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The 14th edition of the Tour du Rwanda starts on Sunday February 20 with a prologue in the streets of Kigali. The event will end on the heights of the Rwandan capital on February 27.
The only first category race in Africa, the Tour of Rwanda 2022 will offer an ever-demanding route with 31 climbs over all eight stages and a total of 937 kilometers to be covered. Four days of racing will be mainly dedicated to climbers. The sprinters will have two stages to shine.
Who to succeed the Spaniard Cristian Rodriguez?
Won last year by Spaniard Cristian Rodriguez, the African event has become an unmissable event at the start of the season. Moreover, Rwanda will host the World Road Cycling Championships in 2025, a first in Africa. Cristian Rodriguez, from the TotalEnergies team, is absent and the team should count on the tricolor Alexandre Geniez.
At the beginning of February, Geniez, 33, who will end his career at the end of the season, had thus distinguished himself in Saudi Arabia, finishing first in France and 8th overall in the tour of the country. The climber-puncher, who participated in 14 “big tours” (France, Spain, Italy), finished 38th in 2021 in Rwanda, but above all contributed to Cristian Rodriguez’s final victory.
For this new edition, two former winners will be at the start: the Rwandan Samuel Mugisha and the Eritrean Natnael Tesfasion. Eight former stage winners will also be part of the peloton, such as Frenchman Pierre Rolland. Or the Colombian Jhonatan Restrepo (5 stage wins) and the Algerian Azzedine Lagab (4 stage wins).
Rwanda will be represented by its national team and the formation Benediction Ignite. The last victory of a Rwandan dates back to 2018 with Samuel Mugisha.