Cycling: The tasks that await Murenzi in the next four years

A lot awaits Abdallah Murenzi after he again won the vote of confidence from members of the local cycling governing body (Ferwacy) to remain in office for the next four years. Murenzi was the only candidate for president and garnered 10 out of a possible 11 votes during an election held on Saturday, June 11, at Hill Top Hotel in Remera. Times Sport looks at the tasks that await him during his four-year tenure. Development and increasing cycling competitions Ferwacy invests its efforts and much of their time organizing three major tournaments, namely National championship and Rwanda Cycling cup both organized on the national level and the prestigious Tour du Rwanda. However, the federation plans to have competitions at district level for them to be able to discover new young cyclists for further development on the national level. “The more riders compete the better their level of performance becomes. We are going to look at how we can increase domestic competitions that we believe will help us in unearthing several talents across the country,” he said. For elite riders, Murenzi says the federation will be investing efforts in getting them more international competitions. “We also want to send more riders for professional training at renowned cycling centres to learn more from countries that are advanced in cycling. These training sessions are really important for our riders to improve their performances,” Murenzi said. Sponsorship Rwanda’s premier cycling tournament Tour du Rwanda is arguably the first tournament with many sponsors and they keep increasing in every edition. However, some of the companies suspended the sponsorship while others withdrew until further notice due to the economic crisis caused by the covid-19 pandemic during the past two years. SKOL Brewery is one of sponsors that withdrew their sponsorship, a development that turned out as a huge blow for the annual tournament in terms of financing. Despite the fact that the country is recovering from the economic crises, some sponsors are yet to renew their sponsorship deals with Ferwacy for different reasons. However, Murenzi said the federation is considering looking for other alternatives in a new drive to increase sponsorship to ensure financial stability for them to organize more tournaments locally. “We are going to approach potential sponsors so we can mobilize enough funds that will help us discover and develop new cycling talent across the country,” he explained. Improving the level of coaching Rwanda’s cycling has been improving year after year but the lack of qualified professional coaches remains a major threat to the development of the sport. The country has dropped from second in Africa in 2018 to sixth in 2022, a worrying concern that many blame the lack of professional coaches as one of the key factors behind the drop in rankings. The rankings started to drop since the Tour du Rwanda was sanctioned to the UCI 2.1 race. Despite the fact that 16 coaches were this year certified with Level 1 coaching licenses, no Rwandan holds a professional coaching license so far and that puts the cycling development in serious jeopardy. Murenzi said the federation is planning to increase the number of coaches of different levels as he and his committee look to turn Rwanda into a cycling powerhouse. “We want to find more training opportunities to help these coaches upgrade their licenses from level One to level Two and level Three and we will continue to support them with more advanced trainings until they become professional coaches,” he said But, in the meantime, Murenzi said the federation looks to hire some international coaches with advanced skills to train national team cycling teams until the country produces homegrown coaches with professional coaching licenses. Cycling equipment Local riders have on different occasions been claiming that lack of new cycling equipment affect their chances of appearing in elite cycling competitions In 2020, rider Moise Mugisha, now champion of Tour du Cameroun, appealed to Ferwacy and the Ministry of Sports to find his team new cycling equipment so they could perform well at then Tour du Rwanda 2020. The federation could at the time only manage to replace some damaged spare parts with new ones for the riders to compete. Unfortunately, no rider made it into the top 10 of the race. With the challenge persisting, Murenzi revealed a project by Belgian factory Ridley to bring a manufacturing plant in Rwanda is in pipeline for the federation to be able to easily get high-standard bikes for local riders. Preparations for 2025 Road World Championship Rwanda in September 2021 won the hosting right for the 2025 Road World Championship during a historical ceremony held in Flanders Leuven, Belgium, becoming the first African nation to host the world’s most prestigious cycling event since its inception in 1921. Murenzi said the preparations to host the cycling tour started the day the country was announced as the hosts. Technically, he said, the country has started to prepare the riders for the tournament with much focus on finding plenty of competitions for men and women’s teams. “We have already started to prepare young riders for the World Championship and we hope they will have plenty of competitions for them to prepare for the race during the next three years,” he said.