Just hours to the kick off, the Tour du Rwanda 2023 could make history as one of the toughest races for any rider to win, regardless of their profiles in their cycling career.
While the race continues to attract more high profile riders since it was sanctioned to the 2.1 category, the flagship event of African cycling promises to be as spectacular as ever with an unprecedented exciting start at the heart of the Golf Court – Kigali.
The eight-stage race anticipates to produce some big moments worth archiving in the race’s history books.
Times Sport looks at the riders to watch at Tour du Rwanda 2023.
Chris Froome
The Briton needs no introduction with his trophy-laden career.
Froome won seven world cycling championships including four times at the Tour de France, twice at the Vuelta, the Giro d’Italia, and the Tour of Spain but he still wants to win more and Tour du Rwanda seems to be his next target this year.
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Henok Mulubrhan
The Eritrean, who rides for Terengganu Polygon Cycling Team, is one of the favorite riders to watch at Tour Du Rwanda which is coming to play days after he defended his men's road race title at the African Cycling Confederation (CAC) African Road Championships in Accra.
The triumph in Ghana has raised his confidence and has since fired a warning to rivals that he is not coming just to participate.
Daniel Teklehaimanot
The Eritrean, 34, has not competed in Tour du Rwanda since he won the race in 2010 and is expected to be on the Eritrean national cycling team roster competing for this year’s silverware.
Eritrea is one of the teams that have been performing well in Tour du Rwanda in the past, and having Teklehaimanot in their roster has been a major boost to their hopes of winning the 2023 edition.
At 21-year-old, he was the first black African to compete at the Tour de France back in 2015 and, with such an experience, the veteran is looking forward to tussling the 2023 edition out against the likes of Chris Froome.
Ethan Vernon
Ethan Vernon is a British road and track cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Soudal–Quick-Soudal Quick Step.
His journey in cycling began with BMX racing before switching to road and track, in the latter making Great Britain’s pursuit team for the 2020 Olympics and taking a silver medal in the 1km TT at the European Championships.
But the young Brit showed a lot of potential also on the road, notching up several impressive results in the process – a victory on stage 4 of last year’s Tour de l’Avenir and a top 10 at the World Championships in the U23 individual time trial – which have landed him a contract with the most successful team in the world.
Vernon seized the opportunity immediately he was presented with it, becoming one of last season’s youngest winners at World Tour level after a sprint which underlined his blazing speed and instincts.
Towards the end of the year, an impressive brace of stage victories followed at the Tour of Slovakia, before he capped off his first season with the squad with a bronze medal at the Track World Championships.
Given his tough fights in world-class races, Soudal–Quick-Soudal Quick Step have their key man in Vernon whose test no rider should be taking lightly at Tour du Rwanda.
Moise Mugisha
The Team Rwanda rider may be one of Rwanda’s most prolific cyclists to never have won Tour du Rwanda but he has always been among the frontrunners for the race since it was sanctioned to 2-1 category.
Mugisha finished the 2020 edition as the first runner up behind Natnael Tesfasion but missed the 2021 event after he had a rift with then Adrien Niyonshuti at former club SKOL Adrien Cycling Academy (SACA).
Returning in 2022, Moise Mugisha made history the day he won stage 8, the first time a Rwandan had won a stage since 2018.
And after an impressive 2022 in general, during which he won three races at domestic level, all eyes are again on the rider as to whether he could bring foreign riders’ Tour du Rwanda dominance to an end in 2023.
Mikel Bizkarra
The 21-year-old Spanish rider plays for Euskaltel Euskadi which won the stage at the 2019 Vuelta a España, an annual multi-stage bicycle race primarily held in Spain.
Not every rider competes at a world cycling race of La Vuelta’s caliber and that gives every rider at Tour du Rwanda a reason to keep a close eye on Bikarra.