TAR Blog Post

Three people riding their bikes

The Absence of Black African Cyclists at the Tour de France

July 19, 2022

There are no Black African cyclists in this year’s Tour de France.  Reinardt Janse van Rensburg and Louis Meintjes, both South Africans and accomplished multi-year participants, are the only cyclists from the African continent. Is this an indication of a…

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A biker stands

Adrien Niyonshuti Rides Alpe d’Huez

July 14, 2022

Adrien Niyonshuti raced professionally from 2008 – 2017, with a South African based team MTN Qhubeka, later Team Dimension Data. He is, to date, the only Rwandan cyclist to race at the world tour level. He was never afforded the…

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Benin Cycling Team at Tour du Benin

Africa Rising — Growth of Cycling in Benin

May 13, 2022

Journalists, donors, and interested people often ask, “How do you decide which country to help? Why Benin?” It is complicatedly simple. Because of our limited financial and human resources, we only work with Federations, partners, teams, and cyclists who we…

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African man in a white cyclist uniform holding up a bouquet of pink and white flowers

Eritrean Biniam Girmay wows the world on the first stage of the 2022 Giro d’Italia!

May 9, 2022

It has been an incredible first few days at the 2022 Giro d’Italia and all eyes are on Biniam Girmay, the 22 year old Eritrean, riding for the Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert team. On Friday’s first stage, from Budapest to Visegrád (Hungary), he…

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Mike in a yellow-and-light blue cycling uniform looking at a mountain range

In Memoriam: Michael Spicer, Board President of Team Africa Rising.

March 10, 2022

Today we are in sorrow. We have lost several good friends of our organization in recent months but today we mourn our President, Michael ‘Mike’ Spicer who has sadly passed away, aged 69. We first met Mike via our friend…

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Total Energies cyclists next to an African cyclist

Tour of Rwanda, Stage 8: A Pyrrhic Victory for African Cycling?

March 3, 2022

Rwanda needed a win. A Rwandan cyclist has not won a Stage in the Tour of Rwanda since becoming a 2.1 race in 2020. Samuel Mugisha last wore yellow for Rwanda in the Tour of Rwanda in 2019, the last 2.2 classification race. Even that victory was tainted by rumors of the Rwandan teams all working for Samuel – National and Club teams effectively giving Samuel the advantage with more teammates to keep him in yellow.

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Team Africa Rising

Natnael Tesfatsion – Champion of Tour of Rwanda 2022!

February 27, 2022

We are so happy to celebrate with all of Eritrea and Africa to see Natnael on the top step of the podium, in the yellow jersey once more (following his win at this race in 2020 also). ‘Natu’ had a…

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Team Africa Rising

Cycling Infrastructure in Africa: Successes and Barriers

February 4, 2022

Benin, a West African country of about 12 million people, currently sits 18th in the UCI African Nations ranking in cycling, followed only by Sudan; nineteen nations with points out of 54 nations on the African continent. Those numbers taken at…

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Team Africa Rising

Barriers to Entry — Equipment

January 18, 2022

Our previous post outlined the barriers to entry in cycling on the African continent for cyclists like Henok Mulubrhan and thousands of others. Based on the years spent living in Rwanda and working throughout the continent, it is our opinion…

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Team Africa Rising

Why are there not more Africans, or POC in the professional cycling ranks?

January 10, 2022

It all started at the end of last week with a tweet about Henok Mulubrahan and why he didn’t have a team for the 2022 season. Henok is a promising Eritrean cyclist who spent the last two seasons racing for…

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