Rwanda Cycling Federation, on Thursday, December 8, announced that the national cycling team, was selected among 15 others to take part in the La Tropicale Amissa Bongo, slated for January 23-29, 2023. This race is back after taking a hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic. La Tropicale Amissa Bongo was last held in 2020. Rwanda is among the 10 national teams that will compete along with Benin, Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Eritrea, Côte d'Ivoire, Morocco, Mauritius and Gabon. They will be joined by five other teams including TotalEnergies from France, EF Education-Nippo Development Team from U.SA, Beykoz Team Turkey from Turkey, Burgos BH from Spain and Bingoal WB from Belgium. For Rwandan athletes, this competition is a good opportunity to prepare for the Tour du Rwanda that will be held on February 19-26, 2023. Team Rwanda is one of the 20 teams that will participate in this cycling race around the country. The Rwanda Cycling Federation, has also set up other local races to be held in December before participating in La Tropicale Amissa Bongo 2023. Joseph Areruya, in 2018, became the only Rwandan in history to win La Tropicale Amissa Bongo, the biggest cycling race on the UCI-Africa Tour. La Tropicale Amissa Bongo is a road cycling race held in Gabon and is part of the UCI Africa Tour. The race consists of only a men's competition, a race run over seven stages. The race is named in honor of Albertine Amissa Bongo. In 2020, La Tropicale Amissa Bongo was won by Frenchman Jordan Levasseur of Go Sport–Roubaix–Lille Métropole. He was followed by Eritrean Natnael Tesfazion of Drone Hopper Androni Giocatolli and Emmanuel Morin of Team UC Nantes Atlantique.
