Historic day for African women's cycling with five riders named to 2026 WCC roster

Tuesday brought another important moment in Africa’s cycling history with the news that five African riders will feature on the roster for the 2026 World Cycling Centre Women’s Continental Team was published, and five young African women were listed on the 10-rider squad. 

Nesrine Houili (Algeria), Georgette Vignonfodo (Benin), Serkalem Taye Watango (Ethiopia), Lucie de Marigny-Lagesse (Mauritius), and Jazilla Mwamikazi (Rwanda) will form part of the 10-rider squad in 2026. Vignonfodo has the distinction of becoming Benin’s first-ever professional cyclist.

 “This is a fantastic moment and truly ground-breaking in that these five African women, each of whom has good experience of racing at the UCI level, have been named on a professional team,” Jeremy Ford of non-profit Africa Rising told Domestique

“It is a fantastic investment in African women’s cycling, and we expect these women, from across all four corners of the continent, will inspire female cyclists from across Africa. 

In fact, African women are now outperforming the men in one regard, with double the number of African women’s national champions on pro teams than the men. African women are rising.”

For much of cycling’s history, riders from outside of European had severely limited prospects of making it as a professional at the top level. For female African riders, opportunities were practically non-existent. 

Domestic racing calendars are sparse, funding is hard to come by, and the infrastructure that European riders take for granted, such as coaching, team support, and regular competition, simply doesn’t exist in many places. 

The World Cycling Centre women’s team was set up in 2018 to change that, giving talented riders from emerging nations a proper shot, offering professional coaching, and crucially, visibility for African women, who have often been an afterthought even within their own national federations.