{"id":333,"date":"2011-04-21T08:11:58","date_gmt":"2011-04-21T06:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/?p=333"},"modified":"2011-04-21T08:11:58","modified_gmt":"2011-04-21T06:11:58","slug":"adrien-niyonshuti-leads-rwandan-challenge-at-joberg2c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/adrien-niyonshuti-leads-rwandan-challenge-at-joberg2c\/","title":{"rendered":"Adrien Niyonshuti Leads Rwandan Challenge at joBerg2c"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adrien Niyonshuti from Rwanda, who is set to become his country’s first mountain biking Olympian at the 2012 London Olympic Games, will lead the African challenge at the Fairbairn Capital\/Old Mutual joBerg2c from April 29.<\/p>\n

The MTN-Qhubeka rider, who will partner Ghost-DoItNow’s Max Knox, has issued a stern warning to his fellow competitors in the nine-day, 900km event between Heidelberg in Gauteng and Scottburgh in KwaZulu-Natal. “Every race I enter I want to podium or win.”<\/p>\n

A survivor of the 1994 genocide, in which he lost six brothers, Niyonshuti’s endurance has been forged under tough conditions.<\/p>\n

“I love to ride my bike as it helps me to forget the past. I love pushing myself hard, even if it hurts, as it will never be as painful as the genocide.” <\/p>\n

Niyonshuti \u2013 whose talent was first spotted at the Wooden Bike Classic in Rwanda five years ago – qualified for the Olympic Games when he placed fourth at the African Continental Championships in Stellenbosch in February.<\/p>\n

“It was one of my greatest dreams. I’m so very excited to have this happen for me and my country.”<\/p>\n

He and his Namibian team-mate Mannie Heymans were also the winners of the African jersey at the recent Absa Cape Epic.<\/p>\n

“That jersey is really special to me because it represents being the best in Africa,” said Niyonshuti. The 24-year-old believes the Cape Epic has been perfect preparation for the Fairbairn Capital\/Old Mutual joBerg2c.<\/p>\n

“There will definitely be some strong riders in the field but in a race like this you are also competing against the terrain and weather every day. Luck plays a part as well.”<\/p>\n

Niyonshuti said Kenyans David Kinjah and Davidson Kamau (Safari Simbaz Fairbairn Capital), second overall last year, would be a serious threat to his ambitions.<\/p>\n

“It is so great to see new African riders competing at this level. When I was young, I did not even know that you could do this as a profession.”<\/p>\n

He said if more young Africans were introduced to the sport and given similar opportunities, many more exciting riders would emerge from the continent.<\/p>\n

“This is precisely the work of Kinjah’s Safari Simbaz organisation,” said race organiser Craig Wapnick, “which is why Fairbairn Capital is backing his team in a big way and sponsoring them to do the event.”<\/p>\n

Wapnick said it was not merely about rewarding Kinjah and Kamau as top riders but about encouraging their efforts to develop talented youngsters from their community.<\/p>\n

“They are serious professionals but they still have time to stop and assist their fellow competitors. These are the kind of people we want to ride our event.”<\/p>\n

They effectively helped race leaders Andrew Maclean and Shan Wilson (Toyota-Cycle Lab) to victory last year when stopping to help fix the latter’s broken derailleur.<\/p>\n

“As organisers, it is a pleasure to have them in our event as they epitomise the spirit of the race.”<\/p>\n

Visit www.joberg2c.co.za, join the Facebook group or follow joberg2c_journo on Twitter.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Adrien Niyonshuti (left), who is set to become Rwanda's first Olympic mountain biker, will race the nine-day Fairbairn Capital\/Old Mutual joBerg2c from April 29. Here he shows off the African jersey he won alongside Namibia's Mannie Heymans at the recent Absa Cape Epic. Photo: Karin Schermbrucker<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adrien Niyonshuti from Rwanda, who is set to become his country’s first mountain biking Olympian at the 2012 London Olympic Games, will lead the African challenge at the Fairbairn Capital\/Old Mutual joBerg2c from April 29. The MTN-Qhubeka rider, who will partner Ghost-DoItNow’s Max Knox, has issued a stern warning to his fellow competitors in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":334,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8277,30],"class_list":{"0":"post-333","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-joberg2c","9":"tag-johannesburg-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Adrien_Niyonshuti_Mannie_Heymans.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":335,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333\/revisions\/335"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}