How Team Amani plan to develop African road cycling

Amani Director Mikel Delagrange: 'As long as the racing remains in Europe exclusively, everybody from outside of Europe will naturally have a disadvantage'

Last week, Global Peloton broke the news that the Amani Project, a renowned cycling initiative based in Kenya, will launch a UCI men’s Continental road team in 2025 and will race the upcoming Tour du Rwanda.

In an in-depth conversation, Amani Director Mikel Delagrange told Global Peloton that it’s all part of a long-term plan to develop the sport of cycling across the continent of Africa. Amani aim to create racing opportunities for African riders across the disciplines, develop talented young riders in East Africa and promote inclusivity and diversity in the sport more widely.

We shared just a fraction of that conversation in the article last week, but Delagrange spoke at length about why the team has decided to make the move over to the road, having focussed so heavily on gravel and mountain bike in the past. He also explained Amani’s vision for cycling development in Africa, why the team won’t race in Europe and their plans for women’s cycling.

Amani already race on the mountain bike and gravel, now they will take on the road. Image courtesy of Amani Project

Global Peloton: Up to now Amani have focussed on the gravel and mountain bike. You’ve said in the past that you wouldn’t do road because it doesn’t give enough opportunity to African riders and the barriers to entry are too great. What’s changed?

Mikel Delagrange: That's a great question. The barriers haven't reduced. One could argue they've even gotten taller. But I think our strategic thinking has evolved I would say.

Gravel is still our primary focus. It's still the only discipline in cycling where we can line up against the best in the world and nobody stops us.

If we go back to our original sketch of the problem, it's been lack of racing opportunities particularly at the highest levels. Because you can only really get as good as the people you can race against. This is how cycling works.

We are 100% African focused. We're never going to be a team that tries to track UCI points and then starts hiring Europeans and then is African by name only.

We have a more macro holistic approach. And it's all in this concept of a 10 year plan. We needed to step up from this platform and look higher. What is it that we need to do now to really achieve the goal for everybody to be able to get through the gate? And so it's kind of a multi-faceted approach and it's nuanced.

The first part is the racing. As long as the racing remains in Europe exclusively, everybody from outside of Europe will naturally have a disadvantage. This is not just an African problem, this is a whole-world problem. And so one of the things we want to do in our new strategy is really to start platforming African cycling and give it the attention that we think it deserves. Because we think there are new stories, new protagonists, new heroes.