Last week, Adrien Niyonshuti signed a one-year deal as the Team Benin head coach, becoming the first Rwandan to coach a foreign cycling team.
His first assignment was taking the Beninese national cycling team to Gabon for the La Tropicale Hamissa Bongo race which is underway until Sunday, January 29.
It’s an opportunity the former Rwandan international rider vowed to explore to raise the level of the game not only for the team but for the sake of his coaching career.
"After being given a chance, and not held to a different set of standards than other counterparts, I am confident I will succeed and inspire the next generation of Rwandans in coaching,” Niyonshuti told Weekend Sport in an exclusive interview.
Niyonshuti is the first Rwandan to coach at professional level away from home, an opportunity he was not ready to reject yet he believes it could open doors to fellow Rwandans aspiring to extend their coaching career outside the country.
"I have never imagined working with another national team before, but right now I am certain it is where I want to be. I believe I have all the necessary qualifications and experience,” he said.
The Rwandan technician is animating his six-man roster at the ongoing La Tropicale Amissa Bongo 2023. It is his first 2.1 race as a coach and that’s the experience that the Beninese cycling governing body have always wanted him to share with the Benin’s four homegrown coaches who are acting as his assistants in Gabon.
"We talked to the president of the Benin Cycling Federation and he asked me if I could help them. We agreed to work together for a year that can be extended because my vision is for three years so that I can show what I am thinking of conveying to them," he noted.
"This will be done by offering riders basic education and cycling competencies to help them be competitive on the international cycling scene and give them an opportunity to earn a living from their developed talent,” he added.
The tactician now wants to lead by example as a coach just like he did as a rider.
The 36-year-old former rider took part in the Olympic Games, notably in London 2012 where he was his country's flag bearer in Rio 2016.
He was the first Rwandan rider to be part of a UCI World Tour team, he is the first black participant in an Olympic mountain bike race.
Niyonshuti, a two-time Olympian and arguably the best cyclist the country has ever known, is the founder of Adrien Niyonshuti Cycling Academy (ANCA), and will hopefully return home next month leading Team Benin ahead of Tour du Rwanda 2023.
He may have started La Tropicale but Benin wants him to prepare for them a young but competitive team for the UCI Road World Championships that will be held in Rwanda and in Africa for the first time in 2025.
Born and raised in Rwamagana, Niyonshuti who finished second in the 2006 and 2007 Tour du Rwanda editions had caught the eye of Douglas Ryder, the founder of MTN Qhubeka, the biggest and most successful pro team in Africa and the rest is history because he was offered his first professional contract in 2008 then called MTN Energade.
In August 2009, Niyonshuti competed at the Tour of Ireland becoming the first Black African to compete in a European race and in November. He finished fifth in the general classification of the Tour du Rwanda, winning the best Rwandan jersey the same year when the annual competition was included on the UCI Africa Tour.
He started his first UCI European road race in August 2009 with his participation in the Tour of Ireland, becoming the first Rwandan cyclist to ride in the European professional peloton.
Niyonshuti qualified to represent Rwanda in the cross-country mountain bike race during the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London. He was also Rwanda's flag bearer at the opening ceremony.
He again represented the country at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro although he did not finish the men's road race.
In 2021, he worked as a Directeur Sportif for UCI Continental team Skol Adrien Cycling Academy.