‘The dream is to race the Tour de France with a full African team’ – Team AMANI’s 10-year plan

Team AMANI is determined to make this dream a reality. Co-founded by Mikel Delagrange and the late Sule Kangangi in 2018, AMANI – meaning ‘peace’ in Swahili – already boasts many of the best road and gravel riders from Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda on its roster.

“If you told me around the time AMANI was founded that there would be a team with all African riders together on a Continental team, even trying to grow more on gravel and with a women’s team, it’s something that I never pictured is going to happen,” Tsgabu Grmay, the first Ethiopian professional cyclist and now head sport director at AMANI, tells Domestique. 

“We had a solid structure before I joined the team,” adding that his “mind was blown” that AMANI’s staff already included the likes of a nutritionist and chef. “We still have a lot of holes because it's such a young team,” he continues. “It’s a dream to be part of a big African team. It gives me so much energy.”

Working with Delagrange, now director and ‘Head Cheerleader’ of AMANI, Grmay has shared what he learned throughout his career and what it takes to compete at the top so the pair can map out a 10-year plan for the team to reach that level. “I'm really proud of what I had in 12 years on the road and the dream I achieved.” 

After retiring from the WorldTour at the end of 2023, Grmay says the prospect of abruptly stopping cycling was a “big jump”, leading him to AMANI and gravel. “As soon as I started gravel racing I loved it.” He describes joining AMANI in 2024 as a “perfect fit” to race on gravel but also having the flexibility to focus on coaching and management.

“Our dream is not to make a WorldTour team, but to create a Pro Continental team that races the biggest races outside of Africa like the Tour de France. We really believe we can do that with the men and women, and it’s not only going with two or three athletes, we are thinking 20 women and 20 men. We are looking for the best athletes in the continent. Can you imagine this opportunity? It’s something that really excites me.” 

Grmay believes that getting to the Tour de France from where he started in Ethiopia was more difficult than it will be to take AMANI to the top and develop winners from the project.

Team AMANI became a UCI Continental squad in 2025, and in 2026, Grmay says the aim is becoming the best team in Africa. Only Algerian-based Madar Pro Cycling Team sits above Team AMANI in the UCI Africa Tour team rankings. 

“That’s a really realistic goal to achieve,” he suggests, and that it’s steps like these that need to be ticked off before trying to conquer Europe’s elite. “We don't want our athletes going to Europe and struggling to finish the race. We need to build skill and a winning mentality in Africa first.”

2,400 metres above sea level in Kenya’s Great Rift Valley lies Iten, renowned as the ‘Home of Champions’ from the land’s association with elite long-distance runners. Kangangi - who grew up 32 kilometres southwest of Iten- and Delagrange established AMANI’s home in Iten with the ambition to adapt the blueprint of Kenya’s running success to cycling.

Grmay says that runners have it easier than cyclists because “they can prove themselves only with shoes and sponsors invest,” but the likes of Rapha, POC, Factor, SRAM, Wahoo and Fizik are all on board with the AMANI project to prove what African cyclists can achieve when barriers to equipment are removed. 

These sponsors are increasing access to top level competition for African athletes too by supporting the Migration Gravel Race, of which Delagrange is also a co-founder. The four stage event attracts the best gravel cyclists in the world to Kenya’s Maasai Mara, rather than the more traditional settings of Europe or the US.

Grmay, who finished fourth in this year’s edition, says that “we have a goal in 5-7 years to be on top of gravel” in addition to the team’s road goals. “Many people know AMANI on the gravel and that’s our core still.”

Two riders leading Team AMANI on both the road and gravel are 22-year-old Samuel Niyonkuru and 23-year-old Xaverine Nirere. Both reigning Rwandan Individual Time Trial (ITT) champions, Niyonkuru finished 28th in this week’s under-23 World Championships ITT on home soil in Kigali, while Nirere finished 27th in the women’s ITT and 11th in the Mixed Relay Team Time Trial (TTT).

Speaking to Domestique ahead of this weekend’s road races, Niyonkuru describes racing in a home World Championships as “incredible” and that he is “filled with pride.” Grmay labels Niyonkuru as “the main guy” from AMANI on the men’s side at this week’s Worlds. 

“If Samuel and Xaverine finish in the top 40 that’s a big win for me,” he says, again stressing the importance of setting realistic goals. “Kigali comes a little bit early for us as a team structure to be able to say we can go out there and top 10,” adding that Biniam Girmay’s second place in the 2021 Worlds under-23 road race was “unique”.

Niyonkuru began cycling in 2018 after joining former Rwandan professional rider Adrien Niyonshuti’s academy. “I used to watch cyclists passing by every day. Eventually I wanted to try it myself. At the start I only had a small, simple bike, but once I joined the academy I began training regularly on weekends after school. The toughest part was that I didn’t have a proper racing bike. I started out on a heavy single-speed ‘Black Mamba’, while the other riders had road bikes. It was really challenging, but I didn’t give up. When the academy saw my determination, they eventually provided me with better equipment which helped me progress. Even on the single-speed bike I managed to win small events, and that proved to me that I could achieve more.” 

Niyonkuru says that finishing second place at the African Continental Championships in the 2021 TTT and 2023 Mixed Relay TTT are two of his biggest career highlights to date.

Grmay describes Nirere’s progress over the last few years as “pure”. In August 2025 she won the first UCI women’s race held in Africa at the Tour of Windhoek in Namibia, finishing almost ten minutes ahead of teammate Merhawit Asgodom in second place. Nirere also finished third in this year’s Rwandan National Championships Road Race and second in Migration after winning the first stage.

“I have seven siblings and when my brother and I started cycling, our parents didn’t understand it,” Nirere tells Domestique. “My grandfather wasn’t a cyclist but he wanted me to do something I love. Even though he didn’t have much money, he gave me money for training every day. When I didn’t finish a race, he told me to just get to the finish line, not to give up. That was the first win for me. He was the one pushing me to get to the next level always. He passed away in 2024 and I ride with his memory. Every victory I take I think about him.”

Nirere has overcome challenges like being the only girl that cycled in her local area while growing up and not being able to speak English when joining AMANI. “They made me understand to succeed I would need to learn it, so every day after training I would rest, then prepare all my equipment for the next day’s training ride, then I would go on YouTube to learn English.”

Both Niyonkuru and Nirere have tested how competitive they can be in European gravel races but faced adversity away from the bike. “It was hard to be away from my family for so long,” says Nirere. “I got a sim card to make sure I could call them all the time.”

“I think many people in the cycling world underestimate how much talent there is in Africa and how hard we have to fight just to get on the start line,” says Niyonkuru. “A lot of riders here grow up with almost nothing – no proper bikes, no nutrition plans, no racing calendar – and still manage to reach a high level. If we had the same resources and opportunities as riders in Europe, I believe you would see many more Africans competing at the very top. What people sometimes don’t realise is that our biggest strength is resilience. We are used to doing more with less. That gives us a special mentality.”

“I achieved the life I wanted,” says Grmay, “but these kids are smarter and have more hunger and they want to achieve something because they see the possibility. It also helps me as a coachand gives me more energy to help them.”

He believes the talent is great enough in Africa to achieve top results if it is supplemented by resources that big European teams can offer. “It’s all about the budget because once you get that, you can hire the best coaches or best nutritionists and bring them to Africa.” 

While Grmay says that AMANI are “hunting” the best coaches whether they’re from Africa or not, the team is also developing staff talent from within. “For example, our mechanic in Iten, Moses Muiruri, was a rider last year in the Black Mamba Development Team,” AMANI’s under-23 squad. “This year he did his first race with us in Oman and also with the women’s team in the race in Namibia as a mechanic. Now he is fully based in Iten, looking after the bikes and also taking responsibility to make sure a lot of guys are learning on the mechanic side, which is really important for the future.”

Niyonkuru believes that Kigali 2025 is the “turning point” that will “give African cyclists belief that we belong at the highest level.”

The opportunity provided by AMANI “changed everything for me,” he continues. “With more support and investment, I’m sure more Africans will reach the biggest races. I know there are many more young riders across Africa, especially in small villages, who are waiting for their chance to be discovered.”

Grmay reiterates that AMANI’s Tour de France dream is a 10-year goal. “We’re aware of where the sport is and how fast it's growing, but we really believe in 10 years we can do it.” He suggests that while closing the gap on the men’s side to the best European level is a longer trajectory, “we arrived so quick to the top level” on the women’s side that AMANI is aiming to be a top 10 women’s team within five years.

“My goal is to get to the Tour de France and I want to see many other African women there,” says Nirere. “If Team AMANI continues in the way we’re going, I think we will get there.”

“My dream is to compete in the biggest races: the Tour de France, the Vuelta a España and the Giro d’Italia,” echoes Niyonkuru. “I believe I have the ability, and with the right backing, I know I can reach that level.”

“People don’t see that there's so much work we're doing behind the scenes, but I'm telling you, it's happening,” adds Grmay. “Watch what Team AMANI is going to do in two years, four years, six years, eight years—trust me. I will leave you with that message.”