Flu, a new bike and a fighting chance at Olympic Games for Uganda’s Charles Kagimu

Half an hour after Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) celebrated his historic victory in the Paris Olympic Games road race, Charles Kagimu lit up the arena at the Trocadéro in Paris, rolling in as the last finisher of the 273km race. The crowd were genuinely appreciative of the 25-year-old’s scrappy ride in the day’s early breakaway and his fight to write his name into history as the first Ugandan Olympic cyclist in 40 years.

Kagimu is no stranger to epic racing, having completed a brutal edition of the Unbound Gravel 200 last year with Team Amani, but the Olympics were another level of intensity with streets packed 10-deep with screaming fans. The atmosphere inspired Kagimu to fight through the major setback of falling seriously ill after the opening ceremony.