時事英語 Current Events Course at Matsusho College 2022 summer: Story 7
Zebras, giraffes … and a cycling race through the Maasai Mara in Kenya
The rocky, red dirt roads of Kenya’s Maasai Mara served as the backdrop for a special new cycling event: the Migration Gravel Race.
In June 2022, it brought together 100 of the world’s top cyclists for a four-day race. One-third of the entrants were from East Africa. This was a rare opportunity for the region’s riders to show that they can rival the best.
Mikel Delagrange helped organize the event. In more than 100 years of cycling world championships, he says, “only three athletes outside of Europe have ever won. They came from the U.S. and Australia.”
For 11 years, Delagrange, a human rights lawyer, worked mostly in Central and East Africa.
East African riders “lack access to international competition,” he says. “You might be the best in your neighborhood but you won’t progress if you’re only beating people in your neighborhood.”
Sending “an East African to an international race” means spending a lot of money on visas, flights and European hotels.
Instead, the event’s organizers thought, “why don’t we bring international competition here?”
Race Has Unique Organizational Challenges
The four-day race takes riders along 400 miles of rough roads. The roads go up around 10,000 feet. Each day, the course is cleared by Maasai motorcycle sweepers, dressed in their traditional red plaid blankets. Then, a helicopter flies on ahead to check for elephants and buffalo.
Organizing a traveling band of 100 cyclists in a region that lacks infrastructure is a challenge. From security to cooking to building the campsites, all of it is done with support from local Maasai people.
Last year, Delagrange set up the Amani team: eight men and four women from the top cycling clubs in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda. “Amani has changed my life, but not just mine,” says Suleiman Kangangi, a Kenyan cyclist.
Zoom-inImage 2. Support from the local Massai has been integral in putting on the race. Photo: saltlake_lian/Migration Gravel Race
Nancy Akinyi, another Kenyan cyclist, says that “Amani is special because now Black people can see that we can be pros. It’s unusual to see people from the northern part of Africa — I’m going to say Black people — doing so well,” she says.
Non-African riders include big names such as Lachlan Morton from Australia and Lael Wilcox from the United States. Each paid $1,250 to enter. Some of that money goes toward funding the Amani team.
Everyone is racing for fun and glory; there is no prize money.
“An Experience That’s So Much More Fulfilling”
The fast-growing sport of gravel racing means essentially putting mountain bike tires on high-end $10,000 road bikes. It is more open and democratic than road racing. Like a marathon, anyone can line up with the best.
“Here … you can sit around the campfire after a race and chat with people from all walks of life, make new friends and hammer each other for five hours on the road every day,” says Morton, who finished fifth overall, behind three Amani riders. “That doesn’t exist in the majority of races. It’s an experience that’s so much more fulfilling.”
Delagrange says the Black Lives Matter protests were important to getting the event started. They made some people recognize racial inequality in cycling and other institutions. For a long time, he says, many people tried “to cover how white” cycling is. Around the time of the protests, Delagrange said he already had a plan for the event.
He believes the industry has begun to understand it’s not diverse enough to be considered an international sport. “Without allowing the rest of the world to play this game, we still don’t know what can be done on a bike.”
An Adventure Of A Race
East African cyclists proved that they can hold their own against the best. Amani’s John Kariyuki was the overall winner over the four stages. Fifteen of the top 20 finishers were Africans.
Kenyan cyclist David Kinjah believes many sporting projects in Africa fail because they have a European mentality and don’t understand the culture.
“This project is different because they take the best from several countries,” he says. “They bring unity by putting these good riders in one team. Some of these guys have never been in the Maasai Mara or seen an elephant. Now they are having an adventure in their own country — and racing against the best in the world.”
“Right now, we have 12 athletes whose lives we’d like to improve through [cycling] opportunities,” Delagrange says. “Maybe we will have those breakout athletes who will change the face of cycling. You’ve got to start somewhere.
“Hopefully, after four days, they go home with a different view of what Africa is about.”