Valens Ndayisenga, a two time winner of Tour du Rwanda, has said he is already focusing on how to improve his performance next year.

Although the next edition of Tour du Rwanda is almost a year away, Ndayisenga is already strategising how to shine in the 2018 edition slated for August 5-12 next year.

"I have to improve because next year it will be another level. I have to work hard to do better than I have been doing. It is not only me. We have to work hard for our future because the race will be even tougher,” Ndayisenga said.

The Tirol Cycling Club cyclist, and Eritrea’s Eyob Mektel of South Africa-based UCI Continental Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka, set a new record of greatest number of stage wins in the Tour du Rwanda (5), which ended on Sunday.

By winning stage six from Kayonza-Kigali, Eyob broke the record of stage victories, which he shared since his 4th success earlier, with Ndayisenga, Eritrean Mekseb Debesay and American Kiel Reijnen.

Ndayisenga went on to win the final stage, Kigali-Kigali (120km) on Sunday to equal the record with Eyob.

Joseph Areruya, riding for Dimension Data, became the third Rwandan to win Tour du Rwanda in nine years since it became a UCI Africa Tour, category 2.2 road race, after Ndayisenga, who won it twice in 2014 and 2016 and Jean Bosco Nsengimana in 2015.

Meanwhile, former Tour du Rwanda winner and Team Rwanda captain Nsengimana beat his own record by six seconds, as the fastest rider in the Tour du Rwanda prologue history. He clocked a time of 3min, 46sec on the 3.3km course in Kigali.

Nsengimana also became the joint most successful in the prologue with two wins to his name, a record he shares with compatriot Janvier Hadi. After winning the prologue in 2015, Nsengimana went on to win the race.

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