Team Rwanda Cycling technical director, Jonathan ‘Jock’ Boyer has promised that he is going to work "even harder” to improve Rwandan cycling as he aims to take it to the international level.

The American made the promise following a meeting with President Paul Kagame on Thursday at Village Urugwiro that was also attended by the Rwanda Cycling Federation boss Aimable Bayingana and Minster for Sports and Culture, Julienne Uwacu.

The meeting was aimed at discussing what Rwanda have achieved in the last ten years and what can they do to raise the level of cycling in Rwanda in the next ten years, including making Rwandan cycling part of the country’s tourism sector.

Richard Mutabazi, who has been the Rwanda Basketball Federation secretary general, was appointed as Boyer’s assistant technical director at the Musanze-based Africa Rising Cycling Center (ARCC) and will start to work on April 1.

The appointment was made because Boyer, who has been central to the rise of Rwandan cycling, will be working mostly from outside the country, mostly in America where he will be looking for sponsorship and partners for Rwanda Cycling.

"I am not going away forever but I will be able to target more projects, we have engaged more youth in the sport, whom we want to work even harder to develop into international competitors,” Boyer noted.

He added that, "The past ten years have been like a miracle for me in terms of what we have managed to achieve. I am happy with the way we have progressed and now our target is to look for more plans to take the sport to a higher level.”

"We need get better bicycles in country where cycling can be a culture and we need to get more young people in the sports, after that, then we can dream to go far as we possibly can,” stated the man, who in 1981 became the first American to compete in the famous Tour de France.

Boyer, 61, and who has live in Rwanda since 2007, along with Kimberly Coats, participated in the Tour de France five times and finished 12th in 1983.

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