Today I was able to test five local riders in Butare, the town where I live. The crew found out about the testing from other riders and wanted in! ‚"Rambo" (Alphonse Museruka), who has been riding with us, joined the test. He is a retired soldier working as a security guard in town.

After a few riders were tested, it was Rambo's turn. I was surprisedthat he measured only 5'1", although with a seat height of 83.5 cm, he should have measured over 6'2"! Remember that he sports size 11 tennis shoes and rides a pink 7 speed Bianchi in such sad shape that any of us couldn’t give it away even at a garage sale. I was not able to make any adjustments to it for fear of breaking a part or causing it to fall off. Yet, he has a surprisingly good torque angle and his Computrainer Spinscan was not expected for a guy in tennis shoes that barely holds onto the platform pedals. These incredible handicaps did not prevent him from pushing 300 watts on the AT test either! At 28, he is one of the older riders , but will make an incredibly loyal and valuable teammate. He is the type of rider that you tell to catch the breakaway ahead and he would not give up until it was caught.

It was very clear that the other riders in this group are not as experienced as the first group, probably did not ride as often or have not had as much racing experience. The bikes -- if you could believe it -- were in worse shape than all that I have tested up thus far; several had to borrow a bike to do the test as theirs were not fit enough to do the test or the tires were too big for the Computrainer. Predictably, the test results were not nearly at the level of the first group. The condition of their bikes was certainly a factor, but inexperience with both riding and racing resulted in lower drive and less of a fitness level.

There are a few additional riders from here that I will be testing next week. One, Abraham Komizera, has won the Tour of Rwanda twice and is reputedly the best rider in Rwanda. He is short with a very solid build. I've invited him several times to ride with us but he demurred because his bike is "broken". He did promise that he will ride with us this weekend. That should be something to see!