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I'm on the back of Max's motorbike, where maybe 20 kilometres now, out of Ruan Garry, or on the road to Kigali,

and up to now the road's been fairly flat, but we've come to a climb now and we're alongside the riders.

I think there are 12 out today. These riders are members of Ruan Garry's National Cycling Team.

I'm Tim Mansl, and this is assignment on the BBC World Service.

They're all out of the saddle now, pushing hard, getting up this incline.

Ruan Garry is known as the land of a thousand hills, and it's up and down these hills that these young men go to work

on sleek, streamlined racing bikes. Up hill, out of the saddle, standing on the pedals, legs pumping, long straining.

Down hill, crouched close to the handlebars, free wheeling past lumbering lorries, round long sweeping bends at 80 kilometres an hour.

There's some children on the bank above, yelling encouragement down to the riders.

I think this is something of a familiar sight for people around here nowadays. Every time there's a training camp,

the riders come out on the roads around Ruan Garry, and they're very popular.

Almost everyone in Ruan Garry rides a bike, but as soon as they get to a hill, they have to get off and push,

because the bike is usually carrying a huge load of coffee or potatoes.

So when these young men hustle past bright flashes of pink and yellow in wraparound shades, they also represent hope.

That could be me one day.

Rathiki is right up out of his saddle, he's pushing quite hard to get back to the front again.

Rathiki was working in the mechanic shop with Max this morning, so he was the last rider to leave,

and when we left a little after him, we caught him up, and Jock, who's on the other motorbike,

pulled in front of him, and Rathiki then got into his slipstream, and he was being pulled along by Jock's slipstream.

Rathiki may be only a couple of feet from Jock's back wheel.

Jock is Jock Boyer, a former professional cyclist from the United States, and now Team Rwanda's coach.

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