Hello everyone, we are at the Tour de France again this year, to bring you breaking news and live content* on the progress of the three African riders, and exclusive content with many other figures in pro cycling around African cycling topics. We will be very active across our social channels on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn so please do give these accounts a follow for the very latest content…
28 June: We attend the Intermarché – Wanty team to ask questions of the riders, and team Performance Manager Aike Visbeek, on their thoughts ahead of the 2024 Tour de France:
Biniam: How are you feeling for your second Tour de France, and how is your presence here helping cycling back in Eritrea?
“For me this my second year, so I learned quite a lot from last year, and I have also prepared myself really well and I’m really looking forward to a good result this time. Cycling in Eritrea has been really successful over the last 3 years but there is still a lot to do for local riders, as we still have a lot of difference between the pro riders and the local riders – they still need to improve a lot. The Tour de France is also a really big motivation for local riders because this is one of the most known races in Asmara so I think our [the Eritrean riders in the World Tour] achievements can help them a lot. I’m still hoping to shine more and to give them more motivation.”
Aike Visbeek: Intermarché – Wanty is now arguably the leading team at the top level for giving African riders the chance to race against the best in the world. With African riders now on both your World Tour and Development teams, how do you see the future for talent from the continent, and what barriers still exist for this young talent?
“I think it is still a challenging road ahead, there is talent but giving opportunities to African riders comes with investments in energy, money and time. I think it still lacks real support a little bit from the international community and there should be more riders in junior categories given the chance to gain racing experience- that is not happening enough and that means that we are taking on riders (we now have two Eritrean riders) with a gap in experience, and the gap is really big.
They have the physical talent but it involves so much more, you need experience, positioning, bike handling skills and that is why it is crucial for African cycling that more riders on a junior level get the opportunity to get these skills, otherwise it will only lag behind more. There is also so much science, equipment, nutrition that they don’t have access to at the moment [on the continent] while the juniors in Belgium go off to camp and they have everything almost on a professional level, so the gap is growing and it needs more attention.
I know there is a lot of focus on the World Championships coming up in Africa [in 2024], but they want to make a mountain race for the climbers! I’m sorry but if you want to inspire young African cyclists you cannot make a course for climbers. If you make the course full of climbing there won’t be a lot of African riders making it to the finish if the big stars of cycling race there. It really needs some thinking on an international level how you can help these talents, because it’s not only about us giving the opportunity, we see a big gap for African cycling is what happens in the juniors and Biniam is focused on it and has also said it to us. We need more riders under 16 or 17 years old because they need to have the skill set.
So again yes we help, we are focused, we are looking for the African talents but if something is not done fast I think the gap will only grow for African talent to make it to the pro level. It will be very difficult. The good thing is that Biniam and Louis have opened the door, and attention is more focused on African cycling, we know there are talented riders but it needs to go one level down, it needs to go to the clubs, to the junior clubs and UCI to bring out these talents. If that happens, the sky is the limit.”
Louis: Listening to Aike’s comments, do you agree and what else would you add from your experience as a junior coming to Europe?
I would agree, I think it is still the case that we face a slightly bigger barrier, it’s still harder for African riders and it takes a bigger investment to get your first footstep in Europe and that’s unfortunate because I don’t think many Africans have the means or capabilities to do this themselves, so what our team does to give the guys the opportunity it’s something for which we should be very grateful as Africans.
You need to be here to get the experience and right now it’s also more and more younger guys so it needs to start being at a more junior level where the young African riders start to get the exposure. I came over as a junior at 17 years old, but I was only prepared once I started to come to U23, so we should find how we can get the guys over here even younger, get them some kind of experience from a younger age because if they only do it after school then I think it’s almost too late for them to make a big impact.“
27 June: Team presentation in the beautiful Piazza Michelangelo, on a hill overlooking the stunning city-scape of Florence (Firenze in Italian). We were there for the first glimpse of our focus riders: Louis Meintjes (South Africa), Biniam Girmay (Eritrea) – both on the Intermarché – Wanty team – and Ryan Gibbons (South Africa) on the Lidl-Trek team.
Biniam was looking relaxed as he rolled down the ramp for his second Tour de France race…
Ryan Gibbons rolled down the ramp, sporting his brand new South African National Road & ITT Champ 2024 jersey, and was looking calm and composed ahead of only his second start at the Tour de France. His last start was 2020 so its great to see him back at the race. He has raced 4 editions of the Giro, and 2 editions of the Vuelta so is a strong stage racer, we hope to see him feature well here at the TdF.
27 June: Africa Rising representative arrives in Florence (Italy) for the Grand Depart of the 2024 TdF!
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