{"id":4452,"date":"2023-03-08T11:55:55","date_gmt":"2023-03-08T10:55:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/?p=4452"},"modified":"2023-03-14T11:58:33","modified_gmt":"2023-03-14T10:58:33","slug":"starting-a-cycling-culture-in-east-africa-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2023\/03\/08\/starting-a-cycling-culture-in-east-africa-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Starting a Cycling Culture in East Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>How do you introduce professional cycling to an area of the world that has absolutely no cycling tradition? If you\u2019re Mikel Delagrange, the founder of the Dutch-African partnership Amani, you sponsor high-profile races and bring in professional cyclists.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>That is what Delagrange has done in East Africa. \u201cIf you take a myopic approach,\u201d said Delagrange, \u201cit actually is about the lack of racing opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Delagrange is an American attorney working at the International Criminal Court in the Hague. His work, helping victims of war crimes to bring the criminals to trial, took him to Kenya, Uganda, and DR Congo for ten years. He is also a passionate cyclist and is keen to see people in East Africa have access to professional races. The first step in that long-term plan was the four-day <a href=\"http:\/\/www.migrationgravelrace.com\/\">Migration Gravel Race<\/a> held in June 2021. It brought 61 riders from all over the world to race 650 km over single-track, game trails, red clay and hard-pack gravel across the wilds of Kenya\u2019s Maasai Mara Reserve.<\/p>\n<p>The winner of the men\u2019s race was former WorldTour rider Laurens ten Dam who had all to do to finish ahead of Kenya\u2019s Suleman Kangangi. Kangangi was delighted that the race had brought professional cycling to the region. \u201cI think it was beautiful when this idea came about,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople have now seen more than before with the media attention on this race\u2026 To see ex-professionals, like the big riders who are here, was important for East African riders \u2013 to see how fast these guys can go, and learn from them. This will help these guys improve their skills, their communication and, most of all, they can train even harder for the next event.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CnKkyZvSS7k\/?hl=cs<\/p>\n<p>That next event is not far away. This coming summer, just five days after the second edition of the Migration Gravel Race ends in Kenya, <a href=\"https:\/\/evolutiongravelrace.com\/\">Evolution Gravel\u00a0Race<\/a> will kick off in Tanzania. Evolution Gravel will cover 850 kilometres and 10,000 meters of climbing over five days. Delagrange said that the long stages \u2013 they average 180 km \u2013 and two days that feature over 3,000 meters of climbing will challenge riders in a way that the Migration\u2019s shorter, more technical stages did not. \u201cWe pass through five different climate zones,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.velonews.com\/news\/gravel\/evolution-gravel-and-team-amani-the-movement-to-develop-an-east-african-pro-cycling-culture-marches-on\/\">he said.<\/a> \u201cThe stages are all quite long with an eyewink toward an ultra-event but not quite. [There are] smooth gravel roads, so anyone who\u2019s ridden the Migration will already know it\u2019s quite a departure. There are a couple of flat, long stages and a couple of massive mountain stages. Then you end at the coast, the Indian Ocean, which is a huge incentive for riders. You\u2019re just a short ferry ride from Zanzibar.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While the Migration Gravel Race and Evolution Gravel represent rare opportunities for non-professional cyclists to travel and race their bikes in East Africa, the events are also intended to provide high-level racing on African soil and to support aspiring East African professionals. Their public visibility is aimed at attracting industry partnerships from the West in order to help fund the development of East African cyclists.<\/p>\n<p>And this goal is already being achieved, with the establishment of Team Amani. With the backing of brands like Giant, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2023\/03\/03\/expert-answers-your-winter-clothing-and-layering-questions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">POC,<\/a> and Factor Bikes, Amani will focus on three projects this year, the two gravel races in East Africa and the recently formed Team Amani. Ten riders will receive salaries and support. \u201cAll of the things that were super ad hoc last year we\u2019re making sure are dialled,\u201d Delagrange said.<\/p>\n<p>But he doesn\u2019t expect these novice cyclists to become World Tour racers overnight. \u201cWe\u2019re hoping to leverage corporate partnerships to see what happens,\u201d Delagrange said. \u201cIt\u2019s a way to give [the riders] a little comfort to see if we help them do something differently, if it results in something different.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How do you introduce professional cycling to an area of the world that has absolutely no cycling tradition? If you\u2019re [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":167,"featured_media":4489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"global-categories":[],"class_list":["post-4452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-the-latest"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.3 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Starting a Cycling Culture in East Africa - \u0160koda We Love Cycling - United Kingdom<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2023\/03\/08\/starting-a-cycling-culture-in-east-africa-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Starting a Cycling Culture in East Africa Starting a Cycling Culture in East Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How do you introduce professional cycling to an area of the world that has absolutely no cycling tradition? 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