Tour of Rwanda to cost Rwf360 million

A whopping Rwf360 million will be spent on the fifth edition of the Tour of Rwanda, set for November 17 to 24, Rwanda Cycling Federation has said.The Rwanda Cycling Federation chairman, Aimable Bayingana, told Times Sport, “We want to have a good and attractive competition and hope this year’s edition will be better than all the previous races.”Bayingana said the national team has been undergoing intensive preparations and, after assessing the situation over the last few days, he is optimistic the team will put up a great show.Last year, Adrien Niyonshuti was the only Rwandan to finish in the top ten. He came in the ninth position in the 894.8km race that was dominated by South African riders and won by Lill Darren.However, Niyonshuti has been out of competition since February and is ruled out of the Tour of Rwanda as he continues to recover from deep vein thrombosis.No Rwandan has ever won the Tour since it became an international event in 2006.The local cycling federation has already secured sponsorship from the Ministry of Sports and Culture, Rwanda Development Board (RDB), COGEBANK, Inyange Industries, Skol beer, Moneygram, Eurocar, RSSB, SN Brussels, Canal Plus, Radio 10, RBA, TV10 and TV5 Mond to organise this year’s event.Team Rwanda is composed of three sides (Team Rwanda Akagera, Team Rwanda Karisimbi, and Team Rwanda Muhabura).Also expected to participate in the Tour are Team Novo Nordisk, (US), Team Sovac (Algeria), Two European teams (Team Avia Crabbe from Belgium and Rhone Alpes from France) and nine African teams, including South Africa, Ethiopia, Egypt, Kenya, Algeria, Gabon, DRC, Eritrea.