The riders had barely returned from Morocco on Tuesday evening before getting on a plane again headed for South Africa at 02:30 Saturday morning. The bikes were lost in transit but arrived with Aimable on the Thursday night flight. I was trying to conserve funds and took 2 days to get home via Brussels, London, Nairobi and then to Kigali on three different carriers each time having to get my bags, go through customs and then recheck my bags, a hassle I will try to avoid in the future.

Dr Greg Mills arranged for us to ride in a massive cycling event near Johannesburg. He arranged for the sponsor (Pick N’ Pay) to pay airline tickets and we arranged accommodations with friends, Philip and Tara Baum who live in a beautiful house on top of a hill in Johannesburg. Tara supplied all of us enough food to feed the hungry Rwandans and we felt at home with our incredibly hospitable hosts.

Philip Baum was waiting for us at the airport complete with a trailer to take all the bike bags to our new “home”. The riders took their needed nap when we got settled. Registration was handled and we were back for lunch and a ride to loosen up the legs for the next day’s 05:30 race start!
Right from the get go Greg and Janet Mills had arranged a fundraiser dinner at the Baum house. People showed up from all over ready to meet Team Rwanda. The welcome was tremendous. Even Nic White the 2008 Africa Tour Champion from the MTN team showed up to show his support for Team Rwanda. The Project Rwanda jerseys were on display and we had lots of takers. People really get passionate about the team when they see the riders, learn about their background and see how far they have come in this incredibly short time.

Our start was at 05:30 so it was early to bed with a 04:00 wake up. When we arrived at the race we (including myself) were incredulous at the amount of people swarming to ride the race. A total of 23,000 riders were participating in the event, every 5 minutes a wave would start with the “Elite” riders starting first. The field was 220 riders and there were not only the top South African riders there but some from the International circuit as well. Team Rwanda was ready and headed off for a blistering 94.7 km which would be covered in 2’3”! Both Adrien and Nathan made it in the first group, it was not until the last 4km that the group split with both in the back group. Their results were fantastic with Adrien in 32nd place and an age group classification of 21 out of 735 starters, there were over 13,000 men starters and Adrien was 32nd! Nathan came in with at 31st place and was 7th in his age group! Abraham was not far behind but there seems to be issues with his “ race chip” and I have not been able to get his results yet.

Given the handicap these riders faced of being in Morocco in one weekend and South Africa the next with all the travel in between they did exceptionally well. I was proud of them. The positive response from the other teams and from our sponsor for the event, Pick N’ Pay, was great. This was a short trip but very much worthwhile, the team received more exposure and more contacts were made. With each race our riders become more and more competent for the races to come.

Next announcement will be the new contracts for Adrien and Nathan on the South African MTN MTB team for the 2009 season! Exciting stuff happening with the team!

Team Rwanda will take some time to rest for the month of December. The next race is scheduled for mid-January in Gabon.

Learn More about Pick and Pay here...