Rwanda's first cyclist will continue his journey in the peloton. The good news that Adrien Niyonshuti had extended his contract with Team MTN-Qhubeka (named Team Dimension Data in 2016) and will race for his eighth season with the African squad came less than a week before the start of the Tour of Rwanda.
He will be Mark Cavendish's team-mate next year and could soon be part of a WorldTour project. His contract was, indeed, unsure until his managers were confident that the team would be granted entry into the world's first division.
“I am glad to stay one more year and now I would like to show what I am able to do,” Niyonshuti told Cyclingnews at the Tour of Rwanda, where he was supposed to compete before he broke his elbow last month at the Memorial Pantani, Italy.
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His last two years at Team MTN-Qhubeka have been tarnished by some bad luck. The Rwandan rider suffered deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism after a flight in February 2013 and lost several weeks in his preparation. However, he came back to shape and could in 2015 enter into races such as Giro del Trentino, Bayern Rundfahrt and Tour of Utah, supporting his leaders like Louis Meintjes in GC or Gerald Ciolek in bunch sprints.
“This experience has been good to me and my country,” said the 28-year old climber. “I learned a lot and enjoyed new style of races like the Three Days of Western Flanders. This is a Flemish course but I could cope with it, thanks to my mountain bike background.”
In 2016, Niyonshuti would like to race his first Grand Tour. “He can do it, he is an endurance rider and he has a strong potential,” says his mentor Jonathan Boyer, the ex-American pro cyclist and Team Rwanda National coach.
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