The 2018 Tour du Rwanda stages

August 5 Stage 1: Rwamagana – Rwamagana (104km)

August 6 Stage 2: Kigali – Huye (120.3km)

August 7 Stage 3: Huye – Musanze (195.3km)

August 8 Stage 4: Musanze – Karongi (135.8km)

August 9 Stage 5: Karongi – Rubavu (95.1km)

August 10 Stage 6: Rubavu – Kinigi (Volcanoes National Park) 108.5km

August 11 Stage 7: Musanze – Kigali (107.4km)

August 12 Stage 8: Kigali – Kigali (82.2km)

Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka’s Samuel Mugisha will race for the national cycling team ‘Team Rwanda’ in the forthcoming Tour du Rwanda, scheduled for August 5-12.

The development was confirmed to Times Sport by the national team head coach Sterling Magnell in an exclusive interview on Sunday following the conclusion of two build-up races in Rubavu District that were meant to give the riders a feel of new stage routes this yeear.

According to Magnell, Mugisha’s participation in Tour du Rwanda is aimed at giving him a chance to prepare with his compatriots for the prestigious Tour de l’Avenir in France.

"His is coming makes sense for a number of reasons, the first reason is that he is doing Tour de l’Avenir with us. Both Samuel Mugisha and Joseph Areruya ride for very good professional teams and those teams are not doing Tour de l’Avenir which is the biggest race in the world for the U23 riders, bigger than the world championships I think,” said Magnell.

"Samuel (Mugisha) doesn’t have a race between now and Tour de l’Avenir with his team, so it’s a great opportunity for him to join Team Rwanda. Thanks to the federation for the initiative and facilitation to make his travel possible,” the American coach added.

The 2016 Tour du Rwanda King of the Mountains (KOM) who is fresh from winning a similar title at the 55th edition of Italy’s Giro Della Valle d’Aosta with Dimesnsion Data a fortnight ago, is expected to jet in tomorrow (August 25) from Italy where he will join teammates at Africa Rising Cycling Center (ARCC) in Musanze district.

In 2016, Mugisha marked an awe-inspiring Tour du Rwanda debut, defying the odds to emerge as the best climber of the eight-day UCI Africa Tour race.

The national U23 cycling team (U23 Team Rwanda) is set to become the first African national team to race Tour de l’Avenir, a prestigious cycling event regarded as the junior version of the famous Tour de France. The race is scheduled for August 17-26 in France.

Tour de l’Avenir (Tour of the Future) is a French road bicycle racing stage race, which started in 1961 as a race similar to the Tour de France and over much of the same course but for amateurs and for semi-professionals known as independents.

Felice Gimondi, Joop Zoetemelk, Greg LeMond, Miguel Indurain and Laurent Fignon won the Tour de l’Avenir and went on to win 12 Tours de France titles between them.

Since 2007, it is designed for riders 23 or younger and has been a national team competition.

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