This week’s camp started on a positive note, not that the riders would necessarily have seen it that way; the unusually long dry season ended on Sunday, so many of them arrived on Monday feeling stiff because of the (relative) cold from getting wet in the rain, which, of course, makes muscles contract.

Tuesday’s session, focusing on pre-race training, fitness and sprint tactics, was an out-and-back ride of about three hours – circa 100km – from Musanze up towards Gitarama, climbing up the winding mountain roads, past the goat market and dodging the meandering pedestrians in the busy town of Busogo.

What made the session positive was not so much the performance on the road – where the team work continues to improve and, on individual notes, Nathan and Rocky won the two sprints (with Abraham coming second both times) – but at the team meeting afterwards.

“The fact that the riders talked about having stiff legs before the ride is a big plus,” explained Jock. “It’s a real sign of progress that they were open enough to talk about weaknesses at the meeting, because the culture here is one of not admitting to mistakes or weaknesses.

“There’s a tendency to be fatalistic and to not make connections, so for them to link the rain and cold to the stiffness was another important step in the process of their education. Hopefully they will now begin to understand that things like over-training or under-training have consequences, and will learn from that.”

After lunch and some free time, the riders’ spent the late afternoon learning English and a short yoga session.

Coming off the heels of our breakout year in 2011, Team Rwanda is already well into planning for 2012. Our biggest event this year undoubtedly will be Adrien Niyonshuti’s participation in the London Olympic Games in the XC Mountain Biking Event. Adrien is preparing for this event with several mountain bike races the first quarter of the year capping off the quarter with the Cape Epic, a race he took best African and finished 9th overall last year; his best showing.

Training camps will gear up first thing after the New Year. The riders will be making their way to Musanze on January 9th for a series of 36 week long camps in 2012.

Every Monday afternoon riders trickle in to the Team Rwanda training camp in Musanze, Rwanda. These young men, and now a few young women, travel to this small town in the Virunga Volcanoes area from all over the country, some from as far as 200+kms away. They come to train to be the best cyclists in Rwanda, for a chance to represent their country in international races, and in the annual Tour of Rwanda. In addition to the actual race/cycling training they also receive three nutritionally engineered meals a day, good beds, and hot showers—a luxury the majority do not have at home. They also have been introduced to nightly yoga/stretching lessons and of course, one of our core priorities, lessons in English.

Riders really rode well..
Rocky was stellar with the first attack of the day after about 2 kms!.. then more as we keep going.
At the top of the big climb there were 5 in front that stayed in front the
whole way, Nic Nic, Gasore, Nathan, Emmanuel and Joseph..
They all worked pretty much together the last 50kms, Nicodem attacked with
about 5kms to go and they could not catch him. Gasore tried but did not
have enough there. Gasore led out the last km and got passed by Nathan,
Emmanuel and finished 4th.. Joseph was strong all day took some great pulls
and was very close back at 5th.

It was stage three of the Kwita Izina, a yearly event formerly called the “Tour of the Volcanoes” and appropriately named with three stages passing through the Virunga Volcano range shared with Uganda and the DRC, home of the Volcanoes National Park and the rare Mountain Gorillas. But this year was different; it was a UCI 2.2 stage race on the “Africa Tour” race circuit attracting top teams from Eritrea and Morocco among our neighbors Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. Yesterday Adrien had lost ground on a brutal stage from Kigali to Kinigi… not just to three Eritreans but to one Moroccan and his two Lieutenants, Nicodem and Gasore. He had been racing full on since January with top performances at the Cape Epic (9th overall and best African team with Mannie Heymans), a victory in a Nissan MTB classic, a stunning 3rd in the 9 day Joberg to sea after a brutal crash damaging his right quad, barely being able to walk.

Men's Road Race - Final Results
Race distance: 168 km

Team Rwanda did fairly well. Nathan was the first black African! 130 participants started only 52 finished...grueling. Adrien was in the first breakaway group of six for several laps and then his front derailleur went out and he never could get back. When he was in the front he was the only black African and the announcers couldn't fathom this kid from Rwanda up in the lead. They kept marveling at this Adrien Niyonshuti guy...it was awesome.

Here is this morning in front of 90 accredited press agencies..and television crews from around the world... Lance asked Adrien to be with him at the start.. this was not a "posed" photo.. it was by Lance's request when he heard Adrien's story and what the MTN team is doing in African for African riders... Lance wants Adrien to succeed.

Today was not only Adrien's first day in a European Pro Tour race but also that of Rwanda and more than likely any other black African. He was there racing with the best of the world by merit and by a chance given to him by the MTN Energade team and Douglas Ryder. He had never in his life ridden 198 kms... let alone race them... and even less race them in a "Pro Tour" pack... on an incredibly difficult course at an incredibly fast pace...

He rode with the pack the whole race and finished with the pack ... an incredible accomplishment!!

Earlier this year we gave you an update on our Team Rwanda “Jatropha” plantation. We have 6 hectares of land (about 15 acres) on which the plants are growing exceptionally well. The roots are large and some of the plants have up to 7 branches growing out from the base, something that is very important when the plants start to bloom and produce flowers and seeds. The more branches, the higher the production of seeds.

Our plantation will be used for seed production and when it is in full bloom it will produce approximately 6 tons of seeds/year in two harvests. This represents app. 6000 hectares/year we can plant!

Our plants have not yet blossomed but they are very close to producing their first fruits. We will keep you posted when we get out first flowers!

Yesterday Nyandwi Uwase, a Team Rwanda member, arrived at my house on a bus. He was here to pick up a bike, but not a race bike, one of our cargo "coffee" bikes. His two riding partners Inocent Sibomana and Jean de Dieu arrived a bit later on their bikes.