http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/07/140705-cycling-africa-rwanda-bicycle-cyclists-race/
American Coach Combs Africa for Cycling's Next Stars
No black African rider has ever competed in the Tour de France.
By Jon Rosen in Kigali, Rwanda
for National Geographic
PUBLISHED JULY 5, 2014
When the first-stage winner of this year's Tour de Francemounts the podium
on Saturday, Bonaventure Uwizeyimana will likely be taking notes from his
home in Shashwara, Rwanda.
Uwizeyimana, 21, has an unlikely background for a budding professional
cyclist. Born in Rwanda's mountainous northwest, a year before the 1994
genocide, he spent time as a refugee in neighboring Congo, lost his mother
during childhood, and endured two surgeries to repair a cleft palate.
In 2008, as a 15-year-old primary school dropout, he began hauling
passengers and cargo on a clunky single-speed bicycle. His goal was merely
to help his family scrape by.
Today--thanks in part to a 58-year-old American named Jonathan "Jock"
Boyer--Uwizeyimana is aiming higher. Since 2012, when he was selected on his
third attempt to join Team Rwanda, the national squad launched by Boyer in
2007, Uwizeyimana has developed into one of his country's top cyclists.
This month, he's set to join the France-based Vendée-U, a feeder team for
Team Europcar, whose top nine riders will be part of the 2014 Tour de
France peloton.
According to Boyer, Uwizeyimana is one of several young African riders with
the potential to reach cycling's highest level--trailblazers on a continent
that Boyer predicts will soon radically alter the sport's competitive
landscape.
"Africa is home to incredible cycling talent," he says. "In some countries
we have riders at a pretty high level. It's just a matter of getting them
two or three notches up."
Team Rwanda
If there's anyone equipped to drive this African cycling renaissance, it's
Boyer.
A pioneer of U.S. cycling, and the first American to compete in the Tour de
France, the 58-year-old Californian has spent the past seven years building
the sport in Rwanda. It's a country full of talented riders, he says, but
it lacked a competitive cycling culture.
With support from several international sponsors, Boyer began in 2007 by
recruiting prospects from across the country, testing their ability on a
computer-equipped stationary bike known as a Velotron, and offering the
most promising riders a tryout and a bike
Starting with an original group of five, Boyer expanded the team as
resources allowed and has assembled one of the better national teams on the
continent. He's also produced Rwanda's first pro cyclist, Adrien
Niyonshuti, who rides with the South Africa-based Team MTN-Qhubeka.
Soon after Boyer's arrival, riders accustomed to a hand-to-mouth existence
were traveling to races across Africa, earning money to build homes and
support their families. Thirteen years after their country had been torn
apart by genocide, Hutu and Tutsi were riding side by side.
Jonathan "Jock" Boyer, the coach of Team Rwanda, stands at the starting
point of the Tour of Rwanda race with the team's Adrien Niyonshuti.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JONATHAN TORGOVNIK, GETTY
A Pan-African Project
After seven years of building Team Rwanda, Boyer has now moved on to the
next phase of his project. With a young American, Daniel Matheny, in charge
of daily coaching duties, Boyer has shifted focus to the development of
Team Africa Rising, a partnership between Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Eritrea to
be based at Rwanda's newly inaugurated Africa Rising Cycling Center.
Perched at the edge of the Virunga Mountains, among hilly, lightly
trafficked roads ideal for training, the center will serve as the home of
Rwandan cycling and a training base for national and pro teams from Africa
and beyond.
Among the center's first foreign cyclists will be riders from Ethiopia and
Eritrea, Horn of Africa neighbors that, though bitter geopolitical rivals,
share a common cycling tradition.
Introduced during the Italian colonial period, cycling has been Eritrea's
de facto national sport for a century, and its popularity extends into the
neighboring Ethiopian region of Tigray. Although both countries--facing
significant financial and logistical challenges--have struggled to turn raw
talent into global success, each has excelled in races on the African
continent.
Eritrea's top rider, a 23-year-old named Natnael Berhane, has already come
close to making history. Although the Tour de France has seen several
Algerian, Moroccan, and white South African riders, and countsChris Froome,
a Kenyan-born, South Africa-raised Brit, as its defending champion, no
black African rider has ever competed in cycling's premier event.
Berhane--a member of the Paris-based Team Europcar, and an alumnus of the
same Vendée-U feeder squad that Uwizeyimana now rides for--has
excelled,winning the 2013 Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey and the 2014
La Tropicale Amissa Bongo in Gabon. Although he was not named to Europcar's
nine-man 2014 Tour de France roster, chances are high that he will make the
squad in coming years.
Members of Team Rwanda learn English from American volunteers at the team's
training center in November 2011.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JONATHAN TORGOVNIK, GETTY
Breaking Barriers
Although the continent is not there yet, Boyer is convinced that the era of
African cycling dominance is not far off.
In a sport with physiological demands similar to those of distance
running--long an East African specialty--Boyer believes the rise of African
riders is largely a function of finances. Unlike running, which requires
little investment, elite-level cycling demands expensive bicycles,
well-trained mechanics, and a technical knowledge that takes time to
master--particularly among riders who have little formal education,
including most members of Team Rwanda.
According to Boyer, the Africa Rising venture will facilitate the flow of
resources to all three countries, resulting in improved facilities,
coaching, and equipment. Eventually, he envisions a Rwanda-based
continental pro team that will fast-track African success on the roads
while helping to build continental unity.
After his experience in post-genocide Rwanda, Boyer is convinced of the
power of sports for conflict resolution and reconciliation--a notion he now
seeks to apply to Ethiopia and Eritrea, states that remain bitter enemies
14 years after a war along their border killed an estimated 100,000.
Team Rwanda cyclists train in the hills of northern Rwanda in November 2011.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JONATHAN TORGOVNIK, GETTY
According to Geda Worku, president of the Ethiopian Cycling Federation,
Eritrean and Ethiopian riders---most of whom share the common language of
Tigrigna--already mingle at competitions and enjoy a camaraderie that
transcends politics. Boyer hopes to extend this collaboration by engaging
the riders in joint training and even--if authorities permit--arranging a
race that crosses the long-closed Eritrea-Ethiopia border.
"Politically [the opening of the border] is almost impossible," Worku says,
"but through sports it probably is possible."
Even if this goal proves too lofty, Boyer says, he's confident the sport--in
addition to minting champions--will continue to transform the lives of his
young riders.
"Before I was having nothing," Uwizeyimana, speaking in English, says of
the days before he took up cycling.
"Now I have some small money. I have a house. Cycling has changed very,
very much my life."
Jon Rosen is a freelance journalist based in Kigali, Rwanda. Last month he
profiled "The Battle for Africa's Oldest National Park."
Received on Sat Jul 05 2014 - 14:38:22 EDT