Andrew Hampsten is an American former professional road bicycle racer who won the 1988 Giro d'Italia and the Alpe d'Huez stage of the 1992 Tour de France. Between 1986–1994 he finished in the Top 10 of eight Grand Tours.
Davis Phinney is a retired professional road bicycle racer from the United States. He won 328 races in the 1980s and 1990s, a record for an American, including two Tour de France stages. He has worked in media since retiring as a professional cyclist. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease at age 40.
Tom Ritchey is an American bicycle frame builder, Category 1 racer, fabricator, designer, and founder of Ritchey Design. Ritchey is a US pioneer in modern frame building and the first production mountain bike builder/manufacturer in the history of the sport. He is an innovator of bicycle components that have been used in winning some of the biggest cycling competitions in the world including the UCI World Championships, the Tour de France and the Olympics. In 1988, Ritchey was inducted into the inaugural Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in Crested Butte, Colorado : and 2012, inducted to the United States Bicycle Hall of Fame in Davis, California.
Mountain bike racing is the competitive cycle sport discipline of mountain biking held on off-road terrain. The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) recognised the discipline relatively late in 1990, when it sanctioned the world championships in Durango, Colorado. The first UCI Mountain Bike World Cup series took place in 1988. Its nine-race circuit covered two continents—Europe and North America—and was sponsored by Grundig. Cross-country racing was the only World Cup sport at this time. In 1993, a six-event downhill World Cup was introduced. In 1996, cross-country mountain biking events were added to the Olympic Games. In 2006, cross-country mountain biking events became part of the World Deaf Cycling Championships for the first time in San Francisco, USA.
Ronald Alexander Kiefel is a former professional road bicycle racer from the United States. Kiefel is a seven-time Tour de France racer, Olympic bronze medalist and member of the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame.
Félix Lévitan, was a sports journalist and the third organiser of the Tour de France a role he shared for much of the time with Jacques Goddet. Lévitan is credited with looking after the financial side of the Tour while Goddet concentrated on the sporting aspect, but in the end Lévitan was fired while Goddet simply retired.
Sharon Laws was a British professional cyclist and environmental consultant.
Gordon McCauley is a New Zealand cyclist. He has won the men's New Zealand road race championships a record five times and the New Zealand time trial championships a record three times. He was also the first New Zealander to break the 50 minute barrier for the 40 km time trial, recording a time of 49 minutes 50 seconds at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, winning the bronze medal.
Adrien Niyonshuti is a Rwandan former professional bicycle racer, who rode professionally for Team Dimension Data from 2009 to 2017. In 2021, he worked as a directeur sportif for UCI Continental team Skol Adrien Cycling Academy. In 2023, he will be leading the Benin National Cycling team to prepare for the UCI Championships to be held on the continent in 2025.
Dan Craven is a Namibian racing cyclist, who last rode for Namibian amateur team NCCS Cycling Team. He is the grandson of Danie Craven, the South African rugby union icon.
Team Qhubeka was a UCI WorldTeam based in South Africa. The team rode to raise awareness and funds for Qhubeka, a South African not-for-profit organisation. The team was founded in 2007 and was the first-ever African team to ride the Tour de France (2015).
Lachlan David Morton is an Australian professional gravel and road racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam EF Education–EasyPost.
Rising From Ashes is a 2012 independent documentary film about the development of a national cycling team in Rwanda, a country still affected by 1994 Rwandan genocide where an estimated 500,000–1,000,000 Rwandans were killed.
Merhawi Kudus Ghebremedhin is an Eritrean professional cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Continental team Terengganu Cycling Team. During his professional career, Merhawi has taken six victories including three national road titles as well as the general classification and two stages at the 2019 Tour du Rwanda.
In Rwanda, sport is supported by the government's Sports Development Policy of October 2012. This argues that sport has a number of benefits, including bringing people together, improving national pride and unity, and improving health. The policy identifies challenges to the development of sport in the country, including limited infrastructure and financial capacity. It sets the "inspirational target" that, by 2020, Rwanda should have "a higher percentage of population playing sport than in any other African nation" and be ranked amongst the top three African countries in basketball, volleyball, cycling, athletics and Paralympic sports, and the top ten in football. It also aims to "foster increased participation of people in traditional sports". According to research published by the University of the Western Cape's Interdisciplinary Centre of Excellence for Sport Science and Development, the most popular sports in Rwanda are association football, volleyball, basketball, athletics and Paralympic sports.
Louis Meintjes is a South African cyclist, who rides for UCI WorldTeam Intermarché–Wanty. He won the South African National Road Race Championships in 2014, and has finished 8th overall in the Tour de France, on 3 occasions in 2016, 2017 and 2022. He has also finished 10th overall at the 2015 Vuelta a España, and won a stage at the 2022 Vuelta a España.
Jacques Janse van Rensburg is a South African racing cyclist, who rides for South African amateur team TEG Pro Cycling Team. In 2015, he won the South African National Road Race Championships.
Joseph Areruya is a Rwandan cyclist, who rides for Rwandan amateur team Inovotec. In 2017 he won the Tour du Rwanda. He became the first cyclist from Rwanda to ride in the Paris–Roubaix road race, when he took part in the 2019 edition.
Biniam Girmay Hailu is an Eritrean professional road cyclist who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Intermarché–Wanty.
The Rwanda Cycling Federation or FERWACY is the national governing body of cycle racing in Rwanda. FERWACY is a member of the African Cycling Confederation and the Union Cycliste Internationale.
