Cycling quartet set for Holland training camp

Team Rwanda Cycling quartet will attend a month-long training camp at the USA national cycling team training facility in Limburg municipality of Sittard-Geleen, Netherlands. Captain Janvier Hadi, Jean Bosco Nsengimana, Joseph Biziyaremye and Camera Hakuzimana left last evening aboard Turkish Airlines, their official airline to the European training base that is utilized for road race, mountain biking, track and cyclo-cross. Hadi told Times Sport that, “This is a great opportunity for us to train with very experienced riders and we want to use the chance to learn a lot from them. We shall be competing in several competitions especially on the weekends and we want to win several stages.” The 24-year-old who won the Tour du Rwanda prologue stage back-to-back in 2013 and 2014 has gained a lot of experience from training abroad including twice at the World Cycling Centre in Potchefstroom, South Africa. He was a guest rider with Team Garneau-Quebecor last summer in Canada and was crowned the Most Aggressive rider at stage 4 from Edmonton to Strathcona County at the Tour of Alberta after leading a jailbreak group earlier on Netherlands’ Theo Bos caught up with them and raced to the finish line. It is this experience from training sessions and competitions abroad that has granted Hadi the opportunity to improve and he believes this will help his teammates especially Hakuzimana who will be travelling to Europe for the very first time. Hakuzimana, who competed in his first competition outside Rwanda in March at the Tour of Cameroon, is excited at the chance to train with elite riders. He said, “This is a life time opportunity for me to go and learn from such a facility. I am going to try and learn as much as possible in the one month and for sure when I return home, I will be in position to replicate what I learnt.” Nsengimana who finished second in the general classification at last year’s Tour du Rwanda attributed the success to a three-month long training camp at the World Cycling Centre in Aigle, Switzerland. He said, “We are looking forward to learning more in Netherlands. The facility has some of the best riders in the world so we want to get as much experience as possible.” Biziyaremye, who was fourth in the general classification at last year’s Tour du Rwanda, renowned for his sacrifice that saw him hand his bike to eventual tour winner Valens Ndayisenga twice after a puncture, echoed his teammates’ objectives and emphasized that this training opportunity will help them to prepare for this year’s Tour du Rwanda which they intend to win. The quartet returns in time for the National Championships which are set for June 27-18 in Kigali. Ndayisenga and the reigning national women’s champion Jeanne d’Arc Girubuntu are currently training at the World Cycling Centre in Aigle, Switzerland.

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Cycling quartet set for Holland training camp