Africa Rising Cycling Podcast

In this episode, Africa Rising Cycling's CEO Kimberly Coats and our podcast host Jeremy discuss some of the latest and breaking news stories in African cycling right now. These include: - Key African performances at the 2026 UCI Cycling World Championships in Montreal. - Visa issues, defections and other breaking news around this event. - Team news: The Amani Men's Continental Team (Rwanda...

"Pedals for Peace" is an extraordinary solo cycling initiative started by Miguel Masaisai, a 25-year-old Congolese triathlete and cyclist from the conflict-torn city of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Masaisai uses the bicycle as a peaceful weapon to protest decades of violent conflict in the eastern DRC, raise awareness about its devastating impact on youth, and show the...

Thirty-three year old Willie Smit is one of Africa's most ever-present professional cyclists over the last 15 years. He has raced at UCI World Tour, Pro Continental and Continental level across Europe, Africa and Asia. Willie shares his entry into the sport, his heroes and motivation, his highlights and recent DQ story, and his hints and tips for younger riders in a highly entertaining chat, a...

Anyone who knows a little about African cycling knows the name Adrien Niyonshuti. The inspirational Rwandan who survived a genocide, found a purpose riding and racing bicycles, made history by qualifying for the London 2012 Olympics, had a brilliant career in the World Tour, and is now a highly successful coach to young African and international riders. Fourteen years after the London 2012 Olympic...

The Tshenolo Women's Pro Cycling Team is a new African women's team, African-owned, and based in South Africa. The team is considering moving to the UCI Continental level for 2027, however for now is racing across South Africa and all relevant African races. We caught up with the team's Sport Director, Durwan Benjamin, and Lucy Young , one of their top riders, to talk about the team, t...

We always are looking for stories to tell about Junior or U23 African riders as they represent the future of cycling on the continent. Our latest podcast features 21-year-old Neriah Meunier Sow , the new National Champion of Senegal! Neriah currently races for the Surne Bilbao Cycling Team in Spain as part of an international 20-rider squad of U23 athletes. He took Senegalese citizenship in 2025,...

With just four days to go to the start of the 2026 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, we joined the official AG Insurance Soudal press conference, to hear from Mauritius' Kim Le Court Pienaar about her preparations for this year's race. Despite her big crash and wrist injury earlier in 2026, her recent performance at the women's Tour du Suisse shows she is in great form. Hear her though...

Saturday 18 July was "Qhubeka Day" at the Tour de France. The stage and the whole day is dedicated to the South African charity which manufactures new African-designed bicycles and distributes them to schoolchildren in the poorest areas of the country. This hugely reduces the time it usually takes them to walk to and from school, improving attendance and results, as well as significantly...

On this week's episode, we spoke with Gerhard Breed, the President of Windhoek Pedal Power, and the Race Organiser of the 2026 Pupkewitz Megabuild Tour de Windhoek - powered by Pupkewitz Motors! This race is Namibia's premier multi-stage cycling event, showcasing the breath-taking landscapes of the country across five thrilling stages, and is one of southern Africa's top races. Partici...

On 29 March 2026, 17-year-old Jonathan Muhawenimana won the Rwandan Junior MTB XCO National Championships. This was a great win for a rising young Rwandan cycling star. Jonathan is the son of Rafiki Uwimana, who, alongside Adrien Niyonshuti, was one of the founding riders of Team Rwanda 20 years ago. Jonathan is currently in the USA on a training and racing program, and we would like to give a sho...

Per UCI rule 1.2.029: "National road championships shall be organised during the last full week of the month of June" and over the last few days, we have seen 12 African nations organise their National road championships, including Eritrea, Algeria, Mauritius alongside relatively new countries like Kenya and Eswatini. South Africa and Namibia held theirs in February. On the podcast today...

Over a decade ago in the DRC, Charles-Guy Makongo already had his hands full helping the country's most vulnerable people access justice and avoid violence in his day job working there as Country Director for the American Bar Association. However, in his free time, after meeting them when out for a bike ride, he took some 30 teenage cyclists under his wing and created the Goma Cycling Club. Fa...

As the first episode of our new season, this discussion could not be further from recent podcasts talking about African professional cycling, however, as we will discuss, they are still linked, all through the bicycle. In this episode, we are talking real grass-roots cycling. We are joined by Joshua Poppel, the Executive Director of the Village Bicycle Project (VBP) non-profit. VBP has been operat...

This week, we sat down with Dahmane Abdesslam, the Principal of the Madar Pro Cycling Team . Madar are African-owned and registered in Algeria, and have had a nix of Algerian, African and international riders on their roster., since launching as a UCI team just two years ago. Their ProCyclingStats bio can give you more infomation. Algerian star riders like Azzedine Lagab and Youcef Reguigui have b...

As we enter June, we thought it a good time to do a quick recap on some of the big headlines in African road cycling so far, and some things to watch out for in June: We take a look at the men's and women's UCI league tables for the 2026 season so far. Eritrea dominates the men's rankings taking the 1-5 spots, and kudos to Eritrean Natnael Tesfatsion (Movistar) for topping the men'...

In this episode, we sat down with Matthias Schnapka, the owner of Team BIKE AID, one of the most prolific supporters of young African professional cyclists in history. BIKE AID is a German professional cycling team founded in 2005 as a non-profit association, and based on a unique cycling community of over 1,200 supporters. BIKE AID stands for enjoying cycling, nature and social commitment. Matthi...

We are most excited to share this podcast today! Merhawi "Mera" Kudus is truly one of the pioneers of African professional cycling. After excelling for the UCI World Cycling Center, he joined the MTN Qhubeka Team in 2014 alongside some of the big names in African cycling: Louis Meintjes, Adrien Niyonshuti, Tsgabu Grmay, Daniel Teklehaimanot and Reinardt Janse van Rensburg. The success of...

In our latest podcast, we sat down with Alexandre Mayer , the leading male cyclist from the island of Mauritius. The 28-year-old rider is in his second year at the Pro Continental level with the Burgos Burpellet BH team, alongside Merhawi Kudus. Alex took the 'Best African' jersey at the 2.2 Tour du Benin and when we spoke he was next heading to Azerbaijan for the 2.1 Baku Khankendi Cyclin...

In this episode, Kim and Jeremy on our team sat down with Salami Avocetien of the Benin Cycling Federation. At just 21 years old, he speaks French, English, four local languages, has his UCI Level 2 Coaching Qualification (Level 3 will be achieved in one month), made his debut as a DS (Directeur Sportif) at Tour du Benin - accompanied by our CEO Kimberly Coats - for the Benin National Team , heads...

Two week's ago we featured the father-son Uwimana cycling dynasty in Rwanda, and we now move our focus 3000km to Dire Dawa in eastern Ethiopia, home of the famous Rogora cycling family! On this edition of the Africa Rising Cycling Podcast, we talked to 22-year-old Kiya Rogora , a professional cyclist who has already raced around the world for pro teams and for Ethiopia. Kiya recently launched...

This weekend, teams from around Africa, Europe and Asia will arrive in Cotonou, on the Atlantic shore of Benin, in the heart of West Africa, for the UCI 2.2 Tour du Bénin! We sat down with race organiser, President of Bénin Cycling, famous artist and passionate cycling advocate, Romuald Hazoumé, to talk all things Tour du Bénin. He is one of Africa's leading cycling voices at the national Fede...

On 29 March 2026, 17-year-old Muhawenimana Rafiki Jonathan won the Rwandan Junior MTB XCO National Championships. This was a great win for this rising young Rwandan star. However, this journey began twenty years ago, three years before he was born, when his father, the famous Rafiki 'Kiki' Uwimana* joined Adrien Niyonshuti, coach Jonathan 'Jock' Boyer and the original members of th...

As a soft spoken, 58kg, diminutive South African, Louis Meintjes has not spent a huge amount of time in the media's eye, preferring his riding and results do the talking. However he is a rider to whom all aspiring World Tour riders from Africa - and around the world - should pay attention. He has ridden in 20 Grand Tours, including 7 editions of the Tour de France, which is more than any other...

In this episode, we had an in-depth chat with Jean-Pierre van Zyl, the Director of the UCI's World Cycling Centre programme in Africa. He is based at the excellent WCC facility in Paarl, South Africa. JP often avoids the limelight, but has quietly been working with Africa's leading athletes for over two decades. From the big guns like Biniam Girmay and Kim Le Court Pienaar, to the new crop...

The CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto Generation women's professional team has been supporting African female rising talent for several years. In 2026, they have signed two of Africa's most exciting young prospects: Ethiopia's Tsige Kahsay Kiros , and Eritrea's Monalisa Araya . Ahead of this duo from Easy Africa making their debut together on 21 March, we caught up with Beth Durea, a co-own...