa represented at this high level, and it cannot be long until we have an African winner of one of these huge races in the World Tour calendar.

We have updated our 2025 professional contracts and transfers tracker with a few recent changes. On the women’s side, there are still 20 female African riders racing professionally in 2025.

This is the highest number ever! Check out these awesome women on the tracker for more info.

March 2025

28 March: Over in the UK, Sunday saw asylum Trhas Teklehaimanot Tesfay’s second race of the year yesterday at the ANEXO/CAMS Women’s CiCLE Classic, and she turned out for a special British Cycling Central Region Team. Sadly she was a late DNF but got some invaluable experience, with her taking on her first ever gravel sections! Check out the live blog on her journey for more info.

24 March: Kimberly Coats, our CEO, was featured this week on the brilliant She Speaks Sport podcast on all things African cycling, with women’s cycling a big part of her thoughts. Check it out on the She Speaks Sport website for more.

21 March: The CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto Generation Team women’s team get going today and we are most excited to track these ladies across 2025. The team has supported African female riders for several years, and boast no fewer than FIVE African riders (South Africa, Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda and Ethiopia) on their overall roster of nine riders in 2025. They can now claim to be the true owners of the name: “Africa’s Team”. Click link above to see their full squad. We have written an in-depth report on the team featuring quotes from the African riders. Go check it out!

15 March: We have updated our 2025 professional contracts and transfers tracker with a few recent changes. On the women’s side, there are still 20 female African riders racing professionally in 2025 – the highest number ever. Check out these awesome women on the tracker for more info.

11 March: The winter weather over the UK has finally broken. On Sunday, Trhas Teklehaimanot Tesfay took to the start-line of her first race of the year, and in the colours of the UCI’s World Cycling Centre Women’s Continental Team, her new pro team for 2025. An 80km race around the lanes of Surrey at the Surrey League/Kingston Wheelers Cat 2/3 Women’s Race. Trhas was there with her friends from the brilliant London Academy team. London Academy is a women’s domestic racing team based in London, with a focus on developing riders from regional to national level in the UK.

Trhas kept with the lead group the whole race, racking up 600m of ascent, taking the QOM for the 4km main climb on one of the laps, and sitting =5 in the all time rankings for the segment on Strava, at 5m32s, just 2 seconds off the fastest ever ascent! She finished in a strong bunch finish. She was just a second or so off the winner Lucie Eva de Marigny-Lagesse (The Phoenix Collective).

10 March: It has been quite a week for Team Africa Rising’s CEO Kimberly Coats around International Women’s Day 2025. She has been named as one of the key women in world cycling in TWO major media reports by Cycling News and Escape Collective. Even more impressive is her lack of ever wanting self publicity. So we know she will be equally embarrassed and humbled by this media attention!

9 March: As predicted five days ago, the 2025 Tour of Tigray was all about Tsige Kahsay. She took the race by storm (again!) and dominated start to finish for her team Mesfin Industrial Engineering. She is a real star of Ethiopia, and wider East Africa. With her mimicking her hero Tadaj Pogacar’s winner celebrations, we are going to see a lot more of her. Full results of the race on ProCyclingStats.

8 March: As International Women’s Day comes around, we are so happy to report that as of today, TWENTY, yes TWENTY African women have got professional or thereabouts deals for 2025! Sensational to see – you can see all this on our 2025 Contracts and Transfers Tracker.

4 March: The women’s Tour of Tigray (Ethiopia) begins today. All eyes are on the 18yo sensation Tsige Kahsay, who won the race last year at only 17yo! She really is one for the future. We will be tracking her progress on our social media accounts, and here, in 2025. We expect to see her as part of the UCI WCC #Africa2025 programme at some point. She is the real deal from all reports.

2 March: Trhas Teklehaimanot Tesfay’s training is going well. This week she has ridden over 400km in training, both on her Zwift Ride and her UCI Scott Addict bike IRL. This includes a gruelling 180km London-Brighton-London ride. One of the iconic ‘monument’ rites of passage in British cycling, we are told!

February 2025

14 February: As most of the world celebrates Valentine’s Day, we were hoping to celebrate a break-up! CAC, the governing body of African Cycling, has had the same President for around two decades. Things needed to change. Delegates from 54 African nations headed to Egypt for the 2025 Confédération Africaine de Cyclisme (“CAC”) congress this weekend. A vote for the Presidency was due. Incredibly, and contrary to UCI rules, the current President had submitted his candidacy. UPDATE: We got our wish: A new CAC President, Yao Allen Kouame (Ivory Coast) was elected President, by one vote.

9 February: A brilliant UAE Women’s Tour for Africa, with Mauritius’ Kim Le Court finishing on the podium in third position, a great start to the year for her! 2025 is promising to be a break out year for her. She is in great shape and determined to show what she can do. Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio also showing well still. She is#19 place on overall GC, showing that the 39-yo still has a lot to offer this year. Will she target an African Champs win in August, and World Champs podium in September maybe?

8 February: This is what African women’s cycling is all about. Bringing together women from Rwanda, Benin, Uganda, Egypt to all train and race as part of the World Cycling Centre #Africa2025 programme. Pictured below are Georgette Vignonfodo and Vanette Houssou (Benin), with Djazilla Umwamikazi (Rwanda) in the centre.

Women’s cycling on the continent is growing faster than men’s. In 2009 there were only 4 African countries with women’s points. By 2024 there were 21!

January 2025

30 January: Regular followers of our content will know we have been working with the awesome team at Zwift (led by Kate Verroneau, head of women’s cycling). It has been a game changer for many of our programmes and riders. A great example of this for women’s cycling is in Benin. We have seen huge steps forward through the use of Zwift. Check this out on our YouTube channel below:

20 January: Kimberly Coats, our CEO, has been asked to be a professional mentor for women in the cycling industry by the brilliant #Uplift project, run by Shift Active Media. You can read more about this appointment on the Uplift instagram account. Congrats boss!

10 January: We recently launched a 2025 Contracts and Transfers Tracker with high hopes for women in 2025. Ten of the women we are tracking have now got contracts. We hope a good few more African women will ‘go pro’. Today we broke the news that South Africa’s Hayley Preen has secured a ride with Team Honeycomb 226ers. Though technically a UCI ‘Club’ team, they seem to have serious backing. We expect to see Hayley racing around the world in 2025. Check out Hayley and all these awesome women on the Tracker for more info.

5 January: Over in the UK, today is Trhas Teklehaimanot Tesfay’s birthday, she turned 23. We, and everyone involved in supporting her, are just in awe of the resilience of this young woman. All she has gone through. And all she is still going through whilst she continues to wait for a result on her UK asylum claim. Come on British Government! Help her get her life and cycling dreams back on track, literally….

December 2024

10 December: The brilliant young Ugandan talent Nantume Miria (Masaka Cycling Foundation) has been interviewed on her goals for 2025. This young woman is truly an inspiration for young women in Uganda, East African and beyond. Check out her interview below:

We share regular content across our accounts on all major social media platforms. Please do give us a follow on these for more! #AfricaWomenCycling #AfricaRising #AfricaCycling