The bikes are leaning nearby, but the riders have forgotten them. Members of Team Rwanda Cycling have stopped beside a patch of roadside snow near Moab, Utah, during a 2007 trip to the United States. According to the team’s own account, it was the first time some of them had ever seen snow, and a few tried to keep handfuls of it in their pockets.
Team Rwanda Cycling: how the team began
Team Rwanda grew out of a 2006 visit to Rwanda by mountain-bike pioneer Tom Ritchey and Jonathan “Jock” Boyer. Boyer was the first American to ride the Tour de France, in 1981. He moved to Rwanda soon afterwards and built a national team from scratch, recruiting riders from rural villages who had never had professional coaching.
The team became a non-profit that pays its riders salaries large enough to support their families. Riders train at the Africa Rising Cycling Center in Musanze District, in Rwanda’s Northern Province, and the programme later added riders from Ethiopia and Eritrea under the name Team Africa Rising. Its story is told in the documentary Rising from Ashes.
Adrien Niyonshuti: from genocide survivor to Olympian
One of the riders of that era was Adrien Niyonshuti, born on 2 January 1987 in Rwamagana. He survived the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, in which six of his brothers were killed. Boyer recruited him in 2006, and he rode for Team Rwanda in 2007 and 2008 before turning professional with the MTN-Qhubeka team in 2009.
At the London 2012 Olympics he raced the cross-country mountain-bike event, becoming the first Black African to compete in an Olympic mountain-bike race, and carried Rwanda’s flag at the opening ceremony. He was flagbearer again at Rio 2016. In August 2013 he opened his own cycling academy with support from the Rising from Ashes Foundation and Team Africa Rising.
Moab, Utah: red rock, slickrock and the odd snowfall
Moab sits at about 1,227 metres on the Colorado Plateau in eastern Utah, a town of 5,366 people (2020) best known as the gateway to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. Arches’ entrance is just 6 km north of town. For cyclists, Moab means mountain biking, above all the famous Slickrock Trail on bare sandstone.
Snow is not common there. The town averages only about 18 cm of snow a season, mostly in December, and January days usually reach about 6°C. A patch of snow beside the road near Moab is a passing thing, which makes this roadside discovery all the luckier.
A small moment that travelled far
The photograph spread widely in February 2015, when it was shared on Reddit and picked up across the web. Its appeal is simple: a group of world-class athletes, far from home, pausing to enjoy something completely new. For more journeys by bike and on foot, see Mike Libecki’s Antarctic family film and Jakub Polomski’s Patagonia photographs.
Related reading
- Eighteen Cycling Settings: From City Streets to Mountain Trails
- Road Bike Party 2: Three Riders Turn Familiar Equipment into a Film
- De Bruyn Joubert’s Around 7 Continents Cycling Project
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