Cycling is far from being an important sport in Uganda. Charles Kagimu (22 years old, team Bike Aid) is the first Ugandan cyclist ever to do pro races in Europe. We had done an article about Charles 2,5 years ago that you can find here (we will tell you what happened for him since then and what is coming next at the end of this article); Charles only realized that cycling could really be something serious for him at the age of 17, and 2 years later he first joined the German Continental team Bike Aid. The stories of Charles's Kenyan teammates at team Bike Aid are similar: Salim Kipkemboi did not know cycling was a sport before he met the guys of Kenyan Riders team while he was carrying wood on his heavy bike, and Suleiman Kangangi had no idea about pro cycling either before he joined Kenyan Riders at the age of 20. However, the story of Ugandan Jordan 'Schleck' Ssekanwagi is completely different: Jordan is 18, coming from a cycling family and since a very young age he has impressed with his results in the cycling races in Uganda and other East African countries. Let us introduce him to you in this article, thanks to his testimony and the ones of David Kinjah, director of Kenyan club Safari Simbaz, and Charles Kagimu. In the second part of the article, we will speak of what happened in the last two years for Charles Kagimu and Ugandan cycling globally.
Starting cycling at a young age
Jordan Ssekanwagi was born in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, on 20 September 2002. He is the son of David Matovu, an avid cyclist who is a former Ugandan national champion. David Matovu has raced a lot in East Africa and took part in a few Commonwealth Games as well. Today, at 38 years old, he is still racing locally when he gets an opportunity and he is coaching a Ugandan cycling club called Tropical Heat Cycling Academy. He also used to coach his son Jordan Schleck Ssekanwagi who started cycling very early: "I started riding my bike very young, Jordan says, at 4 years old, and then I started to train and to take it seriously when I was around 8 years old." Jordan was very small and light and he immediately impressed on his bike. He was already watching cycling races on TV at a very young age and was cheering for Andy and Frank Schleck. That's why his family began to nickname him 'Schleck', and then it was added to his name when he was around 6 years old: "When I was a kid, he recalls, I used to love Andy Schleck and to be good in hills, so my family decided ‘we should just call him that name’ and then it was added to my name." Jordan Schleck Ssekanwagi started racing with a mountain bike and then, in 2014, he upgraded to a road bike made of bamboo and carbon by his father, which he used until 2017. In Uganda, he was usually racing with the Elites because there are very few races for Juniors, and as a kid he was already among the best riders. He was also sometimes racing in Tanzania as well as in Rwanda and Kenya where the races are better organized and the level is higher. Jordan's first Junior race in Kenya was in 2013. In 2015, at 14 years old, he was the youngest rider to do the Tour de Machakos, the biggest stage race of Kenya.
Jordan has been 4 times Ugandan national champion in the Junior category from 2014 to 2017. His first title in 2014, when he was only 11 years old, is one of his best memories: "I remember that day, I was a little kid racing with the big guys and I won the Junior national championship, and then the same year my dad won the elite championships… it was good for the family" he laughs. It was also one of the first times that Charles Kagimu, who had just started cycling, was racing with him, and he was really impressed: "the first year we raced together in 2014 he won the Junior national championships, it’s always impressive when you see the results he can get in the races, I just hope he can find a team and do good races, and you never know... I think he is a very good rider." Charles Kagimu thinks that Jordan is "just a free person, easy-going. Just a cool guy, really a cool one."
Jordan Schelck Ssekanwagi, in the middle at the start of his first race in Kenya (that he won)
A first opportunity lost
Jordan Schleck Ssekanwagi was already one of the best cyclists in Uganda while he was just 14 years old, his results were very impressive locally, and he almost got an opportunity to already make a big step forward in his career by going to Europe. It's a Ugandan friend of Jordan who had first talked about him to the Belgium-based "Cannibal team", a very good European youth team (which has U17 and U19 men and women teams), when he had gone to Belgium. Cannibal Team were impressed by Jordan's videos and results so they first sent him some kits and stuff, and then they wanted to take Jordan to Belgium to race with them in 2017. But Jordan never went to Belgium because he wasn't in good term with the Ugandan Cycling Association and they refused to sign the official documents needed to get a visa.
To understand why Jordan could not go to Belgium, we have to explain how the Ugandan Cycling Association works and why they had problems with Jordan. The Ugandan cycling federation (the Ugandan cycling federation is called Ugandan Cycling Association, or UCA, it has a different status but the same role as a federation), as many cycling federations in Africa, is corrupted. "In Africa, federations are like governments, when you have a sitting president of a federation he takes it like his own propriety: he is there to stay" explains someone who knows well East African cycling. Sam Muwonge, the current president of the Ugandan Cycling Association, was re-elected again in February, but these elections where held behind closed doors. "We have had the same leadership for years now, recalls a rider, it’s really hard to change and to understand how do things work. Personally, I always like to just keep quiet because I don't want to fight them since I was a rider and I don't want to have a misunderstanding with them" he adds. The corrupted federation is a big brake on the development of cycling in some countries like Uganda or Kenya. Federations should only care about supporting the riders, but in these countries "they only try to find ways to making political mileage or making money or business out of it." In effect, they don't make an effort to organize more races or to support the young riders, they sometimes try to make the riders pay to get the official documents they need and even sometimes tolerate cheating by race organizers (help with motorcycles or shortcuts) to avoid some riders they don't want to to win. Another very common problem in Uganda is the last-minute cancellation of the national team's races, which are really frustrating for the riders. The most recent case is with the Tour of Lunsar in Sierra Leone where Uganda was supposed to have a men and women team, but the federation failed to release the funding in time for flights. Another example: from 2017 to 2019, the Ugandan cycling federation wanted to send riders to the U23 and U19 Worlds but they finally did not start a single time. An Ugandan explains the problem: "Some people working with the federation don't know what they are doing, sometimes they make an appointment at the embassy too late, sometimes they miss out some documents... But also sometimes I think that they get the money for the trips but they try to make it not work out and they never return the money, they keep it for them." Without independent structures, like Safari Simbaz or Kenyan Riders in Kenya and Masaka Cycling Club or Tropical Heat Cycling Academy in Uganda, the local riders, who usually come from a non-cycling background, would just disappear. So it all ends up with those people doing the donkey work, and the UCA just gets the credit for nothing. Making things change is really difficult, people have tried in a lot of countries where the federation is corrupted, but very few have succeeded. The UCI is aware of the situation, but in most countries the problem is deeper than the cycling federation, it is national politics, so there is nothing that the UCI can do to really solve the issue.
It's in that context that David Matovu, Jordan's dad, when he wasn't racing competitively anymore, started becoming an enemy of the Ugandan Cycling Association. He was strongly opposed to them, making a lot of effort to try to make things change for the best. David Kinjah, who is the most experienced Kenyan cyclist and the director of the Kenyan club Safari Simbaz (where Chris Froome was riding when he was in Kenya), is a very good friend of Jordan's father; he knows well the difficulty to deal with a corrupted federation as the problem is the same in Kenya. "The UCA didn’t want to see him, David Kinjah explains. So David Matovu automatically started to teach his son what was happening: 'I’m fighting for you but these guys are fighting me because they think I’m a threat.' The father was being in trouble and now Jordan, as a young rider who was only 14 years old, started to face all this politics! So I told David Matovu 'you know, the best thing is just to teach the boys to be the best cyclists they can be, there is not much you can do with the federation'." David Kinjah has the same issue in Kenya, he was a critic of the federation for many years but he had to learn how to live with the federation as his enemy and as his neighbour. When Jordan got the opportunity to go to Belgium to join Cannibal Team in 2017, he needed a recommendation letter from the Ugandan Cycling Association to get a visa. But with the conflict the federation had with Jordan's father, they were not very keen to give him this document. "The UCA wasn’t in good term with my dad, Jordan says, they had their political issues, they had a lot of fights, and they included me in their political issues." Jordan was very young and sad to be in such a situation, so he did not act in the best way to convince the UCA to let him get the visa either, as Charles Kagimu recalls: "The issue was with his father, but I think Jordan also said some things which were really bad on some WhatsApp group. I also blamed him because he didn’t have to do that, and then sadly he lost a lot of chances because of that and because of this sad behavior of the Ugandan Cycling Association. I just hope such things never happened again because I think he would have been really fine if such a thing never happened."
Jordan never went to Belgium but he raced in Uganda and Kenya with Cannibal Team's jersey
Bounce back in Kenya
After he failed to join Cannibal Team in Belgium, Jordan Schleck Ssekanwagi was frustrated and he had to find the motivation to continue cycling. It was more and more difficult to continue in Uganda as the tension was still growing up between his family and the Ugandan Cycling Association which was pushing them out. David Kinjah from Safari Simbaz in Kenya is a long-time friend with Jordan's father as they used to race together, he also knew Jordan already because he had been racing occasionally in Kenya for long. Earlier, David Kinjah had already told David Matovu - Jordan's father - that he could send his son to Kenya when he would have finished his high school, so that he can stay away from Ugandan politics. When David Kinjah learnt how bad the situation was becoming in Uganda - the police had arrested some riders protesting, the critics of the UCA were not allowed to do the national championships, fans of Jordan even had slapped an official who had grabbed Jordan off his bike, and the UCA was blaming Jordan for that as well - he called David Matovu again and told him that he had to send his son to Kenya and that Jordan was welcome at the Safari Simbaz camp where he could be housed, feed, trained...
It was in 2018 that Jordan started to live in Kenya, he was 15. "I had to leave Ugandan cycling to avoid political issues and try to focus on my goals, so I tried to start up something new in another country" he says. At first, it wasn't at David Kinjah's camp, but with his uncle in Nairobi. His uncle works in an international organisation, and he has a small bicycle shop in Nairobi. Jordan was learning to be a mechanic so he could work in his uncle's shop and train with David Kinjah. But after only one month, Jordan's uncle called David Kinjah and told him that he could not keep Jordan. "I asked 'what is the problem again?', David Kinjah relates, 'This boy, his head is just full of bicycles, he can't focus on anything: he can't work, he just wants to ride. When he goes out, he is coming back in the evening… Only you can handle him.' So I said that we have to handle this boy as a cyclist, we have to understand the energy he has, the focus, the ambition, the dreams… I told him 'bring him to me', because that is what I had already said to his dad 2 years before. So, he was brought to the Safari Simbaz camp and he lives there for the last 2 years. When he came to the camp, I started changing him: I mentor these guys, I talk to them, we look at the situation. I taught Jordan 'Okay, what can you do about this? Nothing. But you can do something about this, and this, and that. So let’s not focus on the negatives, let’s focus on things that we can actually improve. I changed Jordan's training ideas and plans, and rearrange his head, his mentality. Within one year he was coming Top 5 in the races, even with the senior riders, and he was still a Junior. And in his second year, last year, he was winning, and he goes back to Uganda and they have much more respect for him because he goes there now as a champion, only after 1,5 year." Safari Simbaz is a very good team for Jordan, David Kinjah is very experienced and he knows what is the best for Jordan. The fact that Chris Froome was formed in the same club when he was a kid is also really motivating, it makes the riders realise that it's possible to become a great cyclist coming from Kenya. Since late 2019, Jordan is clearly among to 6 or 7 best riders in all Kenyan races, and he can win on all types of routes. The others best riders in Kenya are the riders of Bike Aid and more experienced ones, while Jordan turned 17 in 2019 and is now 18.
Jordan is in the middle, David Kinjah on the right
Tour de Machakos
The success of Jordan made things went better with the Ugandan Cycling Association: "as I started performing, Jordan says, those guys at home started re-talking to me so that I can race with the national team, I said ‘okay it’s fine but you have to talk first with David Kinjah', because he is a clever guy and he knows them well." David Kinjah has experienced a lot of issues between riders and national cycling federations, including with Chris Froome, so he knows how to deal with these issues. When he was in Morocco for the All-Africa Games in 2019 as a rider himself, he asked to speak to the president of the Ugandan Cycling Association. "I think I was the oldest rider in the Games. This is my style of impressing and trying to keep the politics off. I got a chance to see the president of the Ugandan federation, he knows me, he told me 'hey Kinjah, congratulations old man, you’re still riding very hard, and thank you for taking care of our boy Jordan, he is doing very well.' I said ‘yes, I need to talk about him, that’s why I needed to see you’. So we talked about Jordan, he told me what is a problem and how Jordan has had very bad behaviors, shouting at officials… we talked about it for about an hour and I said 'we have to look at these boys as Ugandans first and secondly we have to look at them as our flag carriers.' Finally, we agreed that we gonna work together where we can, so the situation has been okay now, it's not so bad." There are still tensions because the Ugandan Cycling Association is a corrupted federation and what they care the most about is not their riders, but as Jordan confirmed, "the things are going okay now".
Now, Jordan Schleck Ssekanwagi is learning skills that are directly attached to cycling but that can allow him to earn his living: he is working as a mechanic and is coaching some kids and their parents. "Now he has his own account and he can put his saving in the account, like we do with all the others Simbaz" David Kinjah explains. Jordan also uses the money he wins in races to buy bicycles and spares in Uganda, which he then resells in Kenya because different regulations make that it is far easier to find cheap bicycles in Uganda than in Kenya. "So he is learning to be a young rider who is already embracing the business, Kinjah says, and he is doing okay. This is what the Safari Simbaz is about: the Safari Simbaz cycling project is not only about doing another Chris Froome. Our main aim is to build these bridges. Jordan is being really appreciated by people, he becomes a personality, he’s a community asset. The Safari Simbaz dream is to build more of these community assets, so the federation can see that we are doing the right things, teaching the young people the right things and pushing cycling sport in the right direction. And this is the most important in Africa, that we don’t have only cycling projects which focus on getting top riders but projects that focus on building a foundation which is the future of cycling."
Jordan is small, he is 160cm high, and he is light as well: "If I am in my shape I am normally 47 or 48 kg, during my off-season I normally go to 50." He clearly has a climber profile and what he prefers are the long climbs. However, in Kenya, he can do well in all types of races. "I am more a climber, but I can also perform in the others races that have no wind, during the TTs that don’t have a lot of wind I usually perform well." David Kinjah considers that "Jordan is kind of a complete cyclist. He is very small but when it comes to sprinting he is quite fast - not at the professional level, but he is quite fast. When it comes to climbing he can climb up with the best and even drop them when he goes hard, and he can also maintain a high pace on the flat sections. But I don't allow him to race with a very very high gear, my coaching style is just like with Chris Froome many years back, I teach them how to utilize their energy by riding lighter gears, so 'spin more spin more'. Jordan has got a tendency, he likes to push high gears all the time, when I am around I say 'no no no, back, back, stop this' because if he keeps pushing too big gears all the time with his little body, in some years he is gonna have problems with his knees and his back... I already look 10 years ahead and I try to avoid this kind of permanent injuries." Jordan is also really passionate about cycling, he has been following the pro races since he was a little kid and he pays attention to every detail. "The biggest advantage about Jordan is that he is very attentive to the details, Kinjah continues, his head is full of bicycles, he thinks about cycling all the time so for me it's very easy to coach him, all I do is to guide him. Sometimes he is also very stubborn, the other boys in the camp can not keep up with him so he gets angry; sometimes he says 'tomorrow we wake up at 6 am, we have to do 200km' and in the morning the other boys are still lazy, sleeping and dragging their feet, and Jordan gets very angry so I have to calm him down." David Kinjah really believes in Jordan, and he tries to give him the best material he can: "Jordan is our favorite rider in the Safari Simbaz so we try to do much for him, we don’t have sponsors for bicycles and spares so we have to find ways to get some. Jordan is racing so we have to put him on a bicycle which is good at least, we don’t want to put him on a crap bike, we are expecting now to make good results. We have to make sure he has a bike for time trial, a bike for road racing, a bike for training and a bike for mountain biking. We try our best."
Jordan on the front, followed by Charles Kagimu - Two Rivers Crit Race
African Continental Championships
In 2020, Jordan was targeting his first African Continental Championships which he was supposed to ride in the Junior category. The race was supposed to be held in Mauritius and he was coming with big ambitions: "I had prepared him to go and win the time trial, David Kinjah says. The time trial was only 13km and Jordan was already winning 30km time trials here in Kenya with the senior riders." Considering his results in Kenya, he had clearly big chances to get at least a medal on the time trial and such a result would have made him known by all the teams in Africa, but the race was one of the firsts to be cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, Jordan lost here his only opportunity to do a big race in the Junior category, because Uganda had not participated at the Continental Championships in 2019, and he is born in 2002 so he is not a Junior anymore in 2021. "I remember back then, Jordan says, I was really really in good shape so I was looking forward to the medals, but sadly they cancelled out the Continentals so I didn’t have that chance. Most of the time when I sit down I’m like ‘I lost that chance’, maybe that was the moment I had to shine during my Juniors years. It’s really hard but I have to deal with it."
This year, Jordan Schleck could finally start the Continental Championships, but he had to race with the Elites. Being 18, Jordan was one of the youngest riders at the start. The race route in Cairo, Egypt, wasn't suiting him very well, especially with the very strong wind, it was hard for him to fight in this wind with his 48 kilos. He finished 13th on the time trial (4th of the U23 riders) and was one of the only 23 riders who managed to finish inside the time limit on the road race. Jordan is happy to have had this first opportunity to do a big race, "the more you do big races, the more you get experience and the more you get open-minded, he says. So it was very good, though my preparation wasn't the best because they told me really late that I was going to race it, and I was also missing my TT bike. If I get a chance for the next Continentals, I need to be more prepared, to correct some errors, and I'll see if I get good results."
At the start of 2021 African Continental Championships, Jordan with Charles Kagimu behind (left) and together with David Kinjah (right)
What's next?
Being already one of the very best riders in Kenya and Uganda at 18 years old, Jordan now needs to make another step forward. He needs to go to Europe or at least to a country, like South Africa, where the level of local races is higher.
The first possibility for him is to follow the footsteps of Charles Kagimu and of the Kenyan Salim Kipkemboi, Suleiman Kangangi and more, by joining the German Continental team Bike Aid. Bike Aid used to have a partnership with another Kenyan club - Kenyan Riders - but they also take some others African riders, and coming from Kenya/Uganda, Jordan is clearly THE rider to sign today. But he has had no contact at all with Bike Aid for the moment. "I think they would be really interested in taking him, Charles Kagimu tells, I want to have a talk to the manager of the team about him. But normally, it depends on how many African riders they can take, this year we have three so it depends if they want to take more next year or maybe less or maybe the same, maybe they don’t want to bring in one more. But I think it would be really really great if they would take him because it would be a good opportunity for the team and also for him, and I think he would really fit in the team."
If Uganda was a country where the federation is working with the World Cycling Centre Africa, there can be no doubt that Jordan would already have went there. (A lot of African countries are working with the WCC Africa, they send their best riders to training camps in Paarl, South Africa, and the best riders get the opportunity to then go the Aigle, Switzerland. We had explained how it works in our article about Ethiopian cycling.) Unfortunately, the Ugandan Cycling Association doesn't work with the WCC Africa. However, David Kinjah knows Jean-Pierre Van Zyl, the director of the centre, he had already sent him riders many years ago, so he plans to ask him to take Jordan. "Now we are working on to teach Jordan to not only think about beating the Ugandan boys and the Kenyan boys, Kinjah explains, but also think about beating the South Africans. If the Covid issue goes down and there are more opportunities, I’m gonna try to send him to South Africa for a few months and maybe I will talk to Jean Pierre Van Zyl from the Africa Cycling Centre, to see if I can get him to the centre. My plan is to send him to South Africa first, because South Africa racing scene is much more rich, road racing in South Africa is tough and they have serious teams like Pro Touch and others; I know a few people in South Africa that can help me and take Jordan in their house like I am doing in Kenya. Then, if he gets some good results and gets a good name in South Africa, maybe I can get him across to Switzerland with the help of Jean-Pierre. I would be very happy if I can get him to the World Cycling Centre in Switzerland, and from Switzerland maybe he can be ready to join a pro team."
If for some reason, Jordan can't go to South Africa, he could also try to join one of the Rwandan Continental teams. There are a lot of races in Rwanda, and those teams are doing the Tour du Rwanda every year, which is the biggest race in Africa.
Considering that Jordan Schleck Ssekanwagi has done only the African Continental Championships 2021 outside of East Africa, it seems almost impossible for him to go in Europe in 2022 otherwise than with Bike Aid or the World Cycling Centre. Maybe if could have raced a African Continental Championships in the Junior category and had gotten a title or a medal, he would be more known, have already went to the WCC Africa, and some teams like Qhubeka, Nippo Provence PTS Conti, or Global 6 Cycling could have had some interest? But we will never know what result he would have get and what would have happened then.
David Kinjah believes that Jordan can have a bright future in Europe, Jordan's story is one of those that motivates him to continue what he is doing. "I have a lot of negative things that I can look into and just say ‘fuck, I don’t want to do this anymore’, but there is a lot of positive things too, Jordan is a positive story which comes from a negative story, it’s a plus. And if in the future Jordan does well and can go international, it would be another good story for us."
"My dream in cycling, Jordan says, is at least to get to a big team so that I can show my talent and then bring back home a good image, so that I can encourage more kids around my age to jump onto their bikes. You know, in cycling you can achieve a lot of things, if you don't achieve them through results you can still achieved them in others ways."
River crossing at the 2019 Tour de Machakos in Kenya
Charles Kagimu
When we had published our first article about Charles Kagimu (we recommend you to read it first if you haven't already), he was 20 and had just finished his first full season with Team Bike Aid. He was the first Ugandan ever to race in Europe and had discovered important races including the Route d'Occitanie, the Tour de Savoie Mont Blanc and the Sibiu Tour. He was looking forward to coming back in 2019 to continue to progress and get some results. Unfortunately, things did not go as expected for him: in December 2018, Bike Aid lost an important sponsor for 2019 and as a consequence, the team had financial issues during the whole 2019 year. The situation was very unclear back then but finally, while they continued to pay them, they chose to not bring their Kenyan and Ugandan riders to Europe because they were struggling financially. So, 2019 was a lost year for Charles; he could not even ride the African Continental Championships or any African stage race as the Ugandan national team wasn't participating. He only raced the All-Africa Games road race in Morocco but, as it was a completely flat race, he could not do anything. He won the Ugandan national championships, but unfortunately the Ugandan Cycling Association did not officially send the result to the UCI. He also won local races in Kenya, including a TT in November. Until very late in the year, he was trying to find a team for 2020 but he could not find anything in Europe. He was about to sign with Rwandan team Benediction Ignite in November when he got a call from Bike Aid who wanted Charles as well as Salim Kipkemboi and Suleiman Kangangi to come back with the team in 2020. So Charles Kagimu came back with Bike Aid in 2020, his first race of the season was the Tour of Tigray in Ethiopia (we talked about it in our article about Ethiopian cycling). For a few months, he had been training the time trial and the TT of the African Continental Championship was his first big goal of the season, before heading to Europe with Bike Aid and then targeting the U23 Worlds TT at the end of the season... but the Covid-19 pandemic came and the African Continental Championship as well as the U23 Worlds were cancelled. It was also impossible for Charles, as a Ugandan, to go to Europe in August when the season was starting again after the lockdown. Once again, he was in a difficult situation where he did not know when he would get the opportunity to race again. "At first it wasn't too difficult, I thought maybe we would be racing pretty soon, in 1 or 2 months, but then it became very hard, I was stuck in Kenya, I could not go back home and I couldn't go anywhere. It was really hard because I had never been in such a situation. Then, races came back but we still wouldn't travel, so that was a big blow to me. I had a hard time going through a couple of months but then I picked up myself and did some races on Zwift just to feel like a cyclist again; it's not like racing on the road but it makes you feel like you are racing at least. But overall, it was a really tough year for me."
Charles Kagimu had to wait until October to race, when he did the Tour of Thailand. It was a special race because a two-week quarantine was needed to start the race, so Bike Aid was the only foreign team at the start. Most of the stages were completely flat, Bike Aid won 2 stages with their sprinter Lucas Carstensen and the general classification with Nikodemus Holler. Charles had to work for his leaders, he was usually the second rider of the team to pull, but because of the limited adversity he was still able to be ranked 8th on GC before the last stage. Unfortunately, he had a crash in the final kilometres of the last stage; he was still able to finish but lost 3 places on GC and could not enjoy the podium ceremony. "It was a big sacrifice to go into the quarantine but it was a special thing to be in Thailand and to race again. I'm really really happy I managed to go there because at the end of the year I had at least one UCI race that I did, it was good to race again and also to get some UCI points of course."
Two Rivers Crit Race 2019 (Kenya)
Ugandan national champion in 2019
pulling in front for his leaders - Tour of Thailand 2020
The Tour of Thailand was the only UCI race for Charles Kagimu in 2 years. That was almost like if his pro career had stopped from October 2018 to October 2020. Fortunately, 2021 is starting way better for Charles. He is still riding for Bike Aid, but his first race of the season was under the colours of his national team. He raced the African Continental Championships in Egypt and finished 6th of the TT (just behind WT rider Tsgabu Grmay who was in good shape) and 12th of the Road Race. This was a quite good result considering the context in which he was racing: "I wasn't really looking forward to doing these races because it wasn't the plan to go to Cairo, he explains, I was supposed to go to Thailand again with Bike Aid but Tour of Thailand was postponed, so I had to change the plan and it was quite tough for me because I had to organise a lot of things very quickly to make things work out. I finally got there but unfortunately, I got a cold and I was a bit sick for the time trial. Then, the morning of the road race I didn't want to start because I wasn't feeling good, I dropped on the first lap but then I got a bit better and was a bit lucky to come back in front. Overall, it was a bad race but at least it was a good experience with the young guys and everyone"
Early May, Charles Kagimu raced his first Tour of Rwanda, a very hard race, the biggest stage race in Africa. Strong teams were at the start this year and the first stages did not go very well for Charles who could not follow the best riders. "The Tour of Rwanda was quite hard because the level was really high, the startlist quality was so good and I think everyone was so motivated to be in Rwanda also. It was hard and in the first stages I couldn't find my legs." But at the end of the week, Charles, who had probably been missing some race days in the legs, started to feel better. He did not manage to get in a breakaway, but from the leader's group he finished 14th on stage 5 and he did a great result on the last and more difficult stage of the week by finished 9th that day after multiple climbs of the famous Mur de Kigali. The stage was won by the yellow jersey Christian Rodriguez from Total Direct Energie, Charles finished just ahead of Jonathan Restrepo who lost his second place on GC following a crash. "The last day was really crazy, we had cobblestones and steep climbs all the time; and every lap, on every climb, every small upfill, at least one rider would drop. I had good legs but I think I could have done better because I got caught up in Restrepo's crash, we lost some time there and we could not go back. I got a bit disappointed but the feeling of the legs was so motivating, it was really pushing me and it made me happy. I had never felt like this in a stage race, I think I have progressed really well, so hopefully maybe I could get a good result in the coming races." Overall, Charles was hoping for a better week but he is happy that at least he was feeling well in some stages and that he could get some results. "It was a good experience and I am also happy that I did such a hard race before going to Europe. I'm just looking forward to the next races. It was really good to do Tour of Rwanda and maybe next year I can go back for GC or for a stage win."
Charles has come back to Europe for the first time since 2018. He was really motivated to race in Europe again, when we recorded his interview he was still in Uganda while his Kenyan teammate Salim Kipkemboi was riding the Challenge of Mallorca and had get a very good result with 19th place in the Trofeo Serra Tramuntana won by Jesus Herrada. "I'm motivated, today I saw Salim got a Top 20. It motivates me because he was also having the same feeling as me, he wasn't feeling so well in the races yet, but he told me the legs are going better." Charles Kagimu has done his first race in Europe with the Tour de la Mirabelle won by Idar Andersen from UnoX. He finished 40th on GC, he told us that his legs "were quite good but not the best." At the moment, he is about to start La Route d'Occitanie, a 4-days stage race including one mountain finish in the Pyrenees. The startlist is very good with 8 WorldTems and 8 ProTeams at the start, Charles has been training in the Pyrenees with Salim Kipkemboi for a few days to prepare for the race. Then, he should ride the Sibiu Tour in Romania, a good race too but with less WorldTeam at the start, so he may be able to get some results there.
Since the end of 2019, Charles Kagimu has been training a lot on the time trial bike, it's something he really enjoys: "For the past one year I have realized that maybe I can do well on the time trials. I don't have a very good body for the time trialling but I think I have to power to push in the position, and I also like the suffering, especially on the time trial bike. It's something I really love and I hope I can improve in it." What kind of race is suiting him best? "In Rwanda, I realized that I perform more on the stages which were really really crazy, especially in the final. Maybe in a very steep climb, I think I can perform well. I also like the long climbs but I wasn't really good in them in Rwanda, I was a bit disappointing but I like them also."
Tour du Rwanda 2021 - Sjors Beukeboom
Charles (right) is training in Pyrenees ahead of the Route d'Occitanie together with Salim Kipkemboi
Masaka Cycling Club
In 2019, a project was launched in the city of Masaka, Southern Uganda, called "Masaka Cycling Club", promoted by Australian Ross Burrage and mainly funded by monthly donations of cycling fans from all around the world. Masaka Cycling Club wants to develop the sport of cycling in this very poor region, and to help their boys and girls to have a better life thanks to cycling. Inspired by the Africa Rising Cycling Centre in Rwanda, they are building their own Clubhouse in Masaka. The goal is to develop the riders and the races in the region. They are also part of the project of Team AMANI. Team AMANI initially wanted to bring riders from East Africa to Netherlands local races from a young age, so that they can get used to European racing earlier; but because of the pandemic they are now promoting e-racing on Zwift in East-Africa. They are also organizing the Migration Gravel Race, a international gravel race which takes place in Kenya.
To learn more about Masaka Cycling Club, you can visit their website, or follow them on Instagram. You can find a lot of podcasts where they explain all about the project, and interesting articles have also been written by Africa Rising Cycling and CyclingTips. Here is Team AMANI's website as well.
Paul Kato, former Ugandan champion and road captain of the club
Florence Nakaggwa, promising Junior female rider
Future of Ugandan cycling
At the moment, it is difficult to see any hope of a change in Ugandan Cycling Association. In the last years, sometimes things seemed to be getting better, but every time it was finally returning to the starting point. Charles Kagimu and Jordan Schleck had to go to Kenya because they could not continue in Uganda where most of people and clubs, as well as the UCA, are considering that it's not possible to be a pro cyclist coming from Uganda. Unfortunately, a lot of young riders have stooped cycling in Uganda in the past, but there have always been a lot of talent in the country, and there will still be some in the future, hopefully some will follow Charles's and Jordan's footsteps. Masaka Cycling Club and David Matovu, among others, are trying to make things change, but it will take some time.
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