Seven months before the first ever cycling World Championships in Rwanda, the European Parliament passed a motion calling for the event to be cancelled “if Rwanda does not change course”, referring to the country’s conflict with neighboring DR Congo. Cycling’s governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), has insisted that there is no Plan B.
And it was in this context that the 2025 Tour du Rwanda took place. The eight-day event has been running since 1988 in a historic cycling nation. Star team Quick-Step withdrew, sparking safety concerns, but the Tour ran relatively smoothly other than some drama on the seventh and final stage where bad weather led to the race being cancelled with just over 13 kilometers (eight miles) left.
Ecological consideration necessary
Matthias Schnapka, Bike Aid owner and founder, said the week was almost optimal from a sporting perspective. The team, a professional German outfit that focuses on supporting athletes from Africa, was the fastest team, with rider Oliver Mattheis also finishing third in the general classification.
Were it not for the bad weather that ended the final stage prematurely, they might have even won the stage too. Schnapka has been running Bike Aid since 2014, and has raced all over the world.
“We’re always cycling in dangerous places. In 2014, we were in Kyiv three weeks after the Maidan Uprising. I’m not being reckless when I say this, but the reality of a country on the streets is almost always contrary to the media portrayal,” Schnapka told DW.
“The impression you get from a place is often only through one report, but you can’t forget this is just one small representation of a huge country where millions of people live and thousands of things are happening every day.”
The German isn’t worried about safety in Rwanda, citing how the bubble of professional sports often keeps athletes shielded from much of the real world. He’s not worried about organization either, given the Tour du Rwanda is perhaps the best-organized cycling event on the continent. He is a little concerned about weather, but no more so than in other places in the world.
“If it had rained at the Olympics this summer, it would have been a nightmare for cycling. We’re just lucky it didn’t.”
Most intriguing though, is Schnapka’s reflection on the current discussion around the UCI Road World Championships.
“Which country can say it is free of conflict? It is easy to make accusations of corruption, human rights problems or sportswashing about a country so far away from us. But you should also take the trouble to look more deeply into the circumstances and background, which are usually more complex,” Schnapka said.
“You should definitely assess it, but also consider who has the right to judge others? If a country has carried out human rights violations, then it should be punished, but the origin of all of that should also be inspected and if that lies in colonial times or our hunger for raw materials then we need to assess our role in all of that as well, he added.
“Cycling is our passion. We see it as a vehicle to travel through a country. Our cyclists are standing with people on the street, they talk to people who they never would have talked to before. Sport can build bridges.”
End of cycling in Africa
Despite the positive impact of this year’s Tour du Rwanda, some in the cycling world are beginning to fear the worst for September.
“If we lose this race, if they pull out, if the Europeans push this, it will destroy African cycling,” Kimberly Coats, CEO of Team Africa Rising (TAR), told DW.
“We will take decades to recover from this because it feeds into the narrative that Africa is dangerous.”
It is no surprise that as the leader of a cycling talent detection, training and racing program in Benin, Sierra Leone, Togo and several other nations across the continent, Coats is emotionally connected to this situation.
“Has anybody ever remembered that there’s a whole bunch of Africans in the mix hoping to represent their country and continent? Nobody cares, and they’re going to do so much damage to the sport long term. Because I’m telling you, if Rwanda loses the championships, it will be a long time before we see another World Championships on the African continent,” Coats said.
“I get emotional about that because I’ve worked here for 16 years and everything is a fight to get these kids the opportunities that they deserve. And because a whole bunch of people in the political realm just decide that this is in their best interest… It’s not in the best interest of the athletes or the countries trying to develop the sport. I’m not saying, just totally ignoring everything. But my first concern is, are the kids safe and can we keep going with with their opportunities?”
Coats recalls how a former Ugandan athlete she worked with missed an entire year due to visa problems and how institutional prejudice is still very much an issue.
In the early years of TAR, the founder of Team Rwanda called in favors from sponsors to get professional kit and equipment for the riders. One email response from someone wanting to donate used gear was: “Why would I give anything to you? Your guys are riding more expensive bikes than I own, and why do they have to have all this new stuff? They should be happy with donations.”
“You wouldn’t tell that to a Belgian kid or an American kid, why is it okay for you to say that about these African juniors? And so I see all of this going on right now as just an extension of this perception of Africans,” Coats explained.
“We always call it the ‘Kumbaya’ effect. They should be happy with what we give them. I say, no, we now have over 110 African riders at World Tour, Pro Conti and Conti level — more than the United States in fact. They have every right to do what’s in their best interest and to take the sport to the next level. Biniam Girmay, with his Green Jersey at the last Tour de France, proved Africans can compete at the highest levels.”
It’s hard to get a sense of how much many African riders have sacrificed while watching them on the Tour du Rwanda, but the perspective of those on the ground, such as Coats and Schnapka, prove how much is at stake and how far cycling in Africa has come.
Edited by: Chuck Penfold
