This time I was taking three of the riders to compete in the "B" World Championships in Cape Town South Africa. The riders I had selected were Adrien, Nyandwi and Abraham. It was a difficult road course that went from Cape Town around the Cape and then three laps on a hard circuit of about 10 miles. The riders were still reeling from the return from America and the fact that the bikes didn't come in until 4 days after they arrived effected some of them that did not have two bikes. I had ridden only with Abraham when I got back, all the other were at home with their families and training from there. This was an important and big race, it was open to all the "B" nations which consisted of all the nations that had no points on the UCI Tours but included countries from all over the world including China, Mexico, Taiwan, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Namibia, Greece, with a total of over 55 nations. I was amazed at all the different countries represented and saw pretty quickly that this was going to be a very difficult race.

Though our flight was delayed into Cape Town and we did not get to sleep until 02:30 the first night it went well to what I was used to. All bags arrived and we arrived as a team, wow I was happy. There were a few bike mechanical "issues" so I spent the first morning finding a bike shop and getting everything sorted out, I needed some tools and more parts and was able to find a good shop not too far away to get the remainder of the parts and tools we needed. The support, organization and people were really fantastique to work with. The UCI was behind the event and it went very very well. I was surprised at the attention Team Rwanda was getting both from the Europeans at the event including the UCI personnel and the African Nations who had just started hearing about Team Rwanda. So many wanted to know how the Team got started and what were the plans, it was evident with the enthusiastic support we were getting that the cycling community was excited to have another African country part of the racing circuit. There were invitations from Namibia, Cameroon, South Africa and other. It looks like we will have a interesting and full calendar in 2008, just what these riders need to continue their progress. I was very astonished that the word was already going through the cycling community about Team Rwanda and how they emerged out of nowhere to now an actual "entity" in the cycling community. This was the first time Rwanda had ever competed in a Cycling World Championships up against countries with decades of experience.

We could not have asked for a better day on the race day, about 75° with a crystal clear sky. The 164 riders were off to do 161kms on their tough course. We did not have a follow vehicle but I was able to get a ride with one of the UCI officials, the neutral support was excellent and I was not worried about the riders.

Within 3 miles riders were already getting dropped off the back and after 8 miles Adrien got a rear flat, the speed was way up but he was able to get back on pretty quickly. After about 30 miles I saw Nyandwi hovering at the back, by this time almost 50 riders had already been dropped and I figured that he was having a hard time hanging on. Within 15 miles there was a split in the pack after a short hill on a windy section and Nyandwi was caught with the dozen or so riders in the split. He tried to bridge the gap but by that time they were 40 seconds up the road and he was never able to catch. On entering the circuit with 60km remaining he was pulled being too far back from the main field. We had both Abraham and Adrien still in the main peleton. There was a group of 5 riders off the front with a group of three chasing, the peleton at this time was about 60 riders at this time.

The hills on the finishing circuit was too much for Abraham and lost contact with the group with about 40km (25miles) to go. With about 17km (11miles) to go Adrien lost contact, he stayed at under a minute for about 8 km until the speed of the pack was just too much. He finished in 71st place, Abraham 97th place. They had finished their first World Championships, a bit disappointed at their result and amazed at how hard the race was they were glad it was over. Another experience that will help form them for the races to come.

Flights back to Kigali operated only on Wednesday's, Friday's and Sunday's so we had two days of training in the Cape Town area before returning home. The rides were just fantastique, we went around the Cape a different way each day seeing Baboons and Ostriches, they had never been that close to them, Abraham had never even heard of an Ostrich before so was flabbergasted by them. Our flights home went well, no hiccups or mishaps, what a relief. While we were in Johannesburg I picked up the tickets to the MTB Continental Championships in Namibia coming up at the end of the month. I have found that the more I can do while I am traveling the better off we are, its not easy to get any flight arrangements done in Rwanda especially if you want to pay with a credit card.

I could see on the way home they are starting to get used to traveling and going through airports, a vital necessity for all the trips ahead.

Abraham and I stayed at the hostel when we got in and my ride back to Butare wouldn't arrive until the afternoon so we both hopped on our bikes in the morning and rode in. A much better way to travel than a car on those roads. Our bags followed later on that evening.