Africa Rising Cycling Podcast

Algeria's Youcef Reguigui was born on 9 Janaury 1990with a father who was already a big name in Algerian cycling. Following in his foot-steps, Youcef raced sixteen seasons on UCI teams, across the World Your, Pro Continental and Continental levels.We sat down with him to discuss his journey, the moment he signed with MTN-Qhubeka - "Africa's Team" - in 2013, the European and international riders he rode with and learned from, and his career since. He remains the only Algerian rider to race the Vuelta a Espana at the top level. You will hear Doug Ryder's recollections of working with Youcef as well.Youcef also raced nearly 100 days with one of Algeria's other big names - Azzedine Lagab - and we caught up with him as well to hear his thoughts on his great friend and team-mate on both the Algerian national team, and recently on Madar Pro Cycling (the Algerian registered UCI Continental Team, leading the Africa Tour Team rankings).Youcef is clearly very passionate about using his experience to help the next generation and talks about his plans, the time and investment needed over 4-5 years to get African riders ready for pro level races, and his tips for young riders on what they need to focus to succeed. We recommend this podcast to any young rider wanting to know this information, it is 100% gold. Enjoy!

***AFRICA RISING CYCLING EXCLUSIVE***As always, we try to be ahead of the big stories in the world of African cycling and we are very happy to share this one indeed:We have been set a copy of all road races taking place in Africa in 2027 which have been logged on the UCI DataRide system, and the calendar has more than doubled year on year. The massive shift is for women's cycling, with the calendar increasing from one women's UCI race to SEVEN next year!We see TWELVE new races in total, right across the continent, with Rwanda, Mauritius and Algeria increasing their race days. In addition, we see a second 2.1 stage race on the calendar, but not a promotion, a complete debut from Ghana, in November 2027. No further details yet, but it is there on the UCI's database at this time.One other change is the African Continental Championships have moved forward a week so will be in the 2027 UCI season, All good news, but does raise the question: What happens to the points and jerseys won in Kenya two weeks ago? Am sure we will find out at some point...The full list of UCI races currently scheduled for 2027 (and any National Championships already submitted) can be found exclusively on our website newsfeed here. The official UCI calendar is here and we hope to see all these races appear on there soon.

On 21 October, the very active EF Education - Oatly World Tour team's Instagram put up a picture of a little girl with the quote: "I have always wanted to ride for a World Tour team, and to ride at the pinnacle of the sport."That lady is South African Lisa Bone. She has ridden for the last four years for a strong local club team domestically - Cycle Nation Enza Construction - with some strong results, and has drawn the attention of one of the world's top cycling teams. On this edition of our podcast, we discuss her journey in cycling; strong influences like Kim Le Court Pienaar, Byron Munton and Carla Oberholzer; her love of her club team and the support there of Lincoln King; her dreams for the future and a little mention of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (of course!); her joy at the South African success at the African Continental Championships last weekend; and much more!Give her a follow on Instagram to see how her journey progresses...

As the 2026 season came to an end this past weekend, we caught up with Matthias Schnapka (Team Principal) and Leo Bouvier (one of the team's Sport Directors) of Team BIKE AID on a bunch of topics:- An overview of their 2026 season and key young riders like Nahom Efriem and Even Yemane (Eritrea);- Talking through how the end of season transfer process works;- We break the news that BIKE AID has signed Neriah Meunier Sow - a very exciting 21-year-old rider from Senegal - for the 2027 season; - The importance of African riders performing well at the forthcoming African Continental Championships (and how they need to be earlier in the year...); and- Celebrating the first year of a new bike partnership with Cinelli for the team and how well it is going.BIKE AID has now helped over 20 African riders from 10 nations get their chance at racing professionally! Please do have a listen, share the podcast, follow BIKE AID on Instagram and celebrate the success of this truly unique team!

In this episode, Africa Rising Cycling's CEO Kimberly Coats and our podcast host Jeremy discuss some of the latest and breaking news stories in African cycling right now. These include:- Key African performances at the 2026 UCI Cycling World Championships in Montreal.- Visa issues, defections and other breaking news around this event.- Team news: The Amani Men's Continental Team (Rwanda) is being discontinued for 2027; Tshenolo Pro Cycling (South Africa) announce they have registered a Women's Continental Team for 2027.- A quick preview of the forthcoming African Continental Cycling Championships, taking place in Kenya in two weeks time.- Congratulations to Even Yemane and Team BIKE AID for the KOM jersey and Team Classification win at the Tour of Poyang Lake (UCI 2.2)!- A shout-out to Tofik Beshir, a young Ethiopian cyclo-cross rider based in the USA who just won his first Elite Men's Race! Kudos Tofik - go follow his exploits on his Instagram!