With Africa hosting the UCI Cycling Road World Championships in 2025 for the first time in September in Kigali (22-28th, Rwanda), we are launching this new Africa Rising Live Blog to report on key moments and developments in the build-up to the event, and we will then deliver, as always, our #FromThePaddock updates during the racing. Let us know anything you would like us to feature!
October 2025
1 October: Well, that’s a wrap, the 2025 World Cycling Championships are over! Let’s run over some highlights, lowlights, rumours and stories from the Worlds:
In terms of results, no ‘medal spots’ for African riders overall. In reality, Kim Le Court was probably the best chance of a medal in the Women’s Elite Road Race, however the start-list quality meant it was a bit of a lottery on the day, and Kim finished a strong 8th, with 53 of the original 104 starters completed the race. Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio came in #29 at +6:, the only other African finisher.
The BIG news and best African result of the event was the performance and #7 place for Ethiopia’s Tsige Kahsay Kiros in the Women’s Junior Road Race. From the start, Tsige put the hammer down, attacking relentlessly and actually ripping the peloton apart in the early laps. She stayed up in the front group for the whole race, faded a little on the final climb as the front five group went 100% but incredibly fought her way back and took a brilliant top ten!
Tsige met her hero Tadej Pogacar at the race, even going training with him, and her life will change exponentially from this moment! Her ProCyclingStats bio has had over 10k views this week!
Four other riders from African completed the Junior Women’s Road Race, over the 74km course, with the two Rwandans, one Ethiopian and one Namibian all over 12 minutes behind the winner.
The next highlight to mention was that of Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier (Eritrea) who rides for the Lidl – Trek World Tour team. Although joined by five other top level Eritreans, he was his nation’s, and continent’s, only finisher, coming in #30 in the Men’s Elite Road Race. It was a very hard race with only 30 of the 165 starters making it to the finish line.
A special shout out to Byron Munton (South Africa) though, as he rode like a man possessed and really showed his pedigree. Byron rides for the Feirense-Beeceler (Continental) team out of Portugal and think he 100% deserves a 2026 contract after that performance!
In the Men’s Junior Road Race – a vital showcase for rising young talent – Eritrea’s rising talent Nahom Efriem came in #11 of 66 finishers, just 24s down from the winner. He is the 2025 Eritrean Junior National Champion and we think it won’t be long till we see him on a good level European Continental team.
The U23 categories were a little worrisome for African overall, as these can give a gauge of the ‘next gen’ talent. In the men’s edition, only Blaine Kieck (South Africa) at +12:17 and Hebron Berhane (Eritrea) at +12:24 managed to get into the top 45 (of 56 finishers) on the 164km course. Eritrea’s Awet Aman surprisingly came in #49 at +16:02 after a strong season (earning him a pro deal with China’s Corima Wuzhishan MVMT Cycling Team), Team Amani’s Samuel Niyonkuru (Rwanda) came in #50 at +16:04, and the final African finisher was Yafiet Mulugeta in #52 at +16:39 for the World Cycling Centre training team.
Perhaps the most worrying result for Africa overall was the lack of any finishers in the Women’s U23 Road Race, the first time this event was taking place as a stand-alone event. This is a show-case of the next generation of talent, and none of the 22 African entrants finished the 119.3km race, despite four starters from Rwanda, three from Uganda, two from Egypt, Kenya and Benin, and one each from Angola, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Eritrea, Eswatini, Kenya, Namibia, South Africa and Tunisia. Several of these riders are on continental teams and we were hoping for at least 2-3 finishers, but sadly the course took its toll.
We wanted to focus on the Road Race results today. To see all the ITT and Mixed TTT results, please do go to ProCyclingStats and check them out there.
To finish up on our ‘Road to the World Champs’ newswire, a couple of key observations from us on areas of focus for African cycling moving forward:
- Cadence: Having followed dozens of riders up the relentless cobbled and tarmac climbs of the arduous courses, the European and North America athletes just seem to have a higher cadence than many of the African riders. This was most noticeable on the cobbled climbs. Coaches need to focus on this for these athletes to excel on the road. This trend was particularly noticeable among the African athletes who have been racing a lot of gravel this year.
- Pain: We saw too many athletes pull out of the road races, or finish the ITT, and be talking normally within a minute or so, or even be standing up. And then you see the athletes who have gone all in, they are on the ground for 5+ minutes, not able to speak for similar. Our African athletes need to truly understand the shock and pain of elite road racing to be able to compete.
- Equipment: Though it is of course good to have the chance to represent your country on any occasion, there has to be a line drawn somewhere. There were bicycles being used in the ITT and Road Race which would not have been allowed by UCI commissionaires in a European or North American location. Why they were allowed ‘as it in Africa’ as one said to us, is not ok. There were bikes in use which should have no way been allowed on course.
- Cost: Again, it is a truly wonderful thing to represent one’s country, but there has to be a cost/benefit analysis somewhere. There were far too many riders (from across the world) on poor quality bikes who got dropped on the first lap of their races. Was this really worth the time and effort? Surely using these funds to improve their equipment and focus on, in our world, the African Continental Championships instead might deliver a better ROI?
It is good to see some post-Worlds action already, with the launch of the JR Pro Cycling Team in Ethiopia. Carrying the famous name of of one of Ethiopia’s greatest road racers – Jemal Rogora – he and his son Kiya Rogora (Ethiopian National Champion 2022 and pro rider for EF Nippo Dev and X-Speed United) have launched this new team to bring the best of Ethiopian road cycling talent to races across Africa and beyond. Already they have announced several riders, and South African ex-World Tour pro Nicholas Dlamini as a Mentor and Coach. More on this team soon! Give them a follow on their Instagram page to see all new developments!
Many thanks to everyone for following our #RoadToTheWorlds Newsfeed, we will sign off now and more soon on when/where the elusive 2025 African Continental Championships might take place…
September 2025
30 September: In The News: We report live from the Worlds for the On Yer Bike podcast, curated by Sky Sports’ Sanny Rudravajhala and cycling journalist Katy Madgwick. We join them to discuss the Worlds being in Africa for the first time and its impact. You can hear this segment (from 26:35) here.
In The News #2: Katy has also written a longer piece based on the discussion which was published on the Domestique website – “The only way to show them an elite level race is to bring them to the World Champs.”
In The News #3: The BBC World Service Newsday programme got in touch with our team on the ground at the World Champs for a live interview with over 100m listeners across Africa. You can listen to the whole interview below:
25 September: Today saw the first of the road races take place, and its a very important one. It was the first ever edition of the Women’s U23 Road Race, and expectations were high. 82 riders from 40 nations took part, an incredible number of nations, with a slightly smaller peloton than you would ideally like for this huge debut but it is what it is! The full start-list can be found on ProCyclingStats here.
The race was sadly flat out at the start, as was predicted by many, as the pros wanted to thin out any inexperienced riders who might cause problems on this tricky course. The sole rider from the Cote d’Ivoire was off the back in the first kilometre, with a rider from Cameroon dropping back pretty soon after. As the pace and the relentless climbing took its toll, the ‘DNF’ count rose.
As the bell rang for the final lap for around 30 ladies in the lead group, Eritrea’s Monalisa Araya came through at +13:30 but was sadly pulled out by the Commissaires, very sad as the time cut was announced at 14 minutes. Jazilla Mwamikazi (Rwanda) came through at +14:50 and was pulled out also. This meant no African riders would appear on the finishers list.
Tomorrow we look forward to the Men’s Junior (morning) and Men’s U23 (afternoon) races!
In The News: Our communications correspondent Jeremy is on the ground in Kigali, helping Adrien Niyonshuti and the President of Benin Cycling with any issues that arise. He was interviewed live for the #OnYerBike podcast, during the U23 Women’s Road Race, on how its all going at #Kigali2025:
22 September: Today we saw the Men’s and Women’s U23 Individual Time Trials (ITT) take place, and a chance to see the rising stars of world cycling. Team GB’s Anna Backstedt was the pre-race favourite and it went to form, with Backstedt winning by 1:50:85 from the second placed rider, with an average speed of 43.832km/h. Super impressive!
From the African POV, there were 17 riders from the continent of the 54 starters. Sadly, during our time in the race paddock, it was clear that many of these riders were going to be riding on normal road bikes, a huge disadvantage compared to those on dedicated time trial bikes. And so it was to show, with the local ladies of Rwanda, on brand new Cervelo TT bikes (which bizarrely arrived a day before the race!!) put the hammer down, with 21yo Martha Ntakirutimana coming home as the first Africa (+5:31), followed by Claudette Nyirarukundo (+6:18) and South Africa’s Sonnica Klopper taking the third African spot (+6:28).
The Men’s U23 ITT was slated to be a powerful affair, with Lidl-Trek’s Jakob Söderqvist (Sweden) dominating on the 31.2km course, taking the rainbow jersey with a gap of +1:03, his average speed clocked at 48.741 km/h – rapido!
From the Africa side, South Africa took the top honours, with Pedri Crause putting the hammer down and coming in a brilliant #19 – of the 60 starters, with an average speed of 44.650 km/h – that’s right in among the strongest riders so kudos Pedri. Josh Dike came in #23 at 4:21 back. The local riders Samuel Niyonkuru and Etienne Tuyizere took the next two spots, at +4:50 and +5:12 behind respectively.
Tomorrow brings the Juniors into play, with the Men and Women doing battle on the challenging streets of Kigali! The full start-lists are on ProCyclingStats: MEN / WOMEN.
In The News: Jeremy on our team has written an in-depth piece for the brilliant Escape Collective about the life of Rwanda’s greatest ever cyclist: “From a wooden bike to the World Championships.” This covers Adrien’s “impossible” journey from meeting Tom Ritchey and Jock Boyer in 2006, to being the Head Coach of the Benin National Team in his home country of Rwanda.
21 September: Well, we know Kigali knows how to run an event, but wow. The start-ramp of the Time Trial course began inside the BK Arena, and it was insane! Crowds were nuts, the riders were walking out like boxers or NBA stars to roars, clapping and an awesome lightshow. Lots of videos online but check out our tweet to get a feel of the atmosphere.
Today saw the Women’s and Men’s Elite ITT races take place, covering 31.2km and 40.6km respectively. Of the 44 women, 12 were from Africa, with Ethiopia, Kenya, Mauritius and host’s Rwanda all fielding two riders each. The African riders would have to be on their best form to get anything near a top result, on such a challenging course and against some of the world’s best riders, and realistically, this is what unfolded in the race.
Women’s Race: The top rider, Marlen Reusser averaged 43.378km/h to win gold, with the top 16 riders all achieving over 40km/h average speed. The first African rider in the results was Xaverine Nirere at #27 of 44, with an average speed of 37.345km/h, for the 23 year old from Rwanda. She is the reigning Rwandan ITT champion so was one of the local favourites. Next we saw Lucie Lagesse (Mauritius) come in at #29 with an average speed of 36.533km/h. You can watch some pre-race thoughts from Lucie on our TikTok. Third African rider was 29yo Brhan Abrha (Ethiopia) – the current Ethiopian National ITT Champion. The full Elite Women’s results can be found on ProCyclingStats as always.
Men’s Race: Let’s just get the Belgian ‘elephant in the room’ out of the way first. Remco Evenepoel was simply super-human today, completing the 40.6km with an average speed of 48.948km/h, over-taking Tadej Pogacar in the process. Incredible riding by the 25yo.
From the African POV, we had 22 of the 55 riders hailing from Africa, with Mauritius, Mali, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and South Africa fielding two riders each. Again, racing was hard, and congratulations to 25yo Byron Munton (South Africa) for a top 20 result, coming in at an average speed of 44.402km/h. 2025 is Byron’s fifth year as a pro rider, currently with Continental Team Feirense – Beeceler, and he has had a good year.
Sandwiched between Byron and his South African team-mate Brandon Downes (av speed 42.621km/h) was 26yo Rwanda Shemu Nsengiyumva who had a great race on his home turf, coming in 25th overall, at an average speed of 42.974km/h. Shemu rides for the Rwanda-registered Java – Inovotec Continental Team, run by the engimatic Pascal Ndizeye. Great run by these three young men. The full Elite Men’s results can be found on ProCyclingStats as always.
Tomrrow we have the Men’s and Women’s U23 Time Trials and we hope to see some promising runs by African riders in this more development area of the sport. Stay tuned!
Picture of the day – that we took – was this shot of Benin’s Hermionne Ahouissou. Just incredible to think this young woman has gone from local races in Benin to the World Champs is just a wonderful story.
Team Africa Rising In The News: Our team spoke to Rwanda Dispatch for their “Inside African Cycling: Rwanda’s 2025 UCI World Championships” article. Check it out here!
20 September: As the darkness settles over Kigali, riders in team hotels across the city are making their final checks ahead of the first event of the 2025 UCI Cycling World Championships tomorrow – the Elite Women’s ITT. The course is tricky, some nasty hills, sketchy turns and 31km of unfamiliar roads and crowds for many of the participants. After the women will be the Elite Men ITT, with Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar looking to add to his 2024 Road Race world champion jersey.
In the women’s event, glad to report the start-list is pretty close to the list we shared below (17 September) with the exceptions being Najma Najma (Comoros) and Mamadama Bangoura (Guinea) who are no shows.
On the men’s side, it is not as good a story, with some federations clearly having some issues between the point they initially registering riders, and final confirmation today.
We have seen the addition to the start-list of Chiekhouna Cisse (Senegal), who is also taking part in the Men’s Elite Road Race, but sadly, eight of the orginal men’s list are ‘no shows’ today, including Alieu Jammah & Ousman Janneh (Gambia); Solomon Tagoe (Ghana); Yusuf Mejah & Gift Nazombe (Malawi); Hanson Matombe (Mauritius); and Charles Kagimu & Jordan Schleck Ssekanwagi (Uganda).
Most surprising is the Charles Kagimu not being here. He is the reigning African Continental Champion in the ITT so a real sad moment to not see his name on the list. We will try and get more details. Sad also to see one of the Ghanaians drop out, and all original entrants from Gambia and Malawi.
You can review the whole list on ProCyclingStats: Men’s Start-List / Women’s Start-List and they will have their awesome #LiveStats running as well.
Our predictions for the African riders: We think the Mauritius ladies look strong, so going to pick Lucie Lagesse as best African woman (she came 4th in the 2024 African Conti Champs ITT, with the top three from that event sadly not taking part). Xaverine Nirere (Rwanda) might push her close, she is the reigning Rwandan National ITT Champion. On the men’s side, Byron Munton (South Africa) is probably the pick for the men as he is in great shape, Alex Mayer (Mauritius) is in good form, and we have a soft spot for Ricardo Sodjede (Benin) also. Let us see….
19 September: Preparations are well underway by all the teams at the World Champs, with riders arriving daily into Kigali airport from around the world. Our friends at Team Benin have been on the ground for several days know, getting used to the altitude, the roads and the atmosphere!
You can also see Team Benin in action on our new(ish) TikTok channel (see below), with a local young schoolboy on his MTB trying to keep up…
In The News: Kimberly (our CEO) is featured in a new piece by BBC Sport out of the UK today which previews the World Championships, and the main African contenders. She is joined by Kim Le Court (Mauritius), Biniam Girmay (Eritrea) and David Lappartient (President, UCI) in talking about this historic event. You can read the full piece on the BBC Sport website here.
Breaking News: The UCI has confirmed today it will deploy a GPS rider tracking system to enhance rider safety at the World Championships. This initiative is part of ongoing efforts of the UCI and SafeR to enhance the safety of professional road cyclists. The GPS safety tracking technology to be used in Rwanda was tested during the three stages (August 15 to 17) of the Tour de Romandie Féminin, in Switzerland, which enabled it to be refined.
All riders in all categories (Men and Women Elite, Under 23 and Junior) will be equipped with a GPS safety tracking device attached under their saddle during all events at the 2025 UCI Road World Championships (road races, individual and team time trials). This system, operated from the World Championships control centre, will enable real-time monitoring of data regarding the position and speed of the entire peloton, thus allowing for immediate identification of any unusual situations, such as a rider suddenly stopping on the course. You can read the full press release on this here.
18 September: In The News: The incredible Adrien Niyonshuti is getting a lot of media attention this week, as Rwanda’s most famous and successful cyclist, and now the Head Coach of the Benin National Cycling Federation.
This time its Cycling Weekly, with an in-depth article about his life and career, entitled: “People will never forget what I’ve done – meet the genocide survivor who made cycling history for Rwanda“, written by Tom Davidson, Senior News and Features Writer.
17 September: The 2025 UCI Cycling World Championships Entry List is now live – 13 races, 917 unique participants from 109 countries!
Africa Rising Exclusive: Below is the full entry lists for the THIRTY FIVE African nations on the preliminary entry lists.. It is important to point out that sadly many Federations enter riders initially for profile reasons, but then fail to bring the athletes with them when their delegations arrive. We will be monitoring this closely to report the truly accurate start-lists, and naming those federations who do not behave in good faith:
Men Elite Road Race: Slimane Badlis (Algeria); Nahom Araya, Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier, Biniam Girmay, Merhawi Kudus, Henok Mulubrhan & Natnael Tesfazion (Eritrea); Edwin Ndungu (Kenya); Yaya Diallo & Siriki Diarra (Mali); Alex Mayer (Mauritius); Byron Munton (South Africa); Eric Manizabayo, Vainqueur Masengesho, Moise Mugisha, Eric Muhoza, Eric Nkundabera & Shemu Nsengiyuma (Rwanda); and Chiekhouna Cisse (Senegal).
Women Elite Road Race: Hermionne Ahouissou & Yetonde Kpovihouede (Benin); Lobopo Kono (Botswana); Najma Najma (Comoros); Brhan Abrha, Haftu Reda & Serkalem Watango (Ethiopia); Dodo Humberto Ie (Guinea-Bissau); Mamadama Bangoura (Guinea); Nancy Debe, Monica Kiplagat & Kendra Tabu (Kenya); Lucie Lagesse, Aurelie Halbwachs & Kim Le Court (Mauritius); S’annara Grove, Maddie Le Roux & Ashleigh Moolman Pasio (South Africa); Diane Ingabire, Violette Irakoze Neza, Xaveline Nirere & Valentine Nzayisenga (Rwanda); Anta Ndiaye (Senegal); Jamila Abdullah (Tanzania); and Namukasa Trinitah (Uganda).
Men Elite ITT: Ricardo Sodjede (Benin); Abderemane Dahalani (Comoros); Bizay Redae (Ethiopia); Alieu Jammah & Ousman Janneh (Gambia); Apolinário Ca (Guinea-Bissau); Victor Akpabli & Solomon Tagoe (Ghana); Edwin Ndungu (Kenya); Yusuf Mejah & Gift Nazombe (Malawi); Djandouba Diallo, Yaya Diallo & Siriki Diarra (Mali); Aurelien de Comarmond, Hanson Matombe & Alex Mayer (Mauritius); Brandon Downes & Byron Munton (South Africa); Moise Mugisha & Shemu Nsengiyuma (Rwanda); Ibrahim Jalloh & Mustapha Koroma (Sierra Leone); Jalal Edward & Dictor Mut (South Sudan); Boniphase Ngwata & Hassan Sharif (Tanzania); Charles Kagimu & Jordan Schleck Ssekanwagi (Uganda);
Women Elite ITT: Hermionne Ahouissou (Benin); Lobopo Kono (Botswana); Najma Najma (Comoros); Brhan Abrha & Serkalem Watango (Ethiopia); Mamadama Bangoura (Guinea); Monica Kiplagat & Kendra Tabu (Kenya); Lucie Lagesse & Aurelie Halbwachs (Mauritius); Diane Ingabire & Xaveline Nirere (Rwanda); Jamila Abdullah (Tanzania); and Namukasa Trinitah (Uganda).
Men U23 Road Race: Oussama Abdellah Mimouni (Algeria);Oumarou Moussa & William Colorado Osorio (Cameroon); Awet Aman, Bebron Berhane, Yoel Habteab, Milkias Maekele & Yafiet Mulugeta (Eritrea); Tekle Alemayo, Geremedhin Hailemaryam & Amanuel Tesfay (Ethiopia); Ivan Malakwen & Edward Ngunu (Kenya); Kabelo Makatile (Lesotho); Driss El Alouani (Morocco); Tiemoko Diallo & Tiemoko Diamoutene (Mali); William Piat (Mauritius); Pedri Crause, Joshua Dike, Blaine Kieck & Warren Moolman (South Africa); Samuel Niyonkuru, Aime Ruhumuriza, Etienne Tuyizere & Shardack Ufitimana (Rwanda); Neriah Meunier Sow (Senegal); Jahdel Gabriel (Seychelles); Mohamed Aziz Dellai (Tunisia); and Lawrence Lorot (Uganda).
Women U23 Road Race: Carla de Araoujo (Angola); Vanette Houssou & Charlotte Metoevi (Benin); Dahimata Yabre (Cote d’Ivoire); Theresa Diamelia Obiloma Bijana (Cameroon); Mentalla Belal & Alalla Ahmed Benballa Darwish (Egypt); Monaliza Araya (Eritrea); Merhawit Asgodom, Kidsti Gebrekidan, Mebrhit Girmay, Abrehet Teka & Tsige Yigezu (Ethiopia); Grace Kaviro & Margret Mutuku (Kenya); Monique du Plessis (Namibia); Sonica Klopper (South Africa); Charlotte Iragena, Jazilla Mwamikazi, Martha Ntakirutimana & Claudette Nyirarukundo (Rwanda); Isatu Bangura (Sierra Leone); Mandiswa Fakudze (Eswatini); Asnath Jason (Tanzania); Abra Nomessi (Togo); Alma Abroud (Tunisia); and Mary Aleper, Nantume Miria & Florence Nakagwa (Uganda).
Men U23 ITT: Oussama Abdellah Mimouni (Algeria); Glorad Saizonou & Ted Tossavi (Benin); Gomolemo Kelaotswe (Botswana); Oumarou Moussa (Cameroon); Geremedhin Hailemaryam & Amanuel Tesfay (Ethiopia); Prince Quaye & Emmanuel Sesi (Ghana); Ivan Malakwen & Edward Ngunu (Kenya); Driss El Alouani (Morocco); Tiemoko Diallo & Tiemoko Diamoutene (Mali); William Piat (Mauritius); Pedri Crause & Joshua Dike (South Africa); Samuel Niyonkuru, Kevin Nshutiraguma & Etienne Tuyizere (Rwanda); Jahdel Gabriel (Seychelles); Amadou Sowe (Sierra Leone); Said Malale & Ahmed Said (Tanzania); Mohamed Aziz Dellai (Tunisia); and Lawrence Lorot & Shafik Mugalu (Uganda).
Women U23 ITT: Vanette Houssou & Charlotte Metoevi (Benin); Dahimata Yabre (Cote d’Ivoire); Theresa Diamelia Obiloma Bijana (Cameroon); Mentalla Belal & Alalla Ahmed Benballa Darwish (Egypt); Merhawit Asgodom & Abrehet Teka (Ethiopia); Monique du Plessis (Namibia); Sonica Klopper (South Africa); Jazilla Mwamikazi & Claudette Nyirarukundo (Rwanda); Isatu Bangura (Sierra Leone); Mandiswa Fakudze (Eswatini); Asnath Jason (Tanzania); Abra Nomessi (Togo); Alma Abroud (Tunisia); and Mary Aleper & Nantume Miria (Uganda).
Men Junior Road Race: Salah Hamzioui (Algeria); Justiniano de Araujo & Sergio de Araujo (Angola); Felicien Ndabarushimana (Burundi); Cylian-Odilon Godonou & Exodus Saizonou (Benin); Irhamdine Irhamdine (Comoros); Saifallah Ali Al Sayed (Egypt); Nahom Efriem & Keven Teklemariam (Eritrea); Semere Fsaha & Dejen Legese (Ethiopia); Farrakhan Mohammed (Ghana); Caizer Wilson Ie (Guinea-Bissau); Sorydjan Keita (Guinea); Ian Kipchirchir (Kenya); Marouane Kharbouchi & Yassine M’Thah (Morocco); Bakary Bagayogo & Saibou Kone (Mali); Tristan Hardy, Juliano Ndrianamanampy & Henri Rouillard (Mauritius); Roger Suren & Marco Thiel (Namibia); Alexander Erasmus, Matthew Horter & Josh Johnson (South Africa); Jackson Nkuriliyinka & Moise Ntirenganya (Rwanda); Babacar Atta Fall (Senegal); Trevor Malvina (Seychelles); Abu Sesay (Sierra Leone); Sivuylie Gulwako (Eswatini); Joseph Hatali & Waziri Masoli (Tanzania): Mohamed Amine Laouini (Tunisia); Michael Lobo & Paul Miro (Uganda); and Prateek Ravla (Zimbabwe).
Women Junior Road Race: Odette Nsengiyuma (Burundi); Melvina Tankpinou (Benin); Kssanet Gebreslasse, Rahel Gimbato, Tsige Kiros & Danayt Zerihun (Ethiopia); Mercy Eragae (Kenya); Pontso Makatile (Lesotho); Delsia Janse Van Vuuren & Rosemarie Thiel (Namibia); Osaretin Grace Godwin & Divine Ogbe (Nigeria); Megan Botha & Errin Mackridge (South Africa); Liliane Uwiringiyimana & Yvonne Masengesho (Rwanda); and Gbassay Manasray (Sierra Leone).
Men Junior ITT: Salah Hamzioui (Algeria); Felicien Ndabarushimana (Burundi); Exodus Saizonou (Benin); Irhamdine Irhamdine (Comoros); Saifallah Ali Al Sayed (Egypt); Semere Fsaha & Dejen Legese (Ethiopia); Caizer Wilson Ie (Guinea-Bissau); Farrakhan Mohammed (Ghana); Sorydjan Keita (Guinea); Ian Kipchirchir (Kenya); Marouane Kharbouchi (Morocco); Bakary Bagayogo & Saibou Kone (Mali); Tristan Hardy & Henri Rouillard (Mauritius); Roger Suren & Marco Thiel (Namibia); Alexander Erasmus & Josh Johnson (South Africa); Brian Ishimwe & Pacifique Byusa (Rwanda); Babacar Atta Fall (Senegal); Trevor Malvina (Seychelles); Abu Sesay (Sierra Leone); Sivuylie Gulwako (Eswatini); Joseph Hatali & Waziri Masoli (Tanzania): Mohamed Amine Laouini (Tunisia); Kagaba Hatim & Paul Miro (Uganda); and Prateek Ravla (Zimbabwe).
Women Junior ITT: Odette Nsengiyuma (Burundi); Rahel Gimbato & Tsige Kiros (Ethiopia); Delsia Janse Van Vuuren & Rosemarie Thiel (Namibia); Osaretin Grace Godwin & Divine Ogbe (Nigeria); Megan Botha & Errin Mackridge (South Africa); Liliane Uwiringiyimana & Yvonne Masengesho (Rwanda); and Gbassay Manasray (Sierra Leone).
Team Trial Mixed Relay: Benin, Ethiopia, Mauritius, Rwanda, Uganda & World Cycling Centre.
In The News: Our team recently spoke to Peter Maniaty at Bicycling Australia about our work in Rwanda (2007-2017) and across Africa since, and how Africa won the bid to host the World Champs. The article features commentary also from Phil Liggett – the ‘voice of cycling’ – and we talk about all the factors that led to this moment.
Shout-out to Doug Ryder OLY also, for his work in creating “Africa’s Team”, which raced extensively across the 2013-2020 period, with riders like Adrien Niyonshuti OLY among the first Black riders from Africa to be hired. You can read the whole piece on the Bicycling Australia website
16 September: Athletes from around the world are starting to arrive in Kigali to acclimatise to the altitude, the roads and the atmosphere. All reports so far are excellent. The routes are all clearly marked, and the Rwandan Police are escorting squads and riders safely for their course recon. The first official recon is for the Time Trial course, at 0900 on Saturday.
Our friends at the UCI World Cycling Centre’s #Africa2025 project have been working hard since early September on preparing almost 80 young African riders, to get them in the best shape they can be for the event. They just shared some lovely images of their training camps on their Facebook page here.
It is also good to hear our friends on the Benin National Team have arrived safely, and so have all their bikes! Head Coach Adrien Niyonshuti OLY (read his thoughts on the rise of Benin Cycling in a recent interview with BBC Sport) shared all are in good spirits and they have been out for an easy training ride to get their legs going:
In The News: Our CEO – Kimberly Coats – had an in-depth interview with Maria David of Cyclingnews recently, and her “How cycling arrived at a landmark African World Championships” story has just been published. Alongside Kimberly, the piece features riders and coaches Adrien Niyonshuti, Jazilla Mwamikazi (and her team boss Shannon Porthault), Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio and Kim Le Court.
15 September: We have heard from the Algerian and Ghanaian Cycling Federations who have confirmed their squads for the World Championships. Both are sending three male riders to Kigali 2025:
- Algeria: Slimane Badlis (Elite Road Race)
- Algeria: Mimouni Oussama (U23 Road Race & ITT)
- Algeria: Hamzioui Salah* (Junior Road Race & ITT) *2025 Junior Men’s ITT National Champion
- Ghana: Victor Akpabli (Elite ITT)
- Ghana: Emmanuel Sessi (U23 Road Race & ITT)
- Ghana: Farrakhan Mohammed (Junior Road Race & ITT)
- Ghana: Prince Quaye (TBC)
- Ghana: Solomon Tagoe (TBC)
Congratulations today also to Alexandre Mayer (Burgot Burpellet BH) who has won the 25th edition of the GP Chantal Biya. Alex was the favourite for the race, so it went to form but racing is always a lottery and he took the yellow and held it superbly for several days, racking up nearly 70 UCI points as well. As we announced on 30 August, Alex will race the Men’s Elite Road Race at the Worlds so a good warm-up! Shout-out to 33yo Clovis Kamzong (SNH Vélo Club), the ‘home hero’ of Cameroon, for a strong third place, just +2:49 behind Alex. Clovis has had a great 2025, with #5 in GC at the Tours of Benin and Cameroon, and GC #7 in the Tour de Cote d’Ivoire.
In The News: Our Comms Lead Jeremy Ford took part in the UK’s Cyclist Next Door podcast to discuss the current trends in African cycling and looking forward to the World Champs. Click on the video below to listen to the full episode. With an interruption from none other than Peter Sagan!
11 September: BREAKING NEWS: We have confirmation of the big one: the Eritrean Men’s Elite squad for the World Champs and its a strong group of six riders. They are (in current UCI ranking order): Biniam Girmay (Intermarché – Wanty), Henok Mulubrhan (XDS Astana), Natnael Tesfatsion (Movistar), Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier (Lidl-Trek), Nahom Zeray (Team UKYO) and Merhawi Kudus (Burgos Burpellet BH).
Eritrea are Africa’s #1 ranked cycling nation and actually qualified for seven riders in this race, six as the #19 ranked nation in the world, plus one extra spot for Henok Mulubrhan as the current African Continental Champion.
With most of the other top ranked Eritrean riders being young, like Team BIKE AID‘s Milkias Maekele and Yoel Habteab, we can expect an incredibly strong U23 team to be announced as well. More on the other men and women of Team Eritrea as we get it.
10 September: The Ethiopian squad for the 2025 World Championships has been announced and they clearly mean business, across the events. Fantastic to see 12 women named, and seven men, taking part across the Road Race, ITT and Mixed Relay disciplines. Full squad listed below:
- Ethiopia Women: Elite RR: Haftu Reda, Brhan Abrha, Serkalem Watango / U23 RR: Abrehet Teka, Merhawit Asgodom, Tsige Tigezu, Mebrhit Girmay, Kidsti Gebrekidan / Junior RR: Kssanet Gebreslasse, Rahel Gimbato, Danayt Zerihun, Tsige Kahsay Kiros / Elite ITT: Brhan Abrha, Serkalem Watango / U23 ITT: Merhawit Asgodom, Abrehet Teka / Junior TT: Rahel Gimbato, Tsige Kahsay Kiros.
- Ethiopia Men: U23 RR: Tekle Alemayo, Geremedhin Hailemaryam, Amaniel Desta / Junior RR: Semere Fsaha, Dejen Legese / Elite ITT: Bizay Redae, Negasi Haylu Abreha / U23 ITT: Geremedhin Hailemaryam, Amaniel Desta / Junior ITT: Dejen Legese, Semere Fsaha
- Mixed TTT Relay: Bizay Redae, Tekle Alemayo, Brhan Abrha, Haftu Reda, Serkalem Watango, Geremedhin Hailemaryam
25yo Negasi Haylu Abreha is one to watch on the men’s side, having raced several years at the Pro Conti level, currently racing for the Sam -Vitalcare – Dynatek (Continental level). The current Men’s Elite National Champion 18yo Tekle Alemayo (entered for the U23 race) performed well at the recent Tour of Salalah (UCI 2.2) for Team Amani (Continental level) and could show well.
Our eyes, as mentioned before, will be on 18yo Tsige Kahsay Kiros, after her stunning performances at the 2025 Tour de l’Avenir. She might be our pick of the African U23 and Junior riders overall at this point. However, we have yet to see the Eritrean squad…
We have also received confirmation today of the full squad for Tunisia, one of Africa’s smaller cycling nations (ranked 14th in the Africa Tour currently), and good to see they are sending three young athletes to the World Championships, including Mohamed Aziz Dellai, their current Men’s National Champ:
- Tunisia Men: Mohamed Aziz Dellai (U23 ITT, RR & Mixed TTT Relay* – *for the UCI WCC Team) / Mohamed Amine Laouini (Junior ITT & RR)
- Tunisia Women: Alma Abroud (U23 ITT & RR)
8 September: With only just over two weeks to go to the opening ceremony, and the UCI’s deadline for final rider registration this Friday (12 September) we should see more and more riders announced in the coming days. We heard from Uganda and Benin this week, these are their confirmed riders:
- Benin Men: Junior RR: Exode Saizonou, Cylian-Odilon Godonou / Elite ITT: Ricardo Sodjede / Junior ITT: Exode Saizonou / U23 ITT: Glorad Saizonou, Ted Tossavi
- Benin Women: Elite RR: Yetonde Kpovihouede, Hermionne Ahouissou / U23 RR: Vanette Houssou, Charlotte Metoevi / Junior RR: Melvina Tankpinou / Elite ITT: Hermionne Ahouissou / U23 ITT: Vanette Houssou, Charlotte Metoevi
- Mixed TTT Relay: Glorad Saizonou, Yetonde Kpovihouede, Ted Tossavi, Hermionne Ahouissou, Ricardo Sodjede, Charlotte Metoevi
- Uganda Men: U23 RR: Lawrence Lorot / Junior RR: Lobo Michael, Paul Miro / Elite ITT: Jordan Schleck, Charles Kagimu / U23 ITT: Shafik Mugalu, Lawrence Lorot / Junior ITT: Paul Miro, Kagaba Hatim
- Uganda Women: Elite RR: Namukasa Trinitah / U23 RR: Mary Aleper, Florence Nakagawa, Nantume Miria / Elite ITT: Namukasa Trinitah / U23 ITT: Mary Aleper, Nantume Miria
Eritrea remain Africa’s #1 ranked cycling nation, and their squad for Kigali 2025 has yet to be announced. Discussions around whether Biniam Girmay will race are still ongoing. Arguably it will be down to whether: (i) Eritrea want him to be there as a high quality domestique; (ii) Rwanda and the UCI put pressure on him – or incentivise him – to attend as Africa’s #1 male cyclist; or (iii) He wants to be a part of it for the experience. On the latter, as he told Sporza magazine earlier this year that it would be ‘pointless’ for him to race’ due to the parcours, it will be down to one of the other two possibilities.
August 2025
30 August: As we get closer and closer to the Opening Ceremony in Kigali, African nations are starting to firm up – and announce – their squads. This is the information we have so far:
- South Africa: Elite Women: Ashleigh Moolman Pasio, Maude Le Roux, S’annara Grove, Tiffany Keep / Elite Men: Byron Munton, Brandon Downes / U23 Women: Sonica Klopper, Nadine Visser / U23 Men: Blaine Kieck, Joshua Dike, Pedri Crause, Warren Moolman / Junior Women: Megan Botha, Errin Mackridge / Junior Men: Alexander Erasmus, Josh Johnson.
- Mauritius: Elite Women: Kim Le Court, Aurelie Halbwachs, Lucie Lagesse / Elite Men: Alex Mayer, Aurelien de Comarmond / U23 Men: William Piat / Junior Men: Tristan Hardy, Juliano Ndriananampy, Henri Rouillard.
With South Africa and Mauritius ranked #2 and #4 in the Africa Tour nations rankings respectively, the announcements we are now looking for are those of the rest of the top five African cycling nations, namely Eritrea (#1), Algeria (#3) and Morocco (#5). We know the leadership of ‘CAC’ (the UCI’s regional entity for Africa) is encouraging the maximum participation from the 54 African cycling federations, so we hope to see more announcements in due course.
You can find the current confirmed riders for all the events on ProCyclingStats World Champs homepage.
A big question still remains around whether Biniam Girmay will attend. The course does not suit him at all so his only role would be to be a domestique for riders like Merhawi Kudus, Henok Mulubrhan, Natnael Tesfatsion or Nahom Zeray. However with a big money move on the cards to maybe Team UAE, will the risks of racing this unpredictable race on a very challenging course (remember the crashes and neutralisation of the Tour du Rwanda in February…) be worth it? He and his management have a decision to make, and will they, his current and (maybe) future team, and the Eritrean Cycling Federation agree…
21 August: Its ONE MONTH TO GO! Things are about to get real, as they say. Sadly we are seeing some big names announce they will not be attending the Rwanda Worlds due to the extreme course design, and some issues with high logistics costs, lets hope we do not see too many others as we count down the 30 days to the Opening Ceremony on 21 September.
Very importantly, the qualification data has now been release by the UCI, and we have a taken a deep dive into this to show the African nations and the number of riders they can send to the various events.
| Nation | Elite Men | Elite Women | U23 Men | U23 Women | Mixed Relay TTT |
| Rwanda* | 6 | 4 | 4 | Up to 5 | Team |
| Eritrea | 7 (inc Mulubrhan) | Up to 3 | 5 | Up to 5 | |
| Algeria | 1 | Up to 3 | 3 | Up to 5 | |
| South Africa | 1 | Up to 4 (inc Moolman-Pasio) | 4 | Up to 5 | |
| Mauritius | 1 | 5 | 3 | Up to 5 | Team |
| Ethiopia | Up to 3 | 3 | Up to 5 | Team | |
| Egypt | Up to 3 | 1 | Up to 5 | ||
| Lesotho | Up to 3 | 1 | Up to 5 | ||
| Morocco | Up to 3 | 1 | Up to 5 | ||
| Tunisia | Up to 3 | 1 | Up to 5 | ||
| Uganda | Up to 3 | 1 | Up to 5 | ||
| Zimbabwe | Up to 3 | 1 | Up to 5 | Team | |
| Benin | Up to 3 | Up to 5 | Team | ||
| Eswatini | Up to 3 | Up to 5 | Team | ||
| Sierra Leone | Up to 3 | Up to 5 | Team | ||
| South Sudan | Up to 3 | Up to 5 | Team | ||
| Other African Nations | Up to 3 | Up to 5 |
Some important notes on the other events taking place:
Men Junior: No African nations qualified for the increased quota so any nation can send two riders. Eritrea can send three, to include Keven Teklemariam (African Men Junior Champion)
Women Junior: No African nations qualified for the increased quota so any nation can send four riders. Eritrea can send Nardos Tsegay (African Women Junior Champion) as a fifth rider.
Individual Time Trial (ITT): All African nations can enter up to two riders. These nations can add these named individuals as third riders in the relevant categories: Uganda: Charles Kagimu (African Men Elite ITT Champion); South Africa: Lucy Young (African Women Elite ITT Champion); Eritrea: Keven Teklemariam (African Men Junior ITT Champion) / Suzana Fiseha (African Women U23 ITT Champion) / Betiel EFREM (African Women Junior ITT Champion).
*Rwanda would normally not qualify so many riders (they are currently ranked #5 in the Africa Tour, and #66 in the world), but as hosts they get the full allocations listed above)
14 August: With the UCI rankings recently updated, we took a deep dive into the data and a really interesting story came to light:
As of 12 August, 181 African male riders (just from the top 10 ranked nations) have UCI points. Just 92 riders from the USA have UCI points. There are 106 African riders (same 10 nations) on professional teams (World Tour, Pro Continental, Continental level), there are 53 from the USA. The USA’s current GDP is $27 trillion. The top 10 African cycling nations is £1.1 trillion.
With the huge disparity in access to equipment, cycling infrastructure, nutrition and simply wealth, this shows the potential of African cycling, with the top ten nations providing DOUBLE the number of professional riders as the USA, with a 27x disparity in GDP.
However, there is still a lot of work and development to be done, with the percentage of these riders at the top two levels of professional cycling switches a little, so we still need to get more African riders into the WT/PCT levels.
9 August: The UCI’s Africa Tour rankings have been updated and there is some big news! Algeria have moved into second place in the Nations rankings – one point above South Africa – for the first time in their history, we believe! Chapeau Algerian Cycling!
This position is due in main to the efforts of the Madar Pro Cycling Team (Africa’s #1 Continental Road Racing Team) across the 2025 season. The team have been racing across Africa and Europe this year, with a mix of young African talent from Algeria and South Africa. You can see the full roster and their results on ProCyclingStats and check out our new in-depth report on Madar on our News Feed.
2 August: We have to go back to the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift again: What a few days it has been. We have seen history made – Kim Le Court (Mauritius) has worn the prestigious ‘maillot jaune’ (yellow jersey) for three days at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. This is the first time any African rider has ever done so, beating Daryl Impey’s two days in yellow back in July 2013. Full story and interviews on our Africa Women’s Live News feed.
July 2025
28 July: A day we will remember for a long time. Kim Le Court (Mauritius) becomes the first African woman to wear the famous Tour de France #maillotjaune (yellow jersey) and only the third African rider ever to wear it! Kudos Kim!! Full story and interviews on our Africa Women’s Live News feed.
23 July: We caught up with Biniam Girmay in the Tour de France paddock and asked his thoughts on whether he will race the World Championships in Rwanda in September. Here is what he said:
“I am not quite sure at the moment whether I will represent my country in Kigali for the 2025 Cycling World Championships, but for sure if I am there on the line I will help my team-mates as much as possible, to protect them and to guide them to be in the best position possible. For me, it will be hard to get a result [due the design of the course].”
Due to Eritrea’s #16 nation ranking in the world, they can field eight riders in the Men’s Elite Road Race – the maximum number allowed (see 12 May post below), which will help the team hugely to get one or two riders to the end competitively. We asked Bini about which riders he thinks have a good chance:
“I think we will have a strong team for this kind of parcours. We also have experienced riders like Merhawi Kudus who has raced many times at the World Tour level, we have Henok Mulubrhan who is strong for this type of course also. We also have Nahom Zeray [became Eritrean National Road Race Champion at the end of June] so we have a very strong squad to race in Rwanda.”
We also asked Bini the big question: “How does it feel to have a World Championships in Africa?”
“It is pretty nice! For African cycling it will help the sport to grow, to go another step forward, because for the moment we only have the Tour du Rwanda, and other smaller races like this, but to have the biggest event in cycling – the World Championships – on our continent is very nice.”
You can watch the full interview on our Youtube channel.
14 July: Yesterday was a brilliant day for African cycling, with Henok Mulubrhan winning the Tour of Magnificent Qinghai, a UCI 2.Pro race in China. Henok won the race by just two seconds, with his closest GC rival relegated from 5th to 99th for sprint deviation, handing the win to Henok. He scored several hundred vital points for his team XDS Astana also.
We caught up with Henok today for an exclusive interview and asked him how he was feeling:
“It is really nice to have a second win at the Tour of Magnificent Qinghai [he won in 2024 also] . I am really happy to have the yellow jersey, it is always a really special moment to wear it.”
When asked about the conditions of the race, Henok commented:
“This is a very challenging race, with us being at over 3,000 metres most of the time. As well as the Chinese riders, there are strong riders from Ecuador, Colombia and Uruguay who all race at altitude so it was very competitive.”
“My team were super happy, as they told me before the race I was not there for second or third place, I was there to win, and we got the team many points. Also, our sponsor is from China, and we had a very good week, with stage win and several top ten finishes.”
With his natural affinity to altitude and mountain stages, and winning at 3,000m+, Henok confirmed that he is in good shape to have a shot at the World Championships in Kigali in September, and that he knows the course and conditions very well. He has raced 57 days this year, so will be in discussions with his team over the coming weeks to agree his August and September schedule.
There were rumours of the Vuelta, but Henok could not confirm his status re XDS Astana’s squad for this, so more on this at a later date.
We took a look at his ProCyclingStats record during the call, and asked him what he would like to add to the ‘Top Results’ section:
“Yeah, my biggest dream is to be a Grand Tour stage winner. Grand Tour stage races have to be the target for me next. My level is really high now, I feel strong and its time to step up. It is my second year in World Tour and fifth year as a pro so I am ready.”
We mentioned we wrote a piece for CyclingNews celebrating the recent 10-year anniversary of Daniel Teklehaimanot’s historic win with Biniam Girmay at the Tour de France [on 9 July], and Henok shared that he has almost the same memory of Biniam – Henok is five months older than Bini – of watching the 2015 Tour de France in a cinema back home in Eritrea, and it inspired him to chase his cycling dream.
Henok confirmed his next race is the Arctic Race of Norway, a four-stage race starting on 7 August.
12 July: We are now just two and a half months away from ‘Kigali 2025’ and looking at the form of Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu V an Der Poel, Remco Evenepoel, Matteo Jorgenson and others at the current Tour de France, its hard to pick a winner of the Men’s Elite race in Rwanda for sure. With the new rules dictating that all U23 male riders who have a World Tour contract have to race the Elite category, the U23 race is a lot more open.
For the women, as mentioned previously, the stand-alone U23 race is a new entry for 2025 with countries able to send up to five women, so expect a massive field for that one, with many from Africa!
And yesterday was a big day for Africa: a delegation from the UCI’s World Cycling Centre (WCC) took part in a promotional event at the Tour de France for Stage 7 (Saint-Malo to Mur-de-Bretagne). The delegation consisted of a group of young U23 male and female riders from many African nations who are part of the WCC’s ‘Africa 2025’ project.
The project aims to give these athletes access to better training and facilities and a shot at making the professional peloton. Check out our recent in-depth story on the WCC for more info. We are most gratified that several of the athletes we have helped on their journey are on this programme, including Georgette Vignonfodo and Vanette Houssou (Benin), Awet Aman (Eritrea), Nantume Miria (Uganda), Tsige Kahsay (Ethiopia) and others.
The athletes got to ride the last 30km of the course to get a feel for World Tour racing, but probably more excitingly they met stage winner Tadej Pogacar, and got to hang out with Biniam Girmay as well!
There was a wonderful moment, captured by TNT Sports Cycling, where 18yo 2025 Ethiopian Junior Women’s Road Race Champion Tsige Kahsay was given the winner’s flower bouquet by Tadej Pogacar. What many people present did not know, is that Tsighe worships Pogacar, and replicates his signature celebrations whenever she wins a race (see below):
We spoke at length with Jacques Landry, WCC Director, on the start-line of the Tour de France, on what the WCC is there to do, preparations for the World Championships and how he feels when he sees one of the WCC graduates succeed in the sport:
We also spoke with Samson Ndayishimiye, President of the Rwandan Cycling Federation (FERWACY), on how preparations for ‘Kigali 2025’ are going:
“We are doing everything we can to make sure we are ready to host this most prestigious event. On the 17th edition of the Tour of Rwanda [where the race was cut short due to weather] there were some issues which we have noted and there are measures being put in place to make sure we avoid all foreseeable issues. Bad weather, or anything, we are ready.”
When asked about the potential audience on the ground, Samsom replied: “We are counting on them [fans from across East and wider Africa] as it is the first time for this event on the continent. Not just for Rwanda, but for all of us as a continent. We are looking forward to have as many as possible to support their [national] team and their flag.”
It is also wonderful to see Rafiki Uwimana, one of our original Team Rwanda riders (and one of the stars of the Rising From Ashes movie) now employed by the WCC to be their main mechanic in the lead up to the World Championships in September. You can see some of our proprietary pictures on our Instagram.
3 July: There has been a lot of National Championship action across Africa last weekend, which will give a good indication of male and female riders in good form ahead of the Worlds in September. Our overall Road Race results table updated below, with winners from Eritrea, Algeria, Ethiopia, Morocco, Eswatini, Rwanda, Uganda, Cote d’Ivoire, Cape Verde and Cameroon! Results from Angola are still TBC:
| Date(s) | Country | 2025 Male Champion | 2025 Female Champion |
| 12-19 January | Lesotho | Kabelo Makatile | Pontso Makatile |
| 6-9 February | South Africa | Daniyal Matthews | S’annara Grove |
| 7-9 February | Namibia | Alex Miller | Anri Krugel |
| 18-26 April | Egypt | Abdul Rauf Ahmed | Ebtissam Zayed Ahmed |
| 24-26 April | Zimbabwe | Matthew Denslow | Helen Mitchell |
| 9 June | Angola | TBC | TBC |
| 21-22 June | Benin | Ricardo Sodjede | Charlotte Metoevi |
| 21-22 June | Burkina Faso | Daouda Soulama | Awa Bamago |
| 21-22 June | Mauritius | Torea Celestin | Kim Le Court |
| 21-22 June | Tunisia | Mohamed Aziz Dellai | Mariem Brini |
| 21-29 June | Eritrea | Nahom Zeray | Monalisa Araya |
| 25-28 June | Algeria | Yacine Hamza | Nesrine Houili |
| 25-29 June | Ethiopia | Tekle Alemayo | Haftu Reda |
| 27-29 June | Morocco | Anass Aït El Abdia | Mallika Benallal |
| 28 June | Eswatini | Kwanele Jele | Mandiswa Fakudze |
| 28-29 June | Cape Verde | Nelio da Cruz | No Elite Women’s race |
| 28-29 June | Rwanda | Eric Nkundabera | Djazilla Umwamikazi |
| 28-29 June | Uganda | Charles Kagimu | Mary Aleper |
| 29 June | Cote d’Ivoire | Traore Souleymane | No Elite Women’s race |
| 29 June | Cameroon | Fabrice Chofor | Presline Mariolle Kengne Feudjio |
| 29 June | Senegal | Cheikhouna Cissé | Anta Ndiaye |
| 26 July | Mali |
June 2025
28 June: Lots of ITT racing this week across Africa, and we have seen some awesome results indeed. Check out our comprehensive results list for those countries who hosted an ITT:
| Date | Country | Men Elite ITT Champ | Women Elite ITT Champ |
| 28 June | Rwanda | Samuel Niyonkuru | Xaverine Nirere |
| 28 June | Uganda | Charles Kagimu | Mary Aleper |
| 27 June | Morocco | Mohcine El Kouraji | Mallika Benallal |
| 27 June | Eritrea | Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier | TBC |
| 26 June | Algeria | Azzedine Lagab | Nesrine Houili |
| 25 June | Ethiopia | Negasi Haylu Abreha | Fkadu Brhan Abrha |
| 22 June | Benin | Ricardo Sodjede | Hermionne Ahouissou |
| 21 June | Tunisia | Mohamed Azziz Dellai | Asil Moussa |
| 21 June | Mauritius | Alex Mayer | Kim Le Court |
| 18 & 24 April | Egypt | Mohab Youssef Aziz | Ebtissam Zayed Ahmed |
| 24 April | Zimbabwe | Rodrick Shumba | Helen Mitchell |
| 7 February | Namibia | Alex Miller | Anri Krugel |
| 7 February | South Africa | Alan Hatherly | Lucy Young |
| 19 January | Lesotho | Kabelo Makatile | Tsepiso Lerata |
23 June: Some interesting transfer news today: 26yo Daniyal Matthews, the current South African road cycling champion, has been announced as joining the 7Eleven Cliqq Roadbike Philippines Continental Team, joining two Eritreans on the roster: 25yo Natan Medhanie and 33yo Aklilu Ghebrehiwet. Congratulations Daniyal on your first professional contract!
With South Africa currently ranked #32 in the world, they can enter 1-8 riders in the Elite Men’s category at the Worlds in September. Daniyal is currently the 8th highest ranked South African rider in the Africa Tour, this move to pro level should cement him a spot at the World Champs. Added to this is the fact he raced the 2025 Tour du Rwanda for South Africa, so he knows the roads and the altitude….
21 June: It is National Champs season! Starting today, you will start seeing references to the National Championships taking place all over the planet, with many this weekend. In fact, five African nations have had their National Champs already in 2025 (Lesotho, South Africa, Namibia, Egypt and Zimbabwe) and there are fourteen more we know have been scheduled for 2025 so far (road races & ITT).
With 54 African federations within CAC, we are hoping to see many more scheduled in 2025. Those which took place in 2024 but are TBC in 2025 include Angola, Botswana, Kenya, Seychelles and Somalia.
19 June: BREAKING TRANSFER NEWS: The very talented 27-year old Alexandre Mayer of Mauritius has signed a pro deal with the Burgos Burpellet BH Pro Continental Team to the end of 2026. With Mauritius currently ranked #42 and 300 UCI points ahead of the 51st ranked nation, Mauritius can send up to eight men for the Elite Road Race, so Alex will for sure be their lead rider.
Alex is currently the #4 ranked rider in the UCI Africa Tour men’s rankings – the only non-Eritrean in the top five ranked riders. Mauritius is now the #5 ranked nation in Africa also, a great rise in recent years.
We spoke with Alex exclusively earlier, and he shared his excitement in signing this deal through to the end of 2026:
“It means a lot to me and to Mauritius of course! I have been chasing this for a long time and I am so proud to represent Mauritius at this level. I have been watching Kim (Le Court) on TV and she is truly inspirational for every athlete here in Mauritius. I cannot wait to discover this world and my new teammates , I’m sure it will be great fun.”
We also spoke with Trevor Court (Owner, Cima Coppi Performance Coaching) who was the Technical Director of the Mauritius Cycling Federation in 2022-2024, after several years in with World Tour with Team Dimension Data, and knows Alex well:
“It is super exciting to see Alex get this opportunity, with such a top level team. I have been working with Alex since 2019 as his private coach and recently as the Technical Director for Team Mauritius for two and a half years. He is a super hardworking rider and nobody else deserves it more than him. He always gives 100% so its wonderful to see another Mauritian is going to be on the front line not only in the women’s cycling but now in the men’s cycling!”
4 June: Today, the UCI and MyWhoosh announced new information about the 5th 2025 UCI Cycling Esports World Championships: 40 finalists (20 men and 20 women) will be decided during semi-finals which will feature up to 150 male and female athletes from around the world competing virtually for the right to participate in the Grand Final in Abu Dhabi on 15 November.
The qualification process will begin shortly and will continue until October. 70% of the places available for the semi-finals will be allocated through qualifiers organised by the National Federations, which will designate their respective representatives. The remaining 30% will be allocated through public qualifying events organised by MyWhoosh. Check out the full press release for further details.
3 June: Today is World Bicycle Day across the globe and we will be celebrating the progress we have seen by the young men and women of Africa in the cycling world over the last 12 months! With around 150 of these riders currently under contract with professional teams, it is truly a good time for Africa. Of course there is a lot more to be done, and we need to see more riders progress into the Pro Continental and World Tour levels in 2026.
On the men’s side, we have to start with Eritrea of course. As a nation they lead the way in Africa (see 27 May post below) and Biniam Girmay continues to inspire a continent, having amassed 3,460 points, putting him at #8 in the world overall. The highest sustained position for an African male cyclist in history. The challenge is that #2 in Africa (Henok Mulubrhan) has 747 points, with 3rd (Natnael Tesfatsion) with 346, and the tenth rider at just 233 points. For riders to attract teams, the reality in the ‘league’ structure of pro cycling is that they need to show they can bring points to the team as well as performance. Lets hope we see some strong results in the many national championships coming up at the end of June.
On the women’s side, Kim Le Court leads the way, sitting in #14 worldwide, and as Africa’s leading woman. Her recent win at Liege-Bastogne-Liege still giving us all goosebumps! She hasn’t raced since though, and we are happy to see her named in the AG Insurance – Soudal Team’s squad for the Tour of Britain, starting 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.
The evergreen Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Africa #2 women) just finished the 2-stage Women’s Tour of Norway, 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. We are seeing some great performances at the lower levels by the young African women on the Africa 2025 project, run by the UCI’s World Cycling Centre. We have supported several of the women on this pogramme, 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. Go ladies! Happy World Bicycle Day!
May 2025
30 May: In 4 days time (4 June), the UCI 2.2 rated Tour of Cameroon will begin. With 58 riders across the ten teams registered, three from the host nation, plus national teams from Benin, Ivory Coast and Algeria, the African riders will be hoping to amass points to move up the UCI rankings. Algeria are currently ranked third nation in Africa, but only 226 points behind South Africa so will be hoping to shorten this gap. This will potentially be augmented by the Algerian-registered Continental team (Madar Pro Cycling) who are also racing this week at the Tour of Estonia, and the Tour of Lithuania in early July.
27 May: The UCI Nations rankings were updated today and Eritrea are sitting in 17th spot globally, with 5,200 points so far in 2025. With New Zealand around 850 points behind, it looks likely that Eritrea will remain as top African country, and in the top 20 by the Worlds deadline on 19 August. South Africa are currently 31st, with Algeria in 35th, Morocco in 34th and Mauritius in 35th. Rwanda sit in a precarious 49th spot, with four teams within 100 points, but luckily as hosts they qualify automatically (see below).
13 May: The UCI’s #Africa2025 project has published a cool video to showcase their work with the young male & female riders in the project, as they prepare for the World Championships. Check it out here:
12 May: So, onto the tricky matter of qualification for the UCI Cycling World Championships.
Qualification for African riders
All qualification decisions will be based on rankings and points on 19 August 2025*.
*Folk might have been surprised that the African Continental Championships have been hastily arranged by CAC (the Confederation of African Cycling) for 9-12 August, however you can now see the logic behind this…
Men Elite: There are six ways to qualify for this race: (i) Nations ranked 1-50 can enter 1-8 riders; (ii) Nations with a rider ranked 1-200 in the UCI Individual World Ranking on 19 August 2025 and not yet
qualified after provision 1 may enter 1 rider to start; (iii) the reigning Men Elite Road Race Olympic Champion and reigning Men Elite Road Race Continental Champions may take part; (iv) the reigning Men Elite Road Race UCI World Champion may take part: (v) up to 6 riders from the host nation may take part; (vi) The UCI can decide to award a maximum of 3 non-qualified nations the opportunity to enter 1 rider to
start.
Women Elite: There are six ways to qualify for this race: (i) Nations ranked 1-20 can enter 5-7 riders; (ii) Other nations and non-ranked nations may enter 3 riders to start; (iii) the reigning Women Elite Road Race Olympic Champion and reigning Women Elite Road Race Continental Champions may take part; (iv) the reigning Women Elite Road Race UCI World Champion may take part; (v) up to 4 riders from the host nation may take part;
Men U23: There are five ways to qualify for this race: (i) The first 5 nations in the Men Under 23 ranking by nations of the UCI Africa Tour will qualify for automatic entries: the nation ranked 1st may enter 5 riders to start; the nation ranked 2nd may enter 4 riders to start; and the nations ranked 3rd to 5th may enter 3 riders to start; (ii) African nations not qualified through provision 1 and with at least one Men Under 23 rider ranked among the first 60 in the Men Elite individual ranking of the UCI Africa Tour may enter 1
rider to start; (iii) the reigning Men Under 23 Road Race African Continental Champion may take part; (iv) up to 4 riders from the host nation may take part; and (v) The UCI can decide to award a maximum of 3 non-qualified nations the opportunity to enter 1 rider to start.
NOTE: U23 riders who have participated in the Men Elite individual road race at a previous World Championships may not participate in the individual road race for U23 riders. U23 riders who are registered with a UCI WorldTeam or a UCI ProTeam are not authorised to participate in the individual road race for U23 riders.
NEW: Women U23: There are three ways to qualify for this race: (i) Each nation may enter 5 riders to start; (ii) The reigning Women Under 23 Road Race African Continental Champion may take part; (iii) The reigning Women Under 23 Road Race UCI World Champion may take part.
Men Junior: There are four ways to qualify for this race: (i) Qualification through the UCI Nations’ Cup Men Junior rankings (3-5 riders based on ranking); (ii) Other nations and non-ranked nations may enter 2 riders to start; (iii) the reigning Men Junior Road Race African Continental Champion may take part; and (iv) The reigning Men Junior Road Race UCI World Champion may take part.
Women Junior: There are four ways to qualify for this race: (i) Qualification through the UCI Nations’ Cup Women Junior rankings (The nations ranked 1 to 5 may enter 5 riders to start.); (ii) Other nations and non-ranked nations may enter 4 riders to start; (iii) the reigning Women Junior Road Race African Continental Champion may take part; and (iv) The reigning Women Junior Road Race UCI World Champion may take part.
Individual Time Trial (ITT): Each nation may enter 2 riders to start in all categories.
Team Time Trial – Mixed Relay: The nations interested in taking part in this event shall have to apply for an invitation before 1 June 2025.
For the full qualification details, you can review on the UCI website here.
10 May: The ‘Kigali 2025’ Road World Cycling Championships will mark the first time the event will be hosted on the African continent. The event will feature time trials and road races for various categories, including a new stand-alone Under-23 (U23) women’s road race.
These are all the events which will take place in September:
- Individual Time Trial: Elite Men, Elite Women, Under-23 Men, Under-23 Women, Junior Men, Junior Women
- Team Time Trial Mixed Relay: Elite Men, Elite Women
- Road Races: Elite Men, Elite Women, U23 Men, U23 Women, Junior Men, Junior Women
You can see the full schedule for the week of competition on the UCI website here.
8 May: An in-depth article with Bénin Cycling’s President Romuald Hazoumè was published on BBC Sport today in which he talks about the rise of Bénin/West African cycling, with the World Championships firmly in their sights for their Junior and Women riders. The full article is here.
5 May: A comprehensive update on the UCI Cycling World Championships was published today, with full information on the courses for each discipline, timelines for entries, accreditation and all other logistical aspects of the event. You can download this document from the UCI website here.
April 2025
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…
Earlier: Media noise earlier in the year about possible re-scheduling of the World Championships away from Rwanda has largely now died out. Team Africa Rising was working hard at the time to ensure the African point of view was at the forefront of many journalists’ minds when writing about this sensitive topic:
“If we lose this race, it will destroy cycling in Africa.” This is what Team Africa Rising CEO Kimberly Coats said to Germany’s DW magazine in a major article published on 3 April 2025. You can read the full article HERE.
“There Is No Plan B.” This is what UCI President David Lappartient said to our marketing and communications consultant Jeremy Ford when they met 1-2-1 for an in-depth interview for Cyclingnews during the 2025 Tour du Rwanda. You can read the full article HERE.
Please do follow our social media channels (we are on all main platforms) for more breaking news and stories around African pro and grass-roots cycling as always #AfricaRising #AfricaCycling
