“We realize that Rwanda is not going to be the country that changes
Africa. It’s going to be all the African nations that change Africa as
far as the sport,” Coats said.
“We need Eritrea to do well and Ethiopia to do well and Rwanda,
because the more of us that are out there racing, the better it is for
the continent.”
http://www.richmond.com/news/article_cbeaa183-7b38-55fa-8403-deec359434bf.html
RICHMOND 2015
Rwandan cyclists competing in UCI Road World Championships seek to
inspire all Africans
MJRKA BOENSCH BEES
Jean Bosco Nsengimana in the Prologue at the 2014 Tour of Rwanda.
The impact of bicycles on poor nations
Posted: Saturday, August 29, 2015 10:30 pm
By LOUIS LLOVIO
Richmond Times-Dispatch
More than 20 years after 800,000 Rwandans were killed in a genocide,
five cyclists from the African nation will come to Richmond next month
with the hope of becoming the new face of their homeland.
“What the team represents is unity,” Kimberly Coats, director of
logistics for Team Rwanda Cycling, said from Africa last week.
“The team is made up of people from both sides (of the conflict). But
today we’re all Rwandans and it’s really started to develop this
national unity, this national pride. This team is a thing for the
country to rally around.”
Rwanda is one of about a half-dozen African nations that have
qualified to send riders to the UCI Road World Championships here
Sept. 19-27. For many of these nations, cycling showcases the best
their countries have to offer and highlights opportunities for their
people back home.
For Team Rwanda, the appearance in Richmond is a way to help change
how the world views their homeland. The team also wants to change the
narrative about their country from one of death to a story of hope.
It represents an opportunity to give people back home something to
unite behind by using the sport to bring diverse groups together
behind a common — and positive — cause.
Rwanda’s Richmond team has five riders. While some of the athletes
were very young children when the genocide began April 6, 1994, they
all have lived under its shadows.
The United Nations Human Rights Council said up to 200,000 people
participated in the genocide as Tutsis and suspected Tutsis were
slaughtered, raped and taken captive by Hutu majority extremists.
Coats said a platform like the world championships, where the athletes
can become the story rather than the horrors of two decades ago, can
help tell a different story.
“You say Rwanda, you think genocide. They want you to say Rwanda (and)
think cycling,” Coats said.
“It’s going to take time, but it’s definitely there. We do a lot of
bike tours, a lot of people come visit the team and the team has been
goodwill ambassadors to show the world that Rwanda is a safe place,
that the country has reconciled and that there’s peace.”
***
Rwanda’s cycling program was started in 2007 by Jock Boyer, the first
American to race in the Tour de France and Coats’ husband. He first
went to the African nation at the urging of a friend who was working
with Project Rwanda. He found a purpose and stayed.
Eight years in, the program is having some success.
Boyer’s team won the 2014 Tour of Rwanda, Rwandan Adrien Niyonshuti
rides for MTN-Qhubeka and Rwandan Nathan Byukusenge has qualified to
compete in the 2016 Rio Olympics. The team also raced in its first
world championship last year.
Boyer and the team were the subjects of “Rising From Ashes,” a
documentary about “a group of struggling genocide survivors (pursuing)
their dream of a national team.”
Team Rwanda operates from the Africa Rising Cycling Center, a 3-acre
complex with 16 houses, a cafeteria and common areas where athletes
train and live. The organization also is building a mechanics’ garage.
Team Rwanda Cycling opened the complex, which was built by a German
road company, about 1½ years ago.
The training center was named Africa Rising because the country’s
cycling federation “wanted to make sure that not only was it a home
for Team Rwanda but that other countries could come here and train and
that it essentially would make Rwanda a hub for East African cycling,”
Coats said.
***
Expanding cycling beyond Rwanda’s borders has become a big part of the
organization’s efforts. Last year, the nonprofit changed its name to
Team Africa Rising because of its efforts to spread the model to
Ethiopia and Eritrea, other nations that have experienced conflict.
Eritrean cyclist Daniel Teklehaimanot made history this year by
becoming the first black African rider to wear the best climber’s
jersey in the Tour de France.
Coats said the idea is to help athletes and organizations in those
countries obtain equipment, sponsors and parts.
Linda Davidson, vice president for Cycling Zimbabwe, sees African
Rising as “an inspiring and exciting model of cycling development and
a good example of what can be done with vision, hard work and some
funding.”
Zimbabwe has two riders, Skye Davidson and Helen Mitchell, racing in
the world championships in Richmond. This will be the country’s first
appearance in the competition.
Davidson said funding is a major issue for her organization and others
in Africa, particularly for female riders. A lack of it, plus
religious and cultural barriers, makes it difficult for some African
female cyclists to compete at a high level, let alone excel.
She points to Ethiopian Hadnet Kidane as an example of what the
athletes deal with.
“Through years of grit and guts and determination,” Kidane has
qualified for next year’s Olympics but rides a “terribly old and heavy
bike and her federation has no money to send her to the Olympic
Games,” Davidson said last week.
“As a female coach, you really have to respect the girls you are
working with and all the difficulties they have overcome to even get
on a bike,” she said.
***
These barriers are why organizations like Team Africa Rising can help
turn the tide for many countries and their riders.
Davidson is optimistic about cycling in Africa despite the challenges.
She said UCI and the African Cycling Confederation are major
supporters of the sport and that there are training centers in South
Africa and Egypt.
Such developments, and programs like Africa Rising, can go a long way
toward helping cyclists get the support to develop as athletes and
escape the issues facing many poorer Africans.
“Africa is a very special continent due to its size. It is huge,” she
said. “If you imagine that the whole of Western Europe is the same
size as the Democratic Republic of Congo and that the United States
fits into the Sahara Desert, then the logistics of cycling across 56
countries becomes apparent.”
Coats said the long-term goal of helping more African countries
develop cycling programs means more races in which athletes can
compete, as well as more recognition.
That, the belief is, will help African nations lift themselves up by
giving citizens something of which to be proud and young people
something for which to aim.
“We realize that Rwanda is not going to be the country that changes
Africa. It’s going to be all the African nations that change Africa as
far as the sport,” Coats said.
“We need Eritrea to do well and Ethiopia to do well and Rwanda,
because the more of us that are out there racing, the better it is for
the continent.”
LLLovio_at_timesdispatch.com
(804) 649-6348
Twitter: _at_LouisLLovio
Received on Mon Sep 21 2015 - 13:41:27 EDT