The next road cycling world championships will be organized in September, for the first time on African soil. This is an opportunity not to be missed for young cyclists on this continent. A program allows some of them to come and train in Brittany and even attend the Tour de France.
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One week before the start of the Tour de France on Saturday July 5, national championships are organized all over the world. And in particular in Africa, while, at the end of September, Kigali and Rwanda will welcome the very first ones on the road organized on the African continent. They are of particular importance for African runners who dream of representing their country there. Among them, 13 young runners prepared for more than three months in Brittany, as part of a project led by the International Cycling Union.
It is in the small village of Gomené, in the coasts of Armor, just after an outing on the Breton roads, that we find the 13 young runners : seven girls and six boys from Erythtrée, Rwanda, Egypt and Mauritius. “We miss the house sometimes, but here too it's not bad. By being on the bicycle, I feel free”tell Georgette Vignufondo, 18 years old.
Her comrade Vanette Houssou, also from Benin and 20 years old, explains himself “Give to all. The wonders that the champions make on the big towers, I like it to do so too.”
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A project of 1.7 million euros, to finance the trips of athletes, the equipment, the clothes and all the people who supervise the group, like Steven Laget, technical advisor of the team, who also plays a little the role of “nanny” for young cyclists. “I am a bit of their daddyhe smiles. They are very close to their family so being far away, it's complicated for them. In Eritrea, for example, there is no internet network. Very little speak English, but little by little we get there and it's great. “
“The fact that there is a world championship this year in Africa for the first time, I think it is a springboard to start developing cycling a little more in a global way”explains the former Canadian runner, Jacques Landry, now director of the World Cycling Center, within the International Cycling Union. It is he who is at the origin of the project. “We immediately started to identify African athletes who showed potential”he explains.
“Brittany seemed to us the most logical. It allows them to work with a relief, the Arrée mountains, which is very similar to what they will find in Kigali.”
Jacques Landry, director of the World Cycling Centerin franceinfo
And it works : Some have already won races in Brittany. And all already dream of following the wheels of Biniam Girmay, the first runner of black Africa to have won victories on the Tour de France. “He is the African who showed Africans who can be persevered in cycling. It is not only the whites who will do it”explains Vanette Houssou.
“By doing wonders, for me, he gave me a boost. Because I imitate him too”adds Georgette Vignufondo. The two young cyclists will undoubtedly meet him on the Tour, where they must pass to discover the race as closely as possible and continue their apprenticeship for the world road cycling championships in Kigali, from September 21 to 28.
Before the next Worlds in Rwanda, African hopes are training in Brittany. Report by Fanny Lechevestrier
