Chris Froome has raced across contintents but Rwanda’s Field of Dreams Cycling Centre left him deeply moved and inspired.
When the four-time Tour de France saw the newly built compound in the highlands of Bugesera in Rwanda’s eastern province, he was visibly impressed and delivered an emotional speech.
The two-time Olympic bronze medallist called the academy “a game changer”. He acknowledged the joy on the faces of the many kids who had gathered there, hoping to be selected for an opportunity to join the academy and realise their dreams of becoming professional cyclists one day.
That was in February of 2023.
Since then, the centre has grown. The number of participants has risen exponentially and there is every sense that over the next few years that figure could soar.
The global attention is likely to rise even more when the UCI Road World Championships are being staged in Rwanda later this month
There has been a lot of interest in the sport from the community. Bugesera, Rwanda’s fast rising district, is just 44km southeast of the capital with the inhabitants mainly farmers and livestock keepers. The roads are lined with tall trees; the people live very simple lives.
The district’s capital, Nyamata, has a miniature genocide memorial that serves a reminder of the horrific killings of 1994. For many of the inhabitants, the horrors of that time subtly flow through the town.
The cycling academy has become a beacon of hope for many of the children.
Started in 2019 by the Gasore Serge Foundation and the Bugesera district, the main aim was to support vulnerable kids and transform their lives through education. So far, it has gone to plan. They have 180 young people who they feed, clothe, provide education for and give free bicycles to train with.
“When we want to get children into the academy, we go to the local schools, find the kids interested in the sport, then we contact their parents. The parents who are with it allow us to enrol their children to the academy,” the coordinator at the Field of Dreams Cycling centre, Vivien Mutangana, told Olympics.com.
The landscape at the centre is beautiful. There is a brick one-storey building that stretches for about 400m, serving as classrooms, dining area and a clinic for the students.
In the heart of the centre, there is a basketball court, a pump track for those who want to learn bike stunts and an undulating race track built into the valleys that surrounds the whole centre.