RWANDA CYCLING FEDERATION (Ferwacy) is planning to make this year’s Tour of Rwanda, the best ever cycling competition in Africa ever since the event became recognised on the UCI Africa Tour six years ago.

The 17th Tour du Rwanda scheduled for November 16 to 23, will for the first time be watched by residents of Ngoma and Nyanza districts.

Aimable Bayingana, the president of local cycling federation (Ferwacy), said that their main objective this year is to raise the level of riders and the level of the competition.

The long-week competition will cost Rwf400m compared to last year’s Rwf372 million.

"Preparations are underway. We want to make this year’s edition even better with hope of having our riders registering better performances this year,” added Bayingana.

This year’s edition will cover seven stages including the new routes of Kigali Amahoro Stadium to Ngoma District (94 kilometers) and Rubavu to Nyanza district, the most grueling route which covers 173km.

Ferwacy has included new routes on the tour following the introduction of Kirehe District route last year which has since been replaced, meaning that the Tour of Rwanda’s total distance has risen to 911.6km compared to last year’s 805km.