Team Africa Rising heads to Benin to establish the country’s first online training center and report on Tour de Benin
With Eritrea topping the UCI’s latest Africa rankings and South Africa in close second place, West Africa has woken up and wants a place at the table.
On 2 May, West Africa’s Tour du Benin will start in Cotonou and run for six days. In 2022, the race has achieved UCI 2.2 status and should be hotly contested by local, continental, and national teams from across the continent. Kimberly Coats, CEO of Team Africa Rising, will be attending the race and reporting on developments across our social media channels.
However, Kimberly will be arriving in Benin three weeks before the racing begins to help the National Cycling Federation set up and launch a dedicated online training and racing centre. We have been working with Wahoo to supply KICKR’s to several countries and an amazing 25 units have now arrived in Benin.
We will then be hooking these up with Wahoo’s SYSTM training app and planning to test 200 junior male and female riders to identify young talent. In addition, we will continue our partnership with Zwift also to get several of the senior Béninois riders set up on the leading online training and racing platform.
“Our goal at Team Africa Rising is to provide access to top level technology to give African cyclists, and the organizations who support them, the ability to be the best in the world. Team Africa Rising appreciates the opportunity to work with a transparent and visionary Federation in Benin led by their President, Romuald Hazoume and to be part of the inaugural UCI 2.2 Tour of Benin is a bonus,” remarked Kimberly Coats.
Benin Cycling Federation President, Romuald Hazoume: “The Tour of Benin has just been classified as an UCI 2.2 Africa Tour and we are excited about the 12 teams expected in attendance. We are thankful for our partner for the past four years, SOBEBRA, without which we would not be at this level. Team Africa Rising has also been instrumental in helping us realize our strategic development plan which allows us to go faster than expected.”
