Team Rwanda has left for Kisumu, Kenya, travelling via Uganda, for the African Road Cycling Championships, which run from October 21 to 25, the Rwanda Cycling Federation (FERWACY) said on X on Saturday, October 17. 

The squad of 39 riders covers five categories, from under-17 cadets to elite: senior men (12) and women (5), under-23 men (4) and women (3), under-19 boys (5) and girls (4), and under-17 boys (3) and girls (3).

The squad includes Samuel Niyonkuru, who won the elite men’s road race and the individual time trial at June’s national championships, and Valentine Nzayisenga, who took the elite women’s road race title, her first national road title since 2019. 

The championships, organised by the Confederation of African Cycling, are expected to attract more than 300 riders from over 30 countries to Kisumu. Competitors will race across 15 categories over five days, including individual time trials, a mixed team relay and mass-start road races. All races start and finish in Kisumu, with the road races held over repeated laps of a city circuit.

Rwanda won bronze in the men’s team time trial at the 2017 African Championships in Luxor, Egypt, and silver at home in Kigali in 2018. It added eight medals in Accra in 2023, and four in Eldoret in 2024, including gold in the mixed team time trial.

In 2025, in Kwale, Kenya, 23 Rwandan riders won 10 medals: two gold, four silver and four bronze and finished third overall, behind South Africa and Eritrea.