Watch the moment Team Amani — the first UCI Women’s Continental Team from Africa — was launched with Xaverine Nirere, Xylon Van Eyck and Ashleigh Moolman Pasio on stage at Rouleur Live 2025
“My dream is to be at the highest level, and to race the big races in Europe – the Giro d’Italia, the Tour de France. These are things we wished for before, and now it’s coming true. It’s the best opportunity I’ve had in my life and I am so happy, so excited.”
Xaverine Nirere – or Xav for short – is sitting opposite me. The Rwandan woman is in London for the first time – “it’s very big,” the 23-year-old laughs – as her team, Amani, have a big announcement to make at Rouleur Live: from next season, they’ll be the first-ever UCI Continental women’s team from Africa. And Nirere is one of their superstars. This is a big moment – both for her, and for the sport. Just months after the first-ever African World Championships in Rwanda (Nirere rode the road race, time trial and mixed relay team time trial), the continent of Africa, which comprises 54 countries, will finally be represented on a more regular basis in the women’s peloton by a greater number of riders. Nirere hopes to prove what she and others have been saying for years: it’s not that Africans don’t have the talent for cycling, it’s more that its people have barely had attainable access to the top of the sport. Amani is seeking to change this – and attitudes across Africa, as well as Europe.
“I feel happy on the bike”
That Nirere took up cycling was not too much of a shock. One of eight siblings, her eldest brother, Valens Ndayisenga, won the Tour du Rwanda twice, and raced for Dimension Data for Qhubeka’s development team in 2016. “My brother was a good rider and he’s why I started cycling,” Nirere says. “He loved cycling and taught me you can do it for work, not just for fun. Even now, I can’t go to bed without phoning him or sending him a message. Before a big event we call for one hour to discuss the race, and to make a good plan. He is the one pushing me to achieve my dreams.”
Nirere was 13 when she raced for the first time. “That day I was dreaming,” she remembers. “But we talked about it with my family and they said I should continue to study and not continue on the bike. They thought I was still young. But I continued to train, didn’t give up, and continued to push. Now I focus on cycling, and I think…