Welcome to our live #FromThePaddock blog here at the 2025 Tour du Rwanda, in central Africa!
We will be sharing content in real time across our social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X/Twitter, BlueSky, LinkedIn) so please do give these a follow, as well as more in-depth articles and interviews with key riders, team management, UCI officials and many more present at this incredible race.
3 March: So we woke up to the news that, according to France’s L‘Équipe, the President of the UCI jury at the race has now imposed a 200CHF fine to winner Fabian Doubey for ‘inappropriate and behaviour, or something which could damage the image of the sport’. L‘Équipe went on to share that he is also “being summoned before the UCI’s disciplinary commission and could face much heavier sanctions.”
If you look from around 2:26:36 on the RTV Live Stream on Youtube, you can see Doubey on is team radio and indicating to his team to line up and block the road, he also tells riders not to overtake them. Excuse the poor quality image below of this but it gives you a idea of what happened.
You can also see footage of Dawit Yemane (BIKE AID) – up the road with a small group of four ahead – arguing intensely with the race officials. His opinion seemed pretty clear the race should go on. How can one rider’s opinion hold more weight than another’s, especially when one stands to win significant prize money and UCI points?
Will the ‘heavier’ UCI sanctions effect the actual outcome of this race? A time penalty of anything more than 10s will hand the win to Henok Mulubrhan. We wait to hear….
Even though Eritrea are seething at what took place, when the dust settles, they should still celebrate their performance as a team in this race, with an impressive 2nd place, and the only African team in the top five, at only 3’11 down on BIKE AID, and well over six minutes on Team TotalEnergies (see below)
With noises coming from the race organisers, and the Rwanda Minister of Sport, to move this race up to the next level – after seven years as a UCI 2.1 race – this presents a real dilemma for Rwanda: If they seek the prestige of a ‘World Tour’ ranked race (1.Pro or 2.Pro classification), UCI rules are clear, the only teams allowed to race would be UCI World and Pro Teams, Continental Teams (those registered in the host nation) and one National Team (the host nation).
This means the Eritrean, Ethiopian and South African teams here this week, and any others (Algeria, Morocco, Mauritius make up the Africa Tour top five nations alongside Eritrea and SA) would no longer be able to race the Tour du Rwanda.
And looking at the results above, with the three Rwandan-registered Continental Teams (Java – Inovotec, Team Amani and May Stars) all in the bottom half of the team results, an increase of World Tour and Pro Conti teams will surely push them even further down the results?
The Tour du Rwanda is Africa’s only 2.1 ranked race right now, is it time for the organisers to decide to stick to 2.1 for another year, and try and share their expertise with the six other Africa Tour stage races (Tours of Algeria, Benin, Cameroon, Mauritius, Morocco, Sahel) all sitting at the 2.2 level, and create a block of high quality, competitive 2.1 rated races across the continent?
This would allow young riders at the national level to race competitively at a continental level, with the 2.1 category, and points, tempt European pro teams, and give young African riders the chance to race elbow to elbow with them. This will also give the riders of the seven African-registered Continental Teams the chance to get vital race experience also.
Success can sometimes breed challenges about future growth so there is a lot to think about. With the new African Cycling Confederation President in place earlier this month, maybe that will be the catalyst for the growth and development of the six other African Tours.
One glimmer of already positive change was the announcement this week that the one day Grand Prix de Cotonou in Benin this May will now be a UCI 1.2 classified race. Congratulations to the Benin Cycling Federation!
And away from the bike racing, to conclude our series of pieces of related content, we met Jörn, a guest of the BIKE AID team – who have been supporting African cyclists for many years – who introduced us to the Rwandan Umunyonzi brand: a collection of cycling casual wear, cycling caps and a cool handlebar bag with hand sewn images – by the local designer Shema Charlotte.
The range can be seen online on the Touch of Rwanda Instagram account, for sale in the awesome Tugende bike hotel/cafe/workshop in central Kigali, and online on the BIKE AID Team’s web-shop HERE
Give them a follow, buy some gear (the caps and the kids’ t-shirt are super cool) and help the tailors of Touch of Rwanda earn some money from the purchase!
A shout-out to Jacques Landry, Jean-Pierre ‘JP’ van Zyl and Clint Hendricks for being top folk as always, and letting our person on the ground (Jeremy on our team) travel in team car to report on their team and the race. Jeremy also chipped in and got his hands dirty on ‘in race’ DS activities, feeding, ‘on the go’ repairs and data sharing! We are also very happy to share that the UCI WCC Team hired a top soigneur / physiotherapist (Cathy Ketia) locally in Rwanda, as well as Theoneste, as team mechanic, and Rocky (an ex Team Rwanda cyclist – on right in picture below) who was also helping with team logistics. Top job UCI team for using local resources, giving them much appreciated income!
Due to the success of his recent exclusive interview with David Lappartient for CyclingNews, our man on the ground Jeremy was asked to write another piece for them about the Worlds course, and this was published after the race result, edited by Matilda Price. You can see this piece HERE.
OK folks, That’s it from us, we hope you enjoyed the #FromThePaddock blog here at Tour du Rwanda, and our social media output across our channels? We are a bit proud that our TikTok video of the peloton riding through the beautiful Nyungwe National Park Forest is about to hit 300,000 views – probably the most successful social media post at the race #winning #itswhatwedo
We will of continue to work on our many rider development and logistics projects across Africa and promote all things African Cycling on our social media channels, so follow them, bookmark our exclusive African rider (male and female) Race Results service on our website – powered by ProCyclingStats to keep up with the results of African professional riders, and our #FromThePaddock blog will return for Tour du Benin in April! Thanks for having us Rwanda, Murabeho!
2 March: Erm. Where to start?! Am sure you all know by now that the 2025 Tour du Rwanda was cancelled with one lap to go of an already shortened race. We will try and give you a sense of what happened, from the team car in the race convoy within which we were embedded…
It began raining around 10:30 in the morning and the race start was wet. We started the race at 12:00 but just after the first corner we head “Crash Crash Crash!” on the race radio and we came across 20-30 riders on the ground. The race was neutralised.
The TotalEnergies team, including all riders, the yellow jersey and staff surrounded the commissaires and seemed to be calling for the stage to be cancelled. There as a lot of French being spoken and shouted. No real surprise there with their rider only six seconds up on pre-race favourite Henok Mulubrhan. We found Henok at the front and he showed us how slippery the road was. As he explained, they had dropped their tyre pressures already in anticipation of the wet cobbles, but there was literally no grip.
We head back to the team car, and race radio tells us that due to the conditions, the first lap of the two laps of the short course (followed by one lap of the long course – including Mont Kigali and Mur de Kigali) will now be neutralised. This news really dents Henok’s chances of making up the six second deficit he has on the yellow jersey, but the Eritreans look focused and head coach Samson Solomon has them dialled in. The race rolls on…
Probably no more than 15 minutes later, race radio pops up again and shares the news that the rain has caused mud slides on the long course and the HUGE decision is taken to abandon the whole long course route. The Intermediate Sprint and KOM are both cancelled. Race radio tells us that now when we cross the sprint line, the race will continue around four laps of the short course. This realistically kills any chance Henok has to win, but we were sure the Eritreans would try something. And we were right, Nahom Zeray – the winner of the previous stage – set a thunderous pace and the peloton exploded, dropped riders in such volume as we couldn’t write down the numbers. Then…
We drive up the hill to the start/finish line to begin the final lap, and there are cars and riders everywhere. From what we can ascertain from a journalist we know and saw in the VIP area by the finish line, Team TotalEnergies with their yellow jersey rider then took to the front, and controversially the team stopped the race. It is still unclear how or why, and what role the organisers took in this but ultimately the race was cancelled and the Stage Seven results dictated the race.
The Eritrean team, fans and staff were furious, and an ever-growing crowd of them at the finish line began chanting ‘Henok Henok’ when the yellow jersey presentation took place. You can see a truly visibly gutted Henok in this great shot captured by the Hungarian professional sports photographer Pál Göllner.
Henok ultimately won Best African, and his second place earnt him and his XDS Astana Team 85 points.
He said after the race:
“Today’s stage was supposed to be decisive, and I was 100% ready to fight. I knew these climbs well, so I could count on a good result. Throughout the week, I showed consistent performances, won a stage, was on the podium three times, and climbed higher in the General Classification each day. But today’s stage was canceled due to the weather. I don’t think the conditions were bad enough to cancel the stage, but the decision was made. It’s a pity that I didn’t get the chance to fight for victory, but in any case, I am happy with how my week went. The race turned out well for the Eritrean National Team, and, moreover, I managed to earn important points for XDS Astana Team. Now I will focus on my next races together with my team”.
A big shout out also to his countryman Awet Aman (World Cycling Centre Team) for his very impressive ninth place in the GC – we are still expecting a pro team to snap him up, and to 23yo – and 2024 Rwandan National Road Champion – Vainqueur Masengesho for his equally impressive 7th place in the GC.
Let us share some more positive news: All week we have been running a #BikeHack competition with our long-term friends at ParkTool, with the idea that we ask a bunch of the team mechanics here what special hacks, tricks or processes they have, and the mighty Calvin Jones (Park Tools’ Director of Education) then sat down today, reviewed them all, and chose a winner. Check out our #FromThePaddock posts on our Twitter and Instagram to see some of these hacks, many are worth learning! Now lets hear from Calvin about who won the competition, and why:
Congratulations ‘GG’ of Team Ethiopia – A truly incredible thing you do! Your prize of the epic PRS-22.2 Pro Team Issue Repair Stand will be with you soon!
Because we still have other content to share, we will publish one more blog tomorrow. Stay tuned!
1 March: WOW! The Eritreans have made a big statement today, with just one stage remaining. We won’t go into too much detail on the overall stage as many others cover this much better than us (ProCyclingStats’ #LiveStats and the Tour du Rwanda X/Twitter account are the best!) undulating 131.5km from Nyanza to Kigali. Moise Mugisha (Rwanda) attacked off the front of the breakaway group for a solo effort around 5km to go, and the chasing pack started to shed riders due to the intense pace.
Moise’s attack looked promising but around 2km to go Eritrea’s Nahom Zeray attacked and chased down Moise and took the lead in the last kilometre, and won the stage, 10s ahead of Milan Donie. This was Nahom’s first professional career win, and moved Eritrea into second on the team rankings, just 3m 11s back on Team BIKE AID. Tomorrow is going to be some big fights for the final jerseys…
The gathering Eritrean fans here were cheering all their riders in, with first, third and ninth on the stage today for Eritrea. We predict even more fans arriving tomorrow, hoping to see their hero win his second Tour du Rwanda. We will see…
As always, we are here looking to tell stories from around the race also. And we have a couple to share:
Firstly, a shout out to “imBARaga” energy bars, made 100% here in Rwanda by Moses Mussa, an ex rider and avid nutrionist now. ‘Imbaraga’ means Power in Kinyarwandan. He really wants to bring nutritional knowledge to Rwandan cycling, especially around tailoring diet and food to different categories of rider (climber, sprinter, GC rider etc), and body type / metabolism rates / intolerances which are very much unique to each person.
Apart from the all natural ingredients list (see above), the truly unique and awesome thing about these bars is that they come wrapped in dried banana plant stem so you can just throw into the hedge as 100% natural and biodegradable. The Peanut Chocolate AND Espresso Macadamia flavours are both fantastic. Apparently… look its hot, 23:15 in the evening and some energy was needed!
Check out Imbaraga on their instagram page HERE for more info, and to order some of these lovely bars!
…and to finish, something SUPER special! We were talking to some of the original Team Rwanda riders and realised that four of the original five core riders were working at the race – only Adrien Niyonshuti (now the National Team Head Coach of Benin Cycling) was not there, but we grabbed a picture anyway!
They are all Rwandan heroes in cycling, riding at high level and around the world. A special shout-out to Gasore though, as the rider who did one of the most self-less things we have ever witnessed: When Adrien broke his chain in the Africa Champs… click HERE to read our story about what happened next…
28 February: Super hot today here in Rwanda, and the stage got underway after a 15 mins delay. The start today was in Rusizi, just 2km from the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Am glad to say the stage got off without a hitch, and we shared an interview with Freddy Kamuzinzi (Race Director) earlier today where he confirms the race is going as planned and all is well. The crowds were also out in force to cheer on all the riders!
Today’s stage was rather ‘lumpy’ with three 2,468m and 2,510m and 2,579m summits in Nyungwe to traverse, so any rider without sufficient altitude training is going to suffer, and many did as we saw riders dropped from quite early on. Once the third summit was crossed, it was essentially a 50km race to the finish, and we saw some breakaway action from Eric Muhoza (Team Amani) for a while before the yellow jersey group caught him, and he was subsequently dropped, as they raced to the finish line.
We called out Awet Aman (World Cycling Centre Team) yesterday, and we have to do it again today, with him feeling good (we know this as we hitched a ride in the WCC Team Car today, and on his last trip back to the car to feed, he told Team DS Clint Hendricks he was fresh) at 10km to go, he broke off the front of the yellow jersey group with yesterday’s stage winner Fabien Doubey – the yellow jersey wearer at the end of stage three.
They held a 30-40s lead on the chase group for several kilometres, despite the current yellow jersey increasing the speed of the group. They tried to chase down solo breakaway rider Duarte Marivoet Scholiers but he was too strong and maintained a 25s gap to the finish line, with Awet taking second on the stage. We spoke with him on the finish line and he was very happy with his performance.
His Sport Director Clint Hendrinks was happy but pragmatic, as the effort didn’t in fact yield any time benefits, as the yellow jersey group caught the Awet on the line. This 21yo Eritrean rider is in demand, and we know of several teams vying for his attention. We hope he can make the jump to a Pro Continental or World Tour team for 2026! Fun fact: Awet was one of five Eritreans in the Top 20 today, 25% of the group!
Joris Delbove on Team TotalEnergies retained the yellow jersey (see our pre-race interview with him on Twitter HERE – French only) and you can see the full results on ProCyclingStats HERE.
Today the stage traversed the incredible Nyungwe Forest National Park from west to east. Truly incredible scenery all day, and we truly felt blessed to be able to witness and be part of a bike race in such stunning scenery. When we asked Joris how he finds Rwanda, he said he knows its beautiful from the two days acclimatisation they did before the race, but he hasn’t been able to look around during the race!!
We were very lucky to be at the front of the race convoy at one point at a particularly beautiful part of the forest, and took this footage:
And last – but by no means least – an update on our #BikeHack competition, in partnership with Park Tool. We have seen real enthusiasm for this one right across the peloton, and with the promise of a sweet Park Tool prize, the competition is heating up!
Contenders so far include (and click on their names to see their interviews): Rafiki ‘Kiki’ Uwimana (Neutral Service) / Jamie Bissell (Java Inovotec Pro Team) / Karl (BIKE AID) / Gebre ‘GG’ Giorgis (Ethiopian National Team). We even got a shout out on the brilliant ProCyclingStats’ LiveStats for the Tour du Rwanda, at the beginning of Stage Five.
More mechanic interviews, and much more, tomorrow….
27 February: We are trying to get better at posting earlier so here goes Stage Four: Today was a 95.1km route between Rubavu and Karongi, with around 1850m of climbing. Probably the windiest stage ever (see stage map below), and the riders descending skills were once again put to the test with the relentless high speed turns.
The teams’ Sport Directors will also have been concentrating hard all day, with a good 30-40 cars, pick-ups and motos buzzing about the race convoy.
It was a pretty uneventful stage, a few mechanicals here and there, a breakaway that didn’t really stand much of a chance, and when the yellow jersey launched a counter-attack with 19 riders around 20km out, it was clear the top riders in the peloton would finish together.
We did see a good number of riders dropped as the race pace with the yellow jersey increased, and the breakaway was caught around 15km to go. The group raced into Karongi and Team TotalEnergies put together a strong sprint base for rider Joris Delbove who won solo by 3s, to Brady Gilmore (Israel Premier-Tech) and Henok Mulubrhan (Eritrea) in third place, with Joris’ colleagues in 4th and 5th.
Henok remains best African in the race, just +12s down in the overall GC, with Vainqueur Masengesho (Rwanda) putting in a strong race so far as next best African at +29s. Great to see young Awet Aman put in two good stages and move up to 4th best African at just +38s back.
If you’d like to see a more detailed update on the race, definitely go check out our partner ProCyclingStats’ #LiveStats page from the race, all the major moments and an insane amount of data and statistics about the riders and the race. The Live Stats page is HERE.
So, thats the racing out of the way, lets talk about some other exciting things around the race! Two great items again, one from us and one from an ex-World Tour rider we met in Musanze.
From us, something super exciting: our very long-term friends at Park Tool have been in touch and we discussed a fun competition to run during the race. We have worked with the great Calvin Jones (Director of Education) and Eric Hawkins (President) for many years and we have supplied so many mechanics across Africa with their awesome products.
As part of our #FromThePaddock series on our social media, we are going to speak to as many of the mechanics at Tour du Rwanda as we can, and interview them to ask what their best ‘hack’ is at a race like this. With no bike shops on the way, and with only what they could bring on the plane, these mechanics need to be resourceful and adaptable to keep the wheels turning. As Calvin wisely says, “The mechanics are the grease and the glue!”
We launched the competition on our social channels today (see Twitter and Instagram) and will be sharing clips of each mechanic with whom we speak over the coming days. Calvin will then review all entries and a winner will be declared on Sunday at the end of the race. The lucky winner will receive a special prize from Park Tool, so we are expecting some brilliant entries…
Item two today, is also pretty special and awe-inspiring: A love story of sorts…
In 2019, World Tour rider Rein Taaramäe (Estonia) first came to Rwanda for the Tour du Rwanda that year. He was racing for Team Total Direct Energie. In his words, he talks about that first experience:
“Before the race I was like every other white man who knew nothing about the country and I was like ‘WTF – Why do I have to go race in the country where is probably bad organisation, bad roads, bad food, bad hotels, not safe etc. But to my surprise, everything was the total opposite of my thinking.”
Rein goes on to say that he discovered so many good things about Rwanda during that race (he actually went on to finish 2nd in the GC!) and fell in love with the weather, the altitude, the roads, the culture, and decided that all his future training camps would always be in Rwanda moving forward. He goes on to talk about what happened next…
“After this experience and talking to the people I met, I started to better understand the state of African cycling and its reminded me my own past. I started cycling in Estonia in 1998 and the country was poor, we did not have many options or money. To have good bikes and equipment was very hard, I remember the hours after the trainings when I had to stay with my coach on the team base to repair my terrible Soviet era bike!
“For training, I mostly used mostly kits borrowed from Estonian professionals. Around that time Jaan Kirsipuu kit from the AG2R Prévoyance team was most popular, and my whole country used it! This inspired me to replicate this and I decided to bring as much kit as I could the next time I came to Rwanda.”
Rein works closely with the Rafiki Bike project, run by one of Rwanda’s most loved former pro cyclists, Rafiki Uwimana – you will remember Rafiki from his starring role in the Rising From Ashes movie – now available on YouTube – and Rein brought as much clothing as he could source from his former teams, with Biniam Girmay and Louis Meintjes’ Intermarché – Wanty team really stepping up!
Rein negotiated with the team to also supply much more than jerseys and bibs, they began sharing used, but still in great condition, components such as chains, tyres, cassettes and many other items. It has truly been a brilliant collaboration to date, and much more to come. Rein seems truly happy when in Rwanda with his many friends here!
“Mostly I think I did what I did here because in late 90s I was in a relatively similar position to them and I truly know how hard is when you want to ride your bike but you can’t because your chain is broken or clothes are totally worn out, but you can’t afford to buy anything new.”
Rein – we salute you. A true hero in the cycling world: Walking the walk, not talking the talk. Chapeau.
26 February: So today’s stage was an interesting one (profile below), with a climb up to the 2,475m summit of the Kora mountain and then 40km downhill essentially, with two laps around Rubavu, with the 6.4% climb up the 1,830m Rambo summited twice.
There were a few attacks and small breakaways for a while but the peloton regrouped about half way through the stage. The first Rambo climb split the peloton and around 15-20 riders were dropped. There were two or three gruppettos formed which ultimately rode to the finish together. Up front, the yellow jersey attacked up the second ascent of Rambo and five riders went with him. The pace was relentless and the peloton started shedding riders. Several riders bridged, including two Eritreans – the World Cycling Centre’s Awet Aman and Nahom Zeray of the national team – and the yellow jersey group grew to 19 with a 40 second lead.
Into the last 5km, the 19 riders were all together and we saw Fabien Doubey of the Israel Premier – Tech team show his sprinting class to win his second stage, from another two Eritreans: Yoel Habteab (BIKE AID) and Henok Mulubrhan (Eritrea). In terms of the GC, pnly 25 seconds seperates the Top Ten, so all to play for still. Henok is the ‘Best African’ at +10s, with Vainqueur Masengesho (Rwanda) next at +27s; Dawit Yemane (BIKE AID) at +32s; and Nahom Araya (Eritrea) at 33. So much more to come over the next four stages.
From an African team point of view, its very much Eritrea (+24s) and Rwanda (+5m44s) fighting it out with the five leading European teams (BIKE AID, TotalEnergies, Dev Team PicnicPost NL, and UAE Team Emirates GenZ) at the top of the team classification. The rest of the African National and Continental teams are 12mins+ back, so realistically out of contention now. We can maybe hope for a breakaway stage win maybe from that group but will need to be something special.
Away from the race, we went on our usual mission to hunt down exciting and interesting stories around the race, and we have a couple of ‘doozies’ for you:
First up, this week, David Lappartient (UCI President), Jacques Landry (Director, World Cycling Centre) and Yao Allah-Kouamé (President of African Cycling) were in Rwanda to join Nelly Mukazayire (Minister of Sports, Rwanda) and Samson Ndayishimiye (President of Rwanda Cycling) to lead the inauguration of a new UCI WCC Regional Development Satellite in Rwanda.
The new satellite in Rwanda will operate out of three sites, all of which already host training activities: Musanze, Bugesera and Rwamagana. The first two include athlete and staff accommodation as well as classrooms for theory sessions. Although emphasis will be on the road discipline across the three sites, the Bugesera facility has a pump track in addition to its 1.2km racing circuit.
To read more on this, check out our recent blog post HERE.
Our second focus is to add to our focus on bikes, simple single speed bikes. Which are everywhere here in Musanze as mentioned below. In Kigali, there are more motos than bikes, here is seems the equilibrium switched. We just wanted to share some images we managed to capture walking around before the start of today’s stage:
25 February: OK, we are a bit more organised than yesterday, a 21:30 update is an improvement!
Another exciting stage, with some serious climbs over three mountains over 2,000m summits to cross (Wa Rusiga – 2,167m / Buranga – 2,144m / Kinigi – 2,196m) and on the second climb we saw the peloton split quite seriously with around 20-30 riders getting dropped. Lots of attacks as you always get in African races, but the big teams were controlling things.
We really saw an example of top level race-craft today. Around 13:00 we saw three of the Israel – Premier Tech riders dropped and riding together. It was a real surprise to see them off the back, but they were working together and did not panic. An hour later, they were back in the peloton, joined up with their team-mates, got their lead-out working and put in a dominant performance to take a 1-2 (and 9!) in the mass sprint. Class work from the IPT team and their DS, Spaniard Rubén Plaza, should take some real credit for managing their efforts.
We also got to witness at crazy close proximity, the skills that these young riders have, with Ethiopian Amir Taha (WCC Team) and Lawrence Lorot (Team Amani) hitting 100km/h+ on the final descent into Musanze. You can see the clip below, or on our Instagram, Twitter or TikTok accounts!
Carrying on the race management theme, we dug into Henok Mulubrhan’s performance yesterday, and if you want to see a brilliant example of energy management, check out the data below. The stage was raced at an average speed of 40km/h, in 30 degrees (Celsius) with 1,780 vertical meters of climbing. Henok’s average heart rate was 138bpm! Just incredible energy management and something all young riders should monitor in their own performance and try to imitate.
He then ramped up to 214bpm for the sprint! Just incredible numbers, and he regularly hits 220bpm. We asked him today – from our team car as he passed after getting some bottles for his team – how he manages to get up to 220bpm, his answer: “I am young!” He has a good point.
There were a bunch of crashes today, due to the volume of rapid descents, with BIKE AID’s Dawit Yemane the worst off, losing a lot of skin. His team later confirmed his bike was also written off, a regular occurrence sadly in bike racing, but always a kick in the teeth for a team and its budget.
As we got out of the race bubble and off to our hotel, we recall our time in Musanze (Team Africa Rising was originally based here, operating as Team Rwanda and managing the National Team) fondly, and are reminded that it really is one of the main cycling hubs in Rwanda. The altitude makes it perfect for training camps and the Rwanda National Team has camps here regularly. The center still bears our name!
Bikes are everywhere! In Kigali there are many bikes too, but overwhelmed by the motos, here the pedal bike rules supreme. In the image below, you will see two of the most common bicycles in Rwanda, these chinese made machines last forever, and the riders can get up – and down – anything! We keep hearing riders here talk about being overtaken on recon riders by these bikes at speeds over 120km/h!
In the background you can see one of the typical local bike shops, they generally don’t stock new parts or spares, but can fix almost anything, except maybe a mis-aligned Shimano Di2 rear derailleur, although we heard today that Di2 mechanics kits have recently been imported into Rwanda! Good stuff.
We even saw one of the original Tom Ritchey ‘Project Rwanda’ cargo bikes go by but missed the chance to get a picture! We hope to see one tomorrow… You can see Tom being interviewed back in 2007 about these bikes and the original project here on YouTube.
Hope you enjoyed today’s update? We will be back tomorrow with more – from and around – the race.
24 February: Stage One has been a blast and we have been running around all evening, so apologies for the late posting of today’s blog…
Firstly, the win. Henok Mulubrhan took the win (we called it earlier on our socials…) by a quite simply miniscule margin. We spoke to the official in charge of timing at the finish line and he said he had not seen a finish as close in his 15 years of doing the job! He said there was just a tiny bit more of the white line for the 2nd placed rider. Really could have gone either way but we are secretly delighted than Henok won the stage! Full results can be found on ProCyclingStats as always.
As always, we like to share content from around the race, not just the results of each stage. Today the main highlight were the crowds! They were simply amazing, lining almost all of the 157.1km of the course, and of course the finish line was completely packed out.
We actually talked to Tour du Rwanda director Freddy Kamuzinzi after the stage and he told us that tomorrow’s stage will be even more beautiful, and more fans!
Several of the teams told us this evening that they view tomorrow’s Kigali to Musanze (the home of Rwandan Cycling) stage could be the Queen Stage, with three climbs over 2,000 altitude, with the final Kinigi summit at 2,196km. Full stage profile HERE.
We caught up with Vinzent Dorn of the BIKE AID team for a coffee at the team’s hotel and talked about the race and team. BIKE AID became a Continental Team in 2014, after five years as a Club team, and have always been very committed to supporting African riders. That first squad in 2014 had three African riders, two from Eritrea and one from Namibia, and made its debut in the Tour du Rwanda. The team has raced every edition of the race since then (except 2018 & 2019), and Eritrean rider Dawit Yemane finishing tenth in the most recent (2024) edition.
BIKE AID is a unique cycling community, founded in 2005 in Germany as a non-profit association. The community numbers over 1,200 contributors and sponsors, and in fact BIKE AID is one of the biggest and most active cycling communities in Germany. You can find out more about them on their website HERE.
We spent time with the UCI’s WCC team today who kindly invited us into their team car. It is so important they are here in this race, giving young African riders a chance to experience racing at a high level. Their Sport Director is Clint Hendricks and he is guiding these young hopefuls in all aspects of the sport. He was even giving some other DS’ ‘advice’ about their driving skills at one point today, and made the wonderful cycling observation of one of the unfortunately dropped riders “pedalling squares”!
We work closely with the World Cycling Centre team in both Paarl (South Africa) and Aigle (Switzerland) and it was most exciting to see 20 year old Amanuel Tesfay from Ethiopia take ninth overall on today’s stage, we all celebrated this achievement accordingly!
Our man on the ground at the race – Jeremy – was also moonlighting on the weekend doing some freelance reporting for CyclingNews, and scored an exclusive english language interview with none other than UCI President David Lappartient, who told him “There is no Plan B.” when asked about the chatter in the media about the Worlds possibly being moved. You can read the whole piece HERE, and it has been picked up by news and sports media worldwide, in multiple languages!
23 February: As it hits 18:00 local time and the sun sets, we reflect on a very busy day, and will share some of the highlights we think you might like:
Firstly, the results: First African today was Joshua Dike (South Africa) who came in 13th place overall (av. speed 50.966 km.h); second was Henok Mulubrhan (Eritrea) who came in 16th place overall (av. speed 50.765km/h); and third was Kieran Gordge (South Africa) who came in 23rd (av. speed 50.176km/h). Congratulations Joshua, who wears the Best African jersey tomorrow. Full results can be found on ProCyclingStats HERE, as always.
We spent most of the morning talking to the key riders in the race, and you can see interviews with Henok Mulubrham, Daniyal Matthews, Charles Kagimu, Moise Mugisha and Metkel Eyob, and these have been shared across on our social media channels.
We talked to Samsom Solomon, the Eritrean head coach, and the riders, and they look both fit and sound serious. We think they are targeting a 6th – and then most ever – overall team win. Let us see….
We talked to Henok Mulubrhan, pre-race favourite on his plans and strategy for the race:
“I am really happy to be back here. We are ready as a team. I think we are the strongest team here, so and our performance is really good. We are ready for the race.”
We talked to Paris 2024 Olympian Charles Kagimu, on his hopes for the race with his new ride at Team Amani:
“I am ready. At the moment, if I am not ready, there is nothing else I can do so I just have to be motivated for the race and see how it goes. For the week, we have quite a diverse team and I think we should be quite good. We are a new team, but most of the guys are already used to the road. We think, if luck is on our side, we should have some good results.”
We talked to Daniyal Matthews, the recently crowned South African national champion, and the first person of colour to win that honour, about his plans for the race:
“Little bit nervous, but that’s normal. Its my first time doing Tour du Rwanda. I am going to go for a stage victory, mixing it up with the big guys and hopefully I get something to take home.”
22 February: Saturday, the day before the race. Teams are now in earnest working on the race bikes, trying to fix issues, source spares and in some cases nutrition (we brought c. 80kg of Maurten, SIS and even a Zwift Hub in our luggage for various teams!) collect their accreditation, and finalise their plans and strategies for the race.
Our friends at the Ethiopia Cycling Federation contacted us a few weeks ago as they needed a supply of nutrition for the race and they knew our team were coming from the UK. We contacted the folk at Science In Sport (SIS) who kindly provided several tubs of their awesome Go Electrolyte carb powder, and 24 bottles for the race. We love it when the cycling industry kindly helps these teams! Thanks so much SIS, and also to the team at Madison UK for helping get these to us in time.
Excitement levels are high here in Kigali, as this edition will be the first time many riders get to truly try out the 2025 UCI World Championships course in race conditions. We expect to see some high-quality racing, and despite February normally being the rainy season, the forecast is hot sunshine, around 30C all week.
But first, the data…
There are seventy-four riders on the start list (Here on ProCyclingStats) – from twenty countries – across fifteen teams. Thirty-nine of the riders hail from Africa, 26 from Europe, 3 from Asia Oceania and 1 from the Americas.
In terms of the teams present, they are (Pro Continental): Israel – Premier Tech and Team Total Energies; (Continental level:) BIKE AID, Development Team Picnic PostNL, Java – Inovotec Pro Team, Lotto Development Team, Team Amani, May Stars and UAE Team Emirates Gen Z; there are five National Teams (Angola, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Rwanda, South Africa); and in addition the UCI’s World Cycling Centre Men’s Team.
Thirty-three of the riders present are new to the Tour du Rwanda, always vital to keep the race fresh and exciting. The race welcomes the first Greek participant this year, and Rwanda dominates the race with fourteen riders, followed by Eritrea (9), Ethiopia (8) France and Belgium (8 riders).
A good statistic is that over 20% of the riders on the start-list (15) are under 20 years old, this is truly a race at which young talent can cut their teeth and try and make it into the World Tour/Pro Continental level. Biniam Girmay is the highest ranked African rider (World #9) as an alumnus of this race (2020), and in fact thirty riders have now gone on to race for World Tour teams after participating in the Tour du Rwanda.
There are also three ‘new to the race’ teams present this year: Picnic-PostNL Development Team (Netherlands), Team Amani (a Rwanda-registered Continental team) and the Angola National Team.
The Eritreans hold the record for most stage wins (26), followed by Rwanda (20), France (12), South Africa/Colombia (10) and Morocco (9). Metkel Eyob (Eritrea) is the rider present with then most stage wins (5) and with Colombian Jhonathan Restrepo not present, maybe Metkel can add to these and equal/beat the Colombian’s record of seven stage wins?
In this vein, looking at the UCI rider rankings, Henok Mulubrhan (Eritrea / XDS Astana) is the highest UCI ranked rider at the race, and a recent Tour du Rwanda winner (2023). Other top ranked riders present are Milan Menten (Lotto), Itamar Einhorn (Israel – Premier Tech), Metkel Eyob (Eritrea / Terengganu Cycling Team), Dawit Yemane (BIKE AID), Moise Mugisha (Rwanda), Joris Delbove (Team TotalEnergies), and Kiya Rogora (Ethiopia / X-Speed United).
Interestingly, looking at the ‘Form’ data on ProCyclingStats, Henok Mulubrhan is favourite, but his 22yo team-mate Nahom Zeray (Eritrea / JCL Team UKYO) is second favourite, with 18yo Adrià Pericas (UAE Team Emirates Gen Z) coming in third. Adrià is coming in hot, after two top twenty stage finishes in the recent AlUla Tour. Another surprise name in the top five form list is Daniyal Matthews (South Africa / Team Siata) fresh from his SA National Championship Road Race win two weeks ago.
Seven nations have won the final GC of the Tour du Rwanda, with Eritrea and Rwanda tying on five wins each currently. Is 2025 the year the strong Eritrea team here makes this six?
21 February: Our team arrives into Kigali. After getting the vital and necessary eSIM and a bunch of Rwanda francs for food and ‘motos’ (the awesome motorbike taxis), we visit several team hotels to drop off the large quantities of race nutrition and spare parts we have brought over for various teams and riders to top up their supplies, or entirely for some smaller teams who cannot easily access high end products and spares.
We also visit our good friend Sean Belfast who runs the The Ride bike shop in Kigali, near the national stadium. He has been in Rwanda for nearly a decade now, and is arguably the best bike mechanic in Rwanda. He argues he is not as he has now trained up dozens of mechanics and they are better than him!
The shop partners with TheRide250 group, who buy and sell bikes, and organise high end bike tours on either road bikes or mountain bikes. Check them out on social media HERE.
