Two-time and reigning Tour du Rwanda champion Valens Ndayisenga will lead Team Rwanda at this year’s Grand Prix Chantal Biya race, which is scheduled for October 11-15 in Cameroon.

The annual Grand Prix Chantal Biya will be running for the 17th consecutive time since the first edition in 2001. The 2.2 UCI Category race was named in honor of Cameroon First Lady, Chantal Biya.

The 23-year-old is fresh from the 2017 UCI Road World Championships in Bergen, Norway and will be looking to immediately use the lessons he learnt. No Rwandan rider has ever won the Grand Prix Chantal Biya.

He will lead a six-man Team Rwanda that also comprises the 2015 Tour du Rwanda winner Jean Bosco Nsengimana, Bonaventure Uwizeyimana, Jean Claude Uwizeye, and youngsters Didier Munyaneza and Jean Paul Ukiniwabo.

The four-stage Grand Prix Chantal Biya race will cover a total 579.3 kilometres and will be contested by 12 cycling teams, including two Cameroonian teams, six visiting African teams and five Europeans teams.

The 5 European teams include; Global Cycling (The Netherlands), La Défense (France), Auvergne (France), Blue Cycling (Belgium) and Banka Briska (Slovakia). The teams from Africa include Rwanda, Gabon, Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana and the hosts Cameroon.

Team Rwanda will be under tutelage of Felix Sempoma (head coach), Théogène Karasira (team’s mechanic) and Obedi Ruvogera, the physiotherapist.

At last year’s edition claimed by French cyclist Martial Roman, Team Rwanda finished in the second place behind Cameroon’s SNH Vélo Club, in team classification. Nsengimana was Rwanda’s best rider, finishing 11th in general classification and third in U23 category.

Then riding for Germany’s Bike Aid Stradalli, Nsengimana put on a stunning performance to win stage 4 in 4 hours, 9 minutes and 42 seconds covering 169km from Sangmélima to Yaoundé. Youngster Samuel Mugisha finished third in stage 4.

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