The countdown to Kigali 2025 is on. Jeremy Ford of Africa Rising joins us to talk about the UCI Road World Championships in Rwanda, the first ever on African soil and the legacy it will leave across the continent.
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Hi guys and welcome to my podcast, The Cyclist
Next Door. If you are enjoying these episodes, why not like, subscribe or share with a loved
one, a fellow cyclist or somebody who might be interested. The time has come for today’s episode.
So, grab your cup of tea, settle into your zone 2 momentum. Let’s go rolling. Hi guys and welcome to
the Cyclist Door podcast. And today we’re in Via which is in Cold Drops yard. Another great place
to come and meet your friends after a cycling ride. But today I’m here I’m meeting Jeremy
Ford from Africa Rising. Now Africa Rising is an organization which spotlights cycling across the
African continent. And what better time than to sit down with Jeremy with the Rwanda World Cycle
World Cycling Championships coming up to just to talk about the momentous event which is happening
and also the future of cycling and our hopes and visions for that and also to find out how we as
part of the cycling community can play a part in this big event which is coming up. So let’s crack
on. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much. So great to catch up with you. First of all, can
you give us a brief introduction to who you are for those who have not met Jeremy yet and also
your role? Yeah, absolutely. Hello everyone. Um, so I’ve been around African cycling for
about 12 years. Um, started off in Kenya um, a long time ago riding mountain bikes and got
into into the sport side of African cycling. Um, Africa Rising is a nonprofit based in the US.
Um, and essentially we develop or help develop young African talent across the continent. Um,
and on the other side of our business is the lobbying and promotion. So we have around about
100,000 followers on social media. We’re on every platform. We’re pretty prolific as I’m sure you’ve
seen. Um, and the idea is to promote the riders that are out there racing in Europe or racing
around the world as well as the riders back home that are that trying to become pro cyclisters.
And that’s awesome as well. So there’s such a beautiful vision at at the heart, you know, Africa
rising and kind of what you want to achieve. Um, are you able to just give us a little flavor of
some of the drive lates which have been sort of driving the initiatives there? What what things
are you really focusing on? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, if you think back just 10 years, you had
um Daniel Techimmer, sorry, Peter Sagen has just walked into the the cafe. So I’m trying not to
fanboy right now. But um literally 10 years ago, we actually celebrated this at the tour to France
last month. Um Daniel Techimonaut won the king of the mountain jersey at the tour to France as an
erratan. He was the first African, first black man ever to to have a jersey at the race. And it
was that moment where suddenly we realized the talent was there. We’d seen the talent developing.
Absolutely. That we said, “Right now, we have to really help these riders.” Because what actually
happens is if you if you think about Europe, you know, I I started racing when I was four
years old, right? You’re a coach. You know this, I was racing BMX when I was four. Um, our riders
are getting on bikes at 13, 14, 15 in in countries around Africa, but they haven’t had that 10 years.
So, what we’re trying to do is find ways to get younger and younger riders on bikes because that
will be where they develop. Absolutely. And that’s great as well. And that’s the next generation
so important. Now that we’ve had the foundation, we’ve heard about Africa rising. We’re just
going to zoom out a little bit to sort of African cycling across the continent. Now, from the
time that you’ve been involved in it, what kind of sort of milestone and success stories can you
share with us? I know I imagine there’s so many, but is there anything that really sort of stands
out to you that you just want to share with us? Yeah, I mean as I I mentioned, I mean, Daniel
getting that King of the Mountain jersey in in 2015 was a was a big moment, but I think it’s
that’s you have these moments in sport like that where you have that, you know, a win or or a
jersey, but I think the moment this year, I mean, last year actually when Binium Gay won the three
three stages of the tour to France and obviously had the jersey, there’s an image on the Shanise
of Baga, Vingo, I think, or Remco and Binium. Um, and that was a huge moment because what was
happening at that time is we were getting as Binian was getting more and more famous and doing
so well, we were getting inbounds from from riders across Africa saying a guy that looks like me is
winning at the tour to France representation. And that was the moment we were like, “Hang on, we’ve
never had that before.” We’ve had the odd win, you know, with Daniel and Mahawi Cudas and and people
like this. But with Binium winning at the world’s biggest bike race and Benium, I think himself
said on the Chanel like, I’ve opened the door and it was such a beautiful moment because from
that moment we saw real momentum, you know, kids in in Benin, in Rwanda, Uganda, Algeria, Morocco,
and then kids around the world were going someone who looks like me can win cycling and and we’ve
seen real growth from that moment. Absolutely. Absolutely. And it was such a beautiful moment.
I remember one of his teammates saying, you know, this one’s for Africa being over it. You know,
I think people just sort of absolutely love that moment. They could just feel part of it.
What makes cycling in Africa so unique from any other part of the world? Um, I think the reality
is, so I was talking to David Laatia, you know, the president of UCI at the tour of Rwanda in
February, and I said, you’ve got to start talking about cycling being Africa’s second sport because
firstly, that gives some context because soccer is always number one, right? Wherever you go in
the world, unfortunately, soccer is always number one. But to say something’s number two, it’s like
saying gold and silver medal, right? It’s you’re close to each other. And cycling is is it’s a it’s
a sport that’s come from transportation. You know, in in England 120 years ago, it was the poor
man’s transportation to to factories in China now, in India, in Africa, all these places, it’s still
that transportation system. But what that leads to is then what do you do at the weekends? And what
you do at the weekends is sport and and exercise. So what we’re seeing in Africa is the as
you’re seeing the middle class is starting to grow as you’ve seen around the world as well.
Cycling’s becoming something that people want to do. Absolutely. You know in if you look at India
for example right now we I was talking to a guy from the Indian Cycling Federation. He said we
have a real problem because cycling in India is seen as a poor man’s transport. So people don’t
want their kids racing bikes because it’s seen as like a different thing. In Africa we don’t
have that. like bicycles are seen as one of the the most useful tools in people’s existence.
But what’s happening on the racing side is you’ve had either cultural influx from from whether it’s
colonialism from Belgium or France, UK or Holland. And you look at someone like Eratraa like it is
their number one sport. Yeah, exactly. You know, they’re not very good at soccer whenever we’re in
AFCON and things like this, but they love cycling. And so you look at that say that’s what every
country needs is people that you’ve got juniors everywhere. You’ve got U23, you’ve got the adults.
So what we’re seeing right across the continent and to some extent it’s probably jealousy as well
in that East Africa’s always dominated cycling, you know, with the Aratrayans, Ethiopians,
Rwanda, Algeria, Morocco in the north and South Africa in the south. But you’re seeing West
Africa now, you know, Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, to soccer’s always dominating there, but they’re
seeing Africans do well in cycling. So suddenly the West in the last two years we’ve seen
massive growth in in the West. So, as a sport, it’s everywhere in Africa. It’s just the challenge
for us normally is just getting the equipment, getting getting the the riders to races and things
like that, but but we’re seeing more and more and more interest, especially for ministries of sport
to then fund the cycling federations, which they normally put the money into soccer or or something
else. Amazing. And it’s just been so lovely just to see the growth of cycling in Africa, honestly,
and see it go from strength to strength as well. So obviously we’ve got the Rwanda World
Championships. It’s happening in Rwanda, happening in Kgali, but this is such a momentous
event. And can you just break down to us just a few words what this event really means to Africa,
not just Rwanda, to to Africa as a whole. Kind of what kind of what makes it so special for us?
I I someone said to me at the tour to France, it’s cycling’s had world champs for 100 years and
yet it’s the first time in Africa. So part of it is is a is a European dominated sport saying okay
it’s time for Africa. You think about football when when South Africa hosted the football world
cup everyone suddenly went oh hang on. Yeah. So what we’re seeing with with with Kaggali 2025
is exactly the same thing. federations around world around the world looking at a part of the
planet they’ve never looked at you know Belgium cycling Dutch cycling British cycling Argentinian
cycling Australian cycling they’ve never thought about Africa suddenly they’re like oh we can ride
if we can if there’s a world champs there we must be able to ride bikes there so you’re seeing
this crazy focus on on on African cycling at the moment which is absolutely wonderful I mean
Rwanda is saying they think they’ll have 10,000 tourists come to watch for the week you know
and fly in and as we know when you have a huge sporting event. There’s always the legacy of that
because when this event happens, takes place on the 1st of October after all the racing is done,
the whole world will go in cycling will say, “Oh yeah, Africa has hosted a world championships.”
Absolutely. There’s nothing like that. Absolutely. And you know, you mentioned there sort of the
legacy as well and the impact it will have on the next generation seeing that happening on African
soil and that and that is just beautiful. So in terms of like the world championships obviously
the global cycling community I imagine everybody wants to be there but not everyone can be. So what
can people do sort of supporters and the global cycling community what can they do to feel part
of this and feel connected to the event when it’s happening at the time? Is there anything you’d
recommend? I’d start now. I mean there’s there’s an incredible website for the event. which I think
is like UCI Kaggali 2025. Obviously Africa Rising is covering it. We started our we have a live news
feed for the world champs we started about six months ago where we’re covering I mean obviously
African focus but riders development race results things like that. Um I noticed on pro cycling
stats this morning that the teams are starting to announce their team. So you can start to see the
riders that are going to be there. South Africa and Maitius have just announced their full squads,
but you’ll see coming after the Welter, you’ll see the Dutch, the Belgians, all these guys, the Bel,
you know, the Brits start to announce their teams. So, getting to know who the teams are and who’s
going to be racing. Um, the one thing I’m really talking to people about is the women’s side
because this is the first ever World Champs with a U23 women’s race. Excellent. And it’s been
it’s about time. So important. There’s been no no reason not to have it before, but they finally
brought that in, which so for Rwanda to host the launch of the first ever U23 jersey. So you’ll
have a new world champion at this race that’s never never existed before. And because it’s a new
race, there’s no qualification. So every country on the planet with a federation can send up to
five women for that event. Okay. So, what you’re going to see is, I mean, there’ll be some people
you’ve never heard of, and you there’ll be some from big names from Europe as well, but you’re
going to see a true world championship race in that women’s U23 race. Um, and that’s the one
I’m saying to people, I think, is a highlight. Absolutely. If I if I look at the elite races, men
and women, I think we know in the elite men who’s probably going to win the race. You’ll know the
name or names and with women probably the same. But with that U23, you’re going to have Africans,
Asians, South Americans, Europeans of all levels racing each other. And I I think that to
me is going to be the highlight highlight event. Amazing. Amazing. And you talked about the
blog, but that is so important, the blog that you um Africa Rising put out, you know, really sort
of breaking it down to people what’s happening on the ground. And obviously we at Psychex will
be definitely following that. But we we all can get involved, you know, and contribute, isn’t it?
We by social media even sharing, you know, really spotlighting African cycling because this is our
time, isn’t it? It’s not just the guys on the ground riding. Absolutely. Because if you think
about it from a social media point of view, there has been no accounts around this. So if if I look
at things like the Kaggali 2025 accounts, right, they’re still building their following because
they’re brand new for for this year. With Africa Rising, you know, we have a we have 100,000 people
on across the social media following us, but we’re seeing massive growth as we build up to the event.
You can see it. You know, the welter will finish in in a few days, and that from that moment, the
next biggest bike race on the planet will be the World Championships. So you’ll see everyone start
to focus and obviously it’ll be televised across the board as well and I I think if you go to
the Kaggali website there’s a list of all the distributors on TV across the world so you can
watch it there. I think the BBC will be covering it for sure from here. Brilliant. And this really
is our time. It’s our time Africa spotlight all eyes on Rwanda Gali but definitely something to
be celebrated for the whole continent. Absolutely the country and also the legacy. I mean it’s It’s
like everything on the 1st of October, you know, all the all the banners will be taken down and all
the the hoardings will be taken down. And that’s where we say to people like that’s where a lot of
the work will begin because there will be African riders who have done something in those races.
They they won’t be winning medals in many cases, but there’ll be African riders that have raced
junior level or U23 level and people they will do better than people expect. So you’ll have
these stories. There’s a there’s an Ethiopian junior called Sega Car. She’s 18 years old. She
just raced the Tour Deavanir. Okay. She was the youngest rider in the Tour de Lavanir by two
years. Brilliant. We just hoped she’d finish the stages. We’d hope we’d actually she’d finish
the race. She was top 20 on every single stage. So good. So the the amount of people that are
suddenly hitting her saying, “Hang on, who’s this 18year-old from Ethiopia?” If she does well
in that junior women’s race, I couldn’t tell you what’s going to happen. There could be contracts
coming from World Tour Pro Cont. So things like that, you’ll see a lot of those kind of develops
because everyone watches the World Championships. Fantastic. Fantastic. And you moved on to my
next point which I want to talk about the legacy, you know, when the world tour is over and everyone
packs up and the big names leave Figali. What is your vision and hope for cycling across Africa?
What do you hope this event will leave? I think there’s two for me there’s two things. One is
the effect on the athletes and one is the effect on the supporters from from the athletes point of
view. This is the first time many of these African athletes will have raced at such a high level
with with real strong global European riders. So you’ll have junior riders that don’t quite know
if they’re good enough and they’ll race that race and if they finish that race they’ll know they’re
good enough. that will give them motivation for the next two, three years of their lives to say,
“Actually, I’ve just raced the Belgiums and I’m good enough.” You know, that’s what we want these
riders to experience. We don’t we don’t expect them to win the races. That’s not what this is
about. We expect them to perform because if they perform, it’s something that it’s if I look
at say the Benin team that I’m working with, many of those riders have never raced outside
Africa, right? The chances of them racing in Europe are difficult. So, the world champs, we
bring the racing to them. Absolutely. They’ll race against people that they’ve seen on TV
and if they do well that will motivate them which means back home the Benin fans the people
that are putting the money in that support them from the government the Ministry of Sport they’ll
say actually this is something we should continue to invest in because it’s been on TV and it’s
rare for those federations to see their riders at such a high level. That’s incredible. If you
were speaking to a cyclist, a supporter and you had one message for them about why they should
care about this event which is happening in just a few weeks, what would be your sort of direct
message to them? Just to close everything off, why why should we care what’s happening in I think
it’s because in a 100red years of pro cycling, it’s the first time Africa’s had its time. So
I think everyone is I wouldn’t say we have a duty to watch it, but like just embrace it. You’re
gonna see if you’ve never watched Tour of Rwanda, which is sort of the the base event for these
races. If you’ve never watched Tour of Rwanda, watch the World Championships because having been
there, I mean, we expect nearly 2 million people to be on the road on the Saturday of the Elite
Women’s Race and two and a half to three million on the road for on the Sunday because people
have got school and work on Saturdays, right? So Sunday, everyone’s off work. There’ll be three
million people on the road. That is estimately four times as many people as the tour to France.
Amazing. So, if you’re watching this thing on TV, you will see something you have never seen before.
Is is an event on the roads with crazy crowds and it it is unique. And I I’d say to everyone, if you
can watch any of the races because you’ll see some of the most incredible crowd scenes in cycling
ever. Amazing. I absolutely love it. Jeremy, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast.
I hope we can talk at length later on because there’s so much more to talk about in terms
of Africa Rising and the amazing work they do across the continent. But thank you today for your
insight and your passion for cycling. And um yeah, thank you very much. And I think now we’re going
to run off and do some of the fan moment cuz we have a celebrity in the building. All right,
thank you very much Jeremy. Good to see you. Bye bye. Hi guys. Thank you for joining
me on this episode of Cycling Next Door. I hope you have enjoyed this episode
and if so, please like, subscribe, and share. Let’s grow this community and join
me back here again as we meet the next cyclists next door as we unpack the journey of everyday
people who have picked up a bike, experience the joy of cycling, and have been on their own
personal adventures. So until next time, rolling.