Team Rwanda on a training session near Musanze in the north of the country in February 2009. Photograph: Riccardo Gangale
Rwanda will forever be synonymous with genocide. But, 15 years on, the land of 1,000 hills is producing some of the best cyclists in Africa. Now Team Rwanda have the Tour de France in their sights, and they are determined to make their country famous for a positive reason
There was a moment when Jock Boyer realised just how much cycling talent there is in Rwanda. Boyer, once the first American to ride the Tour de France and now the first coach of the Rwandan national cycling team, was leading his team of professionals up a steep, winding hill.
The cyclists were kitted out in their official sky blue and banana yellow Team Rwanda shirts. They were riding brand new $4,000 bikes. As they climbed the hill, the group sped past men and women carrying plates of fruit or stacks of banana leaves on their heads. They overtook old, creaking lorries weighed down with goods bound for Congo. And they passed other cyclists: young men on rusting single-speed Chinese-made bikes huffing and puffing their way up the hill, often with loads of coffee or charcoal on the back.
One of the cyclists they passed was called Leonard, 6ft 6in tall and carrying 150lbs of potatoes. A couple of minutes after Boyer and the team passed him, Leonard reappeared at their side, keeping pace, "cranking away", as Boyer put it. The coach found Leonard the next day and invited him to a trial.
