Tour du Rwanda route revealed, including what is considered to be an appetizer ahead of 2025 World Championships

The organizers of the Tour du Rwanda revealed the route and the grid for the 16th edition on Friday. 8 stages are planned between February 18 and 25, with a departure and arrival in Kigali, the country's capital.

After an inaugural team time trial of 18 km, which will be repeated in 2025 during the Road World Championships, the riders will continue with 3 difficult stages, including the 3rd with 3154 m of altitude. A 2nd time trial is then on the program between Musanze and Kinigi, this time solo over 13 km. The 7th stage will be the longest (163 km). As for the last, it will follow the route of the Worlds expected in Kigali in 2 years, with, once again, almost 2000 m of altitude in just 90 km.

There will be twenty teams, four of which will not be announced until December. Like last year, no WorldTour team is, for the moment, on the list of participants. However, Israel-Premier Tech, TotalEnergies and Eolo-Kometa Cycling Team will be present. Moreover, there will not only be one French team on the starting line: Conti Groupama-FDJ will also line up its riders. The last winner of the African stage event is the Eritrean Henok Mulubrhan. He finished ahead of the Italian Walter Calzoni and the Belgian William Junior Lecerf.