Eritrea’s Henok Mulubrhan celebrates after winning the Confederation of Africa Cycling Road Cycling African Championships elite men's category in Iten, Elgeyo Marakwet County on October 13, 2024.
Kenya successfully hosted the Confederation of African Cycling (CAC) Road Cycling African Championship in Kapsabet, Eldoret and Iten from October 9 to 13.
This was a build-up event towards the Road Cycling World Championships to be held for the first time in Africa in Rwanda next year.
Special Correspondent ELIAS MAKORI caught up with Christophe Impens, Director of Cycling at Golazo who organised the CAC event, and who is also involved in organizing the global event in Rwanda from September 21 to 28
Q. Was the Eldoret championship a success?
A. “We believe at Golazo that the first CAC African Road Cycling Championships on Kenyan soil was a huge success, and we are taking into account some different parameters:
First of all, the satisfaction rate among the participants and participating nations. They were really surprised to see this high level of quality organisation.
We may say that it’s the first time in history for the African Cycling Championships that this kind of high-level international championship was presented to the participating nations and to the riders.
Also, from a safety point of view, it was also a huge success which is very important for cycling. Safety is our number one priority.
Next to that, there were huge crowds along the circuits, both at the start and at the finish, and this means that the people of Kenya have really embraced cycling.
In the beginning, they were a little bit surprised about this event, with the closing of all the roads, but in the end, they saw really beautiful races and a spectacular spectacle with 22 different nations participating, and so it was a very nice event for the spectators.
Christophe Impens, Golazo’s Director for Cycling, speaks with marathon great Eliud Kipchoge at the CAC African Road Championships in Eldoret on October 11, 2024.
Also, from a political point of view, governmental institutions, like the Ministry of Sports, Ministry of Tourism, the Governors of the counties, the CECs of sports in the counties… everybody has really seen that this means international exposure and huge promotion for tourism in the region for Eldoret and Iten, and the two counties of Uasin Gishu and Elgeyo Marakwet.
The fact that 35 African countries broadcasted the event live during three days of the five-day competition is also a huge success, and this means that these regions were really put on the map and it also means that tourists will be enticed to come to Eldoret, Iten and the broader region. So, overall, it was a big success.
Q. So what next… we understand that there are plans for a ‘Tour of Kenya’ race?
A. The 2024 CAC Road Cycling African Championships were not a ‘one shot’ as there is an agreement between Golazo, the Kenyan Cycling Federation and the Ministry of Sports that we are here in Kenya for the long term.
As for 2025, we will present the “Safari Cycling Tour” which is a ‘mini Tour de France’ in Kenya.
I cannot give the exact details yet, but one of the plans is to combine it with the Tour du Rwanda so that the African continent can produce two high-quality, multiple-stage races combining those two (in Rwanda and Kenya).
This would mean that the Tour of Kenya, or the Safari Cycling Tour, would already be organized at the beginning of March, 2025, but this is yet to be confirmed.
Normally, this would be a five-day stage race going from one place to another, meaning that every day it will move from point A to B, so that it’s a real cycling tour as we know it in Europe.
But this is work in progress as now we have to evaluate the African Road Cycling Championships with the governmental institutions and then we can create a plan for the Safari Cycling Tour 2025. We have a contract to do this (Tour of Kenya) until 2029.
Q. Eritrea, Uganda, South Africa and Ethiopia dominated the CAC Road Cycling African Championships in Eldoret and Iten. Is there any hope for Kenya to also get onto the podium any time soon?
A. These countries already have a history in cycling, and also because they have good, structured national cycling federations. This is the basis of everything.
I believe that the Kenyan athletes (riders) have the morphology -- meaning the heart, the lungs, the legs and the brain – to become great international cyclists, and I’m pretty sure that in a few years, Kenya can also compete for medals in cycling as you already have the best athletes in the world in road running.
The effort in cycling is the same as in long distance running and also in 1,500 metres running. Kenya is the best in the world in these disciplines, so why shouldn’t you be the best also in cycling?
Of course, all this depends on the structure of the Kenyan Cycling Federation. I know they have very good intentions and they have seen the potential, thanks to these Road Cycling African Championships.
Together with the Ministry of Sports, there should be a programme deployed to create international cycling athletes. I’m sure in the near future, Kenya can also go for medals and international titles in cycling.
Of course cycling is more expensive as you need more than just running shoes. You need a bike, a helmet, shoes, nutrition etc… So we hope the Kenyan cycling federation will get the funding and have a five to 10-year programme to create athletes, so that the athletes only need to eat, sleep, drink, dream and perform.
Q. What does it mean for Rwanda to host the Road Cycling World Championships next year?
A. From September 21 to 28, 2025, the very first UCI Road Cycling World Championships will come to the African continent. The very first UCI Road Cycling World Championships were held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1921. Since then no road cycling world championships have been held in Africa.
Rwanda has the honour to be the host country and so it’s really a very big thing for international cycling. World championships in cycling are among the top five international world championships in the world, next to probably the Olympic Games, World Cup football and, maybe, Formula One, and the World Championships in Athletics.
So for the African continent, and the country of Rwanda, this means a lot as all the eyes of the world interested in sport, and in cycling in particular, will be focused on Rwanda in 2025.
Golazo is also helping in the organization, in different areas such as communication, marketing, road safety, procurement, travel and hospitality etc.
We will also help the government of Rwanda to set the highest possible standards to achieve a very nice international championship, not only to promote the country of Rwanda and city of Kigali, but also the broader continent as a cycling and tourist destination.
In the end, all countries in Africa that embrace cycling will benefit from these world championships in Rwanda because, of course, there needs to be a legacy programme, and this programme, for example, includes the constitution of the Kenyan Safari Cycling Tour which could be a very good legacy for the very first World Championships in Africa in 2025.
Q. What motivated Golazo, as the Confederation of African Cycling’s marketing agency, to pick Kenya/Eldoret for the Africa Championship?
A. Golazo indeed has the rights to organize the CAC Road Cycling African Championships from 2024 until 2031. Normally, each year we would go to a different country and so this year, as part of our contract with the Confederation of African Cycling, we chose Kenya.
Why Kenya? Because, of course, we (Golazo) have a lot of experience in organizing events in Kenya, mostly athletics and running events such as the Nairobi City Marathon.
We already have 35 full-time Golazo employees working in Nairobi and so for us it was evident to host this in Kenya.
Secondly, because of the warm hearts of the people of Kenya and their organizational skills, and, thirdly, we chose the region around Eldoret City, Kapsabet and Iten because this is a perfect blend between the “City of Champions” (Eldoret), the “Source of Champions” (Kapsabet) and the “Home of Champions” (Iten).
It is a perfect blend between the legacy of distance running in Kenya and cycling. It was the perfect mix to bring cycling to the home, source and city of champions, but now with African cycling champions.
Q. What needs to be improved in Kenyan cycling organisation?
A. First of all, from a really organisational perspective, we were blown away by the motivation from the government, counties, volunteers, safety stewards… this was really up to standard.
What needs to improve, which I have partly already answered, is that the cycling federation and Kenyan government should invest in a long-term, like 10-year training programme, to create high-level international cyclists in Kenya and to make sure they have all the facilities so they can just eat, sleep, dream, perform and win medals.
This is the one thing that’s missing because once the country has local heroes – as you already have in long-distance running in athletics – people will embrace cycling even more and you will have hundreds of thousands of spectators along the road, everybody will watch cycling on television, everybody will start following international cycling on other continents.
What’s missing is a high-performance structure to create athletes. But as for the rest, we are really impressed by the skills and the motivation.
The Kenyan people are doers – if you explain to them what needs to happen to set up a high-quality cycling event, they do it very quickly and are motivated, and they do it with a very high sense of quality. We were really impressed and we will be back in 2025 with the Safari Cycling Tour.
