Race around Rwanda is a self supported bikepacking race. 1000km looping around the country with 19,000m elevation. Rwanda is known at ‘Le pays des mille collines’ – Land of a thousand hills, which I can confirm is definitely true. 

As my first experience of bikepacking and ultra cycling racing, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. I was hoping a lot of similarities from my ultra running race experiences. In truth there are so many parallels – mindset is the biggest factor, alongside minimising faff and fuelling regularly.

I have never been so nervous in my life, the challenge that lay ahead was filled with so many unknowns, I felt a complete fraud for standing on the start line. I had never ridden over 100miles in one go before, done very little back-to-back riding. This was only the second time I had been out on the bike with my full bike-packing bag set up. Hill training, well whilst I thought Bristol was hilly, after a short ride around Kigali I had dismissed that idea and felt even more underprepared. Last year I had only cycled 1800km in total according to Strava and I was about to complete over 50% of that in a single week….

The reason for standing on that start line was to challenge myself – I have had a gravel bike for a couple of years but never really ridden it on gravel. So, to incentivise myself to do more gravel riding I thought there was no better way than to sign up to a race. 

Race around Rwanda came to my attention back in 2020 when I happened to be in Kigali just before the start of the race. I met two men who were about to take part in my hotel. I had only a brief conversation with them, but I ‘dot watched’ them complete the race that year and then always been intrigued to take part but never had the courage to sign up in the following years. Roll on to 2024, I had been asked to crew at an ultra running race in Rwanda which just happened to be the week before. With the stars aligning and some new found flexibility in my personal diary, I signed up without really thinking what this meant in terms of difficulty or practicalities. 

Training was a little hit and miss, with running races in the calendar until November and a work trip to India in December; apart from some cycling to work and the occasional weekend ride, the majority of my exercise was running based. I was ever hopeful that baseline fitness would carry across. 

The next thing I know I was on my way to Rwanda. A week spent in the twin lakes region near Musanze to crew the 2 stage ultra running race was an amazing introduction to the country. I got to scout out about 20km of the race route, so at least I knew where checkpoint 2 was. Perhaps that would be handy once the race started…. A couple of short rides in Kigali – one around the city in which I nearly crashed 20m into it on the first roundabout. The rules of the road in Rwanda are: size matters, bikes being the smallest (except pedestrians) have absolutely no right of way, and if you want to get anywhere then you need to just go, put your head down and cross your fingers. A short gravel ride out of the city, introduced me to a whole new type of gravel and did nothing to improve my confidence! 

Tugunde was the base and start line for the race; with a hostel, café and bike maintenance workshop on site it was the perfect place. It was also incredibly intimidating; people comparing cassettes, bike bag set ups, who has the swankiest bike. Not the ideal place for someone who has very little clue about bikes and already felt stupid for even being there. 

With several ex pro riders taking part, this also felt like the worst place to be starting my bikepacking ‘career’. But once we started flying across the city with a police escort and the field spread out I then realised it was also just full of people hoping to make their way around the course and have fun (the fast kids already kilometres ahead out of sight). 

A first fast and easy gravel sector made me think that perhaps I hadn’t made a silly decision. Some fast kilometres passed and giving the kids on the side of the road high 5s. This enthusiasm was soon abated as several of us realised they had in fact nicked our back lights – luckily for me it was my spare light. But still, a long 900km left with only one rear light, quickly zip tied to my bike helped me feel better that I would hopefully last the course with one light. The best beans and chapatti for under £1 revived me after a long slog of a hill. Checkpoint 1 was a huge relief to hit, and with this it was decided to press on to the lake side which would be in the dark. This would be my longest ride ever, perhaps not the most sensible thing on the first day of a race, but everyone else was pushing on so I thought I better join the party. Being close to the equator, sunsets just after 6pm, so you only 12 hours of daylight to play with.  

Day 2 started at 4.30am, a lot earlier than anyone else, and it would have started earlier if I had not been locked into my accommodation, and had to wake up the housekeeper who as it turns out usually lived in the house I had stayed in and had been demoted to the shed in our presence. I spent the day completely alone, however this turned out it suited me and set the strategy for the days ahead. I spent the whole day waiting for people to pass, but this not to happen. Regular short breaks, walking up the steeper climbs and getting into a rhythm. I didn’t really stop for a long break, partly due to being harassed and intimidated by two drunk men at a small town I had intended to stop at. A section across the top of the twin lakes was something I was looking forward to as I knew the views were going to be mega. But the heavens opened, on the most exposed section where they are reconstructing the road with no cover, so this meant at solitary 20km of what can only be described as ‘the muddiest slip and slide’ through peanut butter mud which soon brought me back down to earth. Checkpoint 2 was a big milestone to hit, then I managed to get accommodation a few miles up the road with another a little more elevation ticked off. 

Day 3 was the toughest of the lot; rocky and technical gravel climb and descent, followed by the longest never ending climb up to 2800m elevation. A long sweeping descent then followed by another long gentle road climb up to where I had planned to stay then rounded the day off nicely for an early finish. During the day my rear brake had been a bit dodgy, after a failed roadside change of my brake pads (with an intense audience of locals), I decided to do a little bike maintenance – cue causing complete brake failure. Some kindly offered support from another rider deemed that it was the brake cable and not much to be done but find an alternative. The hotel reception team helped and said that they had called for a mechanic to come first thing in the morning. I never did establish if it was a bike or car mechanic. After one last Google, and manipulating some chain lube down the cable, I managed by some miracle to have a semi-working brake by midnight, bodge job completed. After a short sleep I decided to give it a go and see if I could make the 75km to the next checkpoint and re-evaluate from there. At the checkpoint a mechanic told me that the brakes were fine, so I thought perhaps it was me just imagining that my brakes should work better than they do. Therefore, I carried on to my next night stop, just before the rainforest. 

A 3am start for the most mega day was on the cards. Starting the day with a climb of over 1000 vertical metres woke me up and it took 8 hours to cover 75km which was not the dream, but I eventually reached the eco-lodge (first resupply option) and devoured some pasta in record speed. Decisions were made to push onto checkpoint 4, which meant a long stint in the dark was going to be needed. After a litre of chai tea (containing at least 10 sugars) was consumed in Kibeho we headed off into the dark. I was pleased to be riding in close proximity to two other riders at this point, as felt like a bit of safety in numbers. Single track gravel descents, sketchiest bridge crossing I have ever done and long never-ending miles to finally get to the checkpoint at 10pm, a mammoth 19-hour day on the bike! 

By this point my brakes were so loose they were hardly functioning, so a little tweak with some very gratefully received support from the media team, meant at least I could start my last day with some braking capacity. With 133km left on the cards, it seemed like a manageable feat to complete on the last day. However, I still knew it was far enough and forever undulating that I should not underestimate the task in hand. With a good buffer ahead of the chasing riders, I set off at a more sociable hour of 6am. The early sections were tough and mentally I found this the hardest of all the course. The media team popping up and following me for a while boosted my energy and made me forget my woes, and actually cycle up some hills for once! 

Navigating Kigali traffic has to be one of the most terrifying 25km of my life, I have never felt so close to death on multiple occasions in such a short space of time. I never want to be that close to a trucks wheels again! Crossing the finish line in 130 hours and 29minutes was one of the proudest moments of my life. Finishing second solo female was just something I never thought would be possible, especially this being my first race, so a real added bonus. 

The Rwandans are so friendly, and you were never more than a few minutes away from another group of overly enthusiastic children who have incredible abilities to run alongside the bike for considerable distances in flip flops or sliders. The sounds of ‘goode-morning’ – a kind of hybrid between good morning and guten morgen, was shouted all day long. Only a couple of ‘good afternoons’ and a shock ‘good evening’ on the last day nearly made me fall off my bike – but sadly it was said in the morning. However more common interactions were ‘give me my money’ and a constant soundtrack of ‘muzungu muzungu!’ just to ensure that everyone in each village was aware of my impending arrival. 

The local cyclists are incredible athletes, either pushing an abnormally heavy load up a hill, or transporting one or two other people on the back of their fixed speed bikes (with no brakes). They were always keen to form a peloton, but always a little too competitive to let a female cyclist past them, so I often ended up in a race for extended periods of times that I just could not leave! Whilst this constant support was relentless at times and for periods I just craved 10 minutes to myself, for one to actually find somewhere to pee in peace would have been nice! It did make me feel uncomfortable dismissing these children who clearly had very little in life, however I knew I could not support them all.

Fuelling a challenge like this is never going to be optimal, you do not have the space in your bags, nor the time or opportunities to stop as regularly as you need to. I packed a selection of emergency gels, bars, sweets, carb powder and rationed these out across the days. Leftover chips, bananas, chapattis and mandazi (fried doughnut balls) proved most popular and available options. At least 1l of fizzy drink – Fanta pineapple and Coca cola was consumed daily for perfect carb and hydration duo. Stopping for more substantial meals was tricky, I didn’t want to leave my bike unattended and due to the language barrier it was often quite difficult to establish what somewhere would sell. They would often nod and agree to chapatti and beans, for the beans to never appear.  Double portions in the evenings and raiding the breakfast buffet (when available) was the tactic. Luckily the Rwandans like a triple carb option at meal – with chips, rice and pasta/potato often served at the same time, which is handy for endurance fuelling! I definitely improved on my fuelling strategy over the week, learning not to push it and stopping to eat more frequently that I wanted to, helped keep my energy levels topped up. Fuelling a multiday challenge like this is very much about minimising the deficit rather than total optimal nutrition. 

Overall, I had the most wonderful adventure, bikepacking is one of the best ways to explore somewhere, you can cover decent distances and still get off the beaten track. Eat, drink, cycle, sleep – ultra racing is always the most simple of times, which is one of the reasons I love it. Being a solo female cyclist did have its challenges at times, but generally I felt safe. But being mobbed any time you stopped, and what I can only describe as bullying by groups of teenagers, and very up close interactions with drunk locals nearly unsettled me at times. Due to concerns I did limit my nighttime riding choosing to start early in the morning to feel safer as it was quiet. Generally my body felt good, I did a lot of ‘hike a bike’ on the steeper gradients, so actually blisters on my heels were my biggest complaint. But overall, the beauty, smiles and never-ending hills of Rwanda have captured my heart. I feel so privileged and grateful to have been able to experience this, and really would encourage people to step outside their comfort zone and if there is a challenge or adventure you want to do, then go pursue it. This experience was either going to make or break my cycling, and I think it has started something very special – next adventure pending…..

Photo credits: Manu Cattrysse, Ryan Le Garrec, James Busby