Home riders tipped to shine in Tour du Rwanda

RWANDA CYCLING Federation (Ferwacy) chairman Aimable Bayingana has tipped Rwandan riders to shine in this year’s Tour du Rwanda, which will run from November 17 to 24. Bayingana believes the home riders will do better this year and also hope that a Rwandan will finally win the Tour in not so distant future. The main objective for the local riders in the UCI sanctioned Tour du Rwanda is to get used to competing at the highest level possible against some of the best riders from the African continent and beyond. No Rwandan has won the competition since it became an international cycling tour in 2006, but Bayingana thinks that could change sooner rather than later. He said, “I believe this year will be able to see great improvement for our riders. We could even win the event, you never know, especially that the riders are getting the best possible preparations by competing in various international competitions.” “We have good riders, who can compete on a high level and we believe that they will make a big difference this time round,” Bayingana said during a press conference this week. However, the only down side of this year’s Tour is the absence of Rwanda’s top rider, Adrien Niyonshuti who is still recovering from a career-threatening illness, which has sidelined him since the start of the year. For the first time, the Tour du Rwanda will cover the areas of the Eastern Province, particularly Kirehe District where the riders will cover a distance of 129,9km. This year’s Tour will attract 16 teams from different countries. Rwanda will be represented by three teams after the organisers, Ferwacy, added a third team (Muhabura) to usual two; Kalisimbi and Akagera. Other teams are Novo Nordisk from USA and Team Sovac Algeria. Two European Team, Team Avia Crabbe from Belgium and Rhone Alpes from France Nine teams from African countries include; South Africa, Ethiopia, Egypt, Kenya, Algeria, Gabon, RDC, UCI Continental Center and Team As Be Co of Eritrea.