2023 Africa Tour Recap
A lack of opportunity for African women, the Algerian sprint king and the issues which hinder African racing
The extremes of heat, wind and aggressive tactics are often on display across bike races in Africa. They may not win the same level of respect as events in other continents, but these races are tough.
This season has seen the Africa Tour grow with new races and new riders from different nations emerging to compete in them.
This is Global Peloton’s recap of the 2023 Africa Tour.
Women’s Africa Tour? What Women’s Africa Tour?
First, a brief look at women’s racing across the continent. It’s brief because, well, there’s not much to look at. Although there are many talented women racing across several African nations, they just don’t have many races to test themselves in.
Aside from the national championships, women’s UCI racing on the continent of Africa in 2023 consisted of the African Continental Championships and the Jeux de la Francophonie (a multi-sport Games for French speaking nations held in DRC).
Outside of the UCI’s jurisdiction, women do compete in national level races such as the recent Tour of Burundi, several one-day events in Rwanda and Burkina Faso and the Tour de Lunsar.
It’s pitiful when you compare it to the men’s calendar, and you’d be hard-pressed to find many who think there is enough men’s racing in Africa either.
But let’s focus on the racing that did happen.
The biggest moment that stands out for me this year for women’s racing in Africa is Nigerian Ese Lovina Ukpeseraye’s shock win at the African Continental Championships. This big favourites didn’t manage to get rid of the track sprinter and she made them pay, earning herself a spot at the World Championships in Glasgow at the same time.
The Jeux de la Francophonie was won by Salma Hariri, Morocco completing a 1-2-3-4. It’s encouraging to see that 11 of the 15 starters we under-23s. There is plenty of growth potential among young female riders in Africa.
Probably the biggest non-UCI event of the year on the women’s side was the Tour of Burundi. This race included riders from eight different African nations and is their only chance to race a stage race all year.
Rwanda crushed the competition, placing their five riders in the top-five GC positions. Their roster included current Canyon//SRAM Generation riders Valentine Nzayisenga and Diane Ingabire - who won the race overall.
Burundi’s 19-year-old prospect Emmanuella Rukundo put in a valiant effort of resistance against the Rwandans. She was sixth overall and finished in the top-six of each stage. This is a rider with potential.
A Growing Men’s Africa Tour
The Tour du Faso concluded on Sunday, and with it, the curtain came down on the 2023 calendar of races in Africa.
Home rider Paul Daumont won the overall for the first time along with five stages. Moroccan sprinter Achraf Ed Doghmy concluded his best ever season by taking two wins, moving his total to the year to eleven UCI victories.
The Tour du Faso was one of nine UCI stage races held this year across eight countries. This year saw the birth of two brand new UCI stage races; the Tour du Sahel (Mauritania) and the Tour de Maurice (Mauritius). There was also a rebirth for the Tour d'Algérie, which returned for the first time since 2018.
The biggest of the nine in profile is the Tour of Rwanda, one of only two races in Africa at UCI .1 level or above, the other being La Tropicale Amissa Bongo in Gabon.
Here’s a list of the 2023 Africa Tour stage races and their winners:
La Tropicale Amissa Bongo - Geoffrey Soupe (FRA)
Tour du Sahel - Adil El Arbaoui (MOR)
Tour du Rwanda - Henok Mulubrhan (ERI)
Tour d'Algérie - Paul Hennequin (FRA)
Tour du Bénin - Achraf Ed Doghmy (MOR)
Tour du Cameroun - Mohcine El Kouraji (MOR)
Tour de Maurice - Archie Cross (GB)
GP Chantal Biya - Yacine Hamza (ALG)
Tour du Faso - Paul Daumont (BUR)
Several UCI one day races also took place in Morocco, Algeria and Mauritius.
Grand Prix de la Ville d'Alger - Youcef Reguigui (ALG)
Grand Prix du Prince Héritier Moulay el Hassan - Lukas Kubis (SLK)
Grand Prix du Trône - Lukas Kubis (SLK)
Courts Mammouth Classique de l'île Maurice - Youcef Reguigui (ALG)
Grand Prix Boukraa - Sergey Rostovcev
Grand Prix Es-Semara - Adil El Arbaoui (MOR)
Grand Prix El Marsa - Sergey Rostovcev
North African Dominance
It’s evident, just from that list, that it’s been an excellent year for the north African nations of Morocco and Algeria. Morocco won three of the nine stage races, with three different riders.
In many ways, their neighbours Algeria were even more impressive, but through the exploits of one man: Yacine Hamza.
Hamza won the most races of any rider on the Africa Tour in 2023. In fact, his total of 17 UCI wins for the season ranks him third in the entire world for wins. He only trails Miguel Angel Lopez and Jasper Philipsen and is tied with Tadej Pogacar. I got to speak to Hamza last week over the phone and he said that he feels ‘honoured’ and ‘motivated’ to be among such names. (More on that conversation soon).
His main North African rival this year was Morocco’s Achraf Ed Doghmy. The 23-year-old won eleven times, including Morocco’s national championships. He’s similar in many ways to Hamza. Both are bulky sprinters, but Ed Doghmy often came off better in head-to-heads due to the strength of the rest of the Morrocan team.
The future looks even brighter for the North Africans. Algeria swept up every junior race in the Continental Championships. First-year junior woman Malak Mechab particularly impressed by winning the road race and placing second in the time-trial. She went on, alongside several other young African talents, to spend the summer racing in Belgium and at the Worlds in Glasgow.
Emerging Nations
While Algeria and Morocco took home the majority of wins in the Africa Tour this year, a few other nations also began to emerge as future contenders.
Mauritius has to be primary among these. The island nation took part in several stage races across Africa this season, including their home race.
Christopher Rougier-Lagane excelled with his third place in the early season La Tropicale Amissa Bongo, second at the Tour de Maurice and fourth in the Continental TT. Mauritius also dominated the Mixed Relay and won the women’s TTT and TT through Aurelie Halbwachs.
A few levels below Mauritius, the west African nations continue to develop. Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ivory Coast and newcomers Benin are developing several good riders.
It has also been interesting to see the INEOS-linked Kenyans and Ugandans take giant leaps forward this season. Who could forget Charles Kagimu’s African Conti TT win on Luke Rowe’s 2022 bike? Lawrence Lorot and Paul Lomuria also revealed themselves as stars of the future. Lorot put in an excellent ride at the Worlds in Glasgow too.
Hurdles
Although 2023 was a positive year in many ways for the Africa Tour, it was also clear that political and financial issues that ravage the continent had a negative effect on the racing.
It might be strange to some that the three most prominent African cycling nations, South Africa, Eritrea and Ethiopia, play virtually no part in races across the continent. War (in Ethiopia’s case), political instability and financial pressures mean that the federations of these countries are unable to support African racing. Many of the professionals we see on the world stage from these countries get there without ever really racing on the Africa Tour.
The issues stretch further, to the cancellation of South Africa’s Tour of Limpopo in May due to a lack of funding and the same for the Tour du Maroc, which was cancelled the day before it was due to start because of the recent earthquake in the country.
Coups in Burkina Faso and Gabon led to the Tour du Faso having a reduced peloton and the cancellation of 2024’s La Tropicale Amissa Bongo.
In Europe, the cancellation of a race doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of European racing. In Africa, it’s a huge loss of opportunity for these riders to show themselves to the world and to develop their skills.
Much hope abounds in Africa through cycling. Young men and women are dreaming of improving their lives, coming from many different contexts. But in many parts of Africa, those dreams can seem impossible to realise.
The 2023 Africa Tour epitomised the continent in many ways. Such talent, joy and hope on display in the midst of hardship and inequality.
The continent now continues its build towards its first UCI World Championships in 2025. It’s not yet clear how much of a part African nations will play in the racing, but this year showed much potential.
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Not convinced “African cycling” matters at all- a Eurocentric colonial sport. The better question is what might sport of cycling be in Africa? War, tribal, political, religious, corruption aspects simply will not be denied. With such abject poverty and poor health, life expectancies cycling in Africa is a made up sport when expressed in Lycra..there may be an African version- perhaps already is in some gravel/ultra races. What about BMX?...Already other parts of the world- North American are shunning traditional euro road racing so why on earth do we want Africans to strive to become white Europeans