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Rwandese cyclist joins Canada’s Lowestrates.ca cycling team

June 8, 2017 By Lowest Rates Cycling Team Leave a Comment

The development was confirmed on Sunday by his new club, which released a statement on their website announcing that the former Dimension Data for Qhubeka rider has joined them but without disclosing his contract details.

eam Rwanda cyclist Bonaventure Uwizeyimana has joined Canada’s Lowestrates.Ca cycling team just a week after winning the ‘Race to Remember’, the third race on this year’s Rwanda Cycling Cup.

The development was confirmed on Sunday by his new club, which released a statement on their website announcing that the former Dimension Data for Qhubeka rider has joined them but without disclosing his contract details.

However, like most of his compatriots, who joined professional teams before him, he is expected to be given an initial one year.

The reigning national champion, who left Kigali on Sunday to Canada, will be will be on the starting line when LowestRates.ca starts the International Grand Prix de Saguenay and the Tour de Beauce, two International Cycling Union (UCI)-sanctioned races, which will be held in June.

Commenting on his arrival, team LowestRates.ca General Manager Frédérick Gates said that, “I had discussed the possibility of inviting a Rwandan rider to join my team with the Team Rwanda programme during our visit in Rwanda last November.”

“The project was formalised last week. “BONA” is a complete cyclist. He climbs well and has the ability to finish strong in the sprint. He has good international racing and life experience. I have no doubt that he will contribute to the success of our team,” he stated.

Lowestrates.ca were among the teams that debuted at last year’s Tour du Rwanda and had a very strong maiden campaign with their own Timothy Rugg winning the 3.3km prologue before clinching the third stage also known as the ‘Kivu-Belt’.

The former Club Benediction rider Uwizeyimana was released towards the end of last year by Dimension Data along with his compatriot and 2016 Tour du Rwanda winner, Valens Ndayisenga. They were replaced by the duo of two rising stars Joseph Areruya and Samuel Mugisha.

In March, Ndayisenga joined Austria UCI continental team of Tirol Cycling Team while Uwizeyimana has been riding for his home club Benediction de Rubavu.

NEW TIMES – RWANDA

http://www.azaniapost.com/sports/rwandese-cyclist-joins-canadas-lowestrates-cycling-team-h4087.html

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Frederick Gates, Grand-Prix Cycliste de Saguenay, Rwanda, Team Rwanda, Tour de Beauce

RWANDA NATIONAL CHAMPION JOINS TEAM LOWESTRATES.CA

May 28, 2017 By Lowest Rates Cycling Team Leave a Comment

The 24-year-old cyclist from Rwanda, Bonaventure Uwizeyimana, joins the Lowestrates.ca cycling team.

Crédit photo: umuseke.rw

Gatineau, May 24, 2017

Frédérick Gates,The team’s general manager, announced that the Rwandan will join the team in the Outaouais region on Monday. The champion will be on the starting line when team LowestRates.ca starts the international Grand Prix de Saguenay and the Tour de Beauce, two Union Cycliste International (UCI) sanctioned race which will be held in June.

Bonaventure “Bona” Uwizeymiana raced with Dimension Data for Qhubeka Pro Team last season and is a member of the Rwanda National Team. “I had discussed the possibility of inviting a Rwandan rider to join my team with the Team Rwanda program during our visit in Rwanda last November. The project was formalized last week. “BONA” is a complete cyclist. He climbs well and has the ability to finish strong in the sprint. He has good international racing and life experience. I have no doubt that he will contribute to the success of our team, “commented Frédérick Gates.

According to former US professional cyclist and Team Rwanda program director, Jock Boyer and his partner Kimberly Coats, Bonaventure is very disciplined in training and in race situations. He does not hesitate to devote himself wholeheartedly to his teammates and his team. Moreover, they are convinced that this collaboration will contribute to the development of cycling in Rwanda.

Bonaventure arrival also coincides with the departure of the South African, Edward Greene. “Edward has just signed a contract with a professional team in Europe. I’m disappointed to see him leave but I’m very happy for him. He deserves it! It shows that the opportunities offered by my team allows athletes to get noticed, “added Gates.

Lyne Bessette, the team’s new Director Sportif was also excited to have the opportunity to work with the 2016 Rwandan National champion. Both will make their official UCI debut under the LowestRates.ca colors in Saguenay on June 8th!

Bonaventure Uwizeyimana’s presence also strengthens the ties between the Gatineau native and the cycling community of Rwanda. “I was very impressed by the enthusiasm for cycling and the desire to develop this sport during my visit to Rwanda. It was natural for me to continue this inspiring collaboration, “concluded the new Outaouais Tourism cycling ambassador, Frédérick Gates.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Bonaventure Uwizeyimana, Cyclisme Outaouais, Dimension Data, Frederick Gates, Gatineau, Grand-Prix Cycliste de Saguenay, Lowestrates.ca Cycling Team, Lyne Bessette, Outaouais, Team Rwanda, Tour de Beauce, Tour du Rwanda, Tourisme Outaouais

Cameron McPhaden’s year in review : New team, Racing around the World & Dan Craven

December 18, 2016 By Lowest Rates Cycling Team Leave a Comment

Year in Review: 2016 – I will mark this one down as one of the best yet.

I love riding my bike

I think the theme of this year in review is how much I love riding my bike with my friends. On the first day of the year, January 1st, I got out for a night fat bike ride with one of my best friends up in the Muskoka Lakes region of Ontario. I’d say this ride set the tone for the year to enjoy my passion for the sport as well as the friends I get to do it with.

No pain, No gain.

I spent about a hundred hours on the indoor trainer over the winter, just suffering in a pool of my own sweat. It sounds awful, which it is, but wow was it totally worth it once I got to ride outside! I did a fun training camp down in Brevard, NC with some of my Queen’s University friends where I was able to set some personal bests on various climbs (and descents!). Some early season racing in the ECCC (Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conference) came shortly after in the northeastern United States. It was fun to test the legs a little in a high-calibre, yet relaxed, environment. I got beat in a 2-up sprint nail-biter finish by a tire’s-width in downtown Philadelphia, and promised myself that I would learn to shift while sprinting instead of hitting 140 rpm. The following weekend in a criterium near NYC, I learned from my mistakes and took my only win of the season in a 2-up sprint! Suffering in “Trainerland” had finally been worth it.

Nashville, Wachtendorf and Southern Hospitality

I was lucky enough to be able to partake in another training camp, this time in Nashville, TN and with my new teammates of Team LowestRates! The mixture of French-Canadian, English-Canadian and our supremely generous American hosts really spoke volumes about how sport can bring people together. Riding, laughing, drinking beer and the confidence of having trust in new teammates brought us together in a way that only our race results from the final weekend of that training camp can explain. In the Hell of the South road race, we placed 1st*, 2nd, 3rd and 5th. Yes, I’m exaggerating those states slightly because Brett won the race, but he wasn’t on our team yet. Oh, and I lost another 2-up sprint to him. However, that was the day that we first met the infamous Brett Wachtendorf; he joined our team only a few weeks later. I suppose the rest is history.

Rough start to the UCI season

The team’s first big races of the year were at the G.P. Cycliste de Saguenay and the Tour de Beauce. The first day of Saguenay was near freezing and pouring rain, essentially the worst conditions for riding a bike. I got terribly sick because of this first stage, but I did earn my credentials as one of the “hard men”; I was the only member of my team to finish with the main pack. On a day with 27 DNFs, I managed to place 35th in my first UCI race of the season. The rest of that race was mediocre, and Tour de Beauce was mostly a write-off due to illness. However, I was proud to have conquered Mont Megantic for the first time in my life (I had DNF’d on that stage in my first attempt in 2014) and I at least made it to the last stage of both races, getting my money’s worth at each event.

Mealtime, Dan Craven and team bonding.

Time for a moment of honest reflection. Really, the best part of Saguenay and Beauce was mealtime with Brett and Ben. Mealtime was the place where we could joke about how hard the racing was (and how bad we were feeling in comparison) as well as to keep a hawk-eye on Dan Craven to see how many times he would approach the dessert table. Word on the street was that Dan Craven, the famous African cyclist from Namibia, single-handedly brought back the entire breakaway at the Philly Cycling Classic the week before, so if he was getting three desserts, we better be getting three desserts as well.

Local racing is fun

I also had a lot of fun in local racing, supporting Adam Roberge in his dominant GC win at the Syracuse Stage Race, as well as playing chase-down/lead-out man in the Tour di via Italia in Windsor, to name a few.

Honey! I am going to race my bike in Romania

The next big event in the team calendar was a surprise invite to the Tour of Szeklerland in Romania! I was so stoked to go race in Europe that I texted my girlfriend’s satellite Arctic of northern Nunavut for the past 10 weeks, to say “Sorry, I’m not going to be home when you finally get home because I’m going to Romania to race bikes!” It’s lucky for me that she was understanding…

My best memory of being in Romania was the right debauchery of splitting up the restaurant bill for my birthday dinner out. Brett, Edward, Tyler, Isaac and I were crying from laughing so hard at how bad we were at deciphering a simple receipt. Was tax or tip included or not? We still will never know. I also was able to finish my first UCI stage race of the year in Romania, a nice treat to top off a great adventure.

Downtime, school and some mountain biking

After a little bit of downtime and school starting up again (actually, I was in school all summer… “technically”), I raced my mountain bike for the 6th year in a row with Queen’s in the University Cup mountain bike series. If you didn’t know, my first ever bike race was in the University Cup, in my first year of university, where I borrowed a friend’s commuter bike, put road pedals and shoes on it, and shredded the gnar alongside a bunch of equally mediocre cyclists. You have to start somewhere, so here’s a big thank you to the guys who, year after year, put their time into running a grass-roots development race series that inspired me to race for the first time.

Rwanda: “toughest challenge of my life”

That brings me up to: Rwanda. Yes, there was a lot of hype around our team being selected for the 2016 Tour du Rwanda, and did we ever deliver. Our American beast, Tim Rugg, dialed his efforts to perfection on not one, but two legendary stages for Team LowestRates. What a real pleasure it was to have been a part of that team. Personally, I was just thrilled to finish on the last day. It was undoubtedly the toughest challenge of my life so far, slogging it out, day after day, only to finish last overall. I don’t take the honour of winning the (unofficial) Lanterne Rouge competition lightly, it shows that I really am one of the hard men and that I can keep pushing to survive longer than anyone else. Literally, I did nearly two and a half hours more racing than the winner of the Tour du Rwanda did! And let me tell you, every time I got onto a wicked descent, I was loving every second of it, making all of the climbing and suffering worth it.

2017 will be a year to remember

So what’s next? Well, Équipe Cycliste LowestRates will be back for more in 2017. I’m looking forward to a number of things, the first of which is finishing my master’s degree (not sure exactly when that will happen, but there is no doubt it will be in 2017). I’m also really looking forward to getting to know my new teammates. I have an idea of who they are going to be, and I think they’re all going to be some real stand-up gents. Team LowestRates will be back in 2017, and we will be ferocious out there. There are some tremendous racing and sponsorship opportunities brewing at the team’s HQ right now… I wish I knew more, but I’m just so excited for whatever is in store for us in 2017!

I’ll be keeping you guys posted! GO TEAM!

Cameron McPhaden, Team LowestRates

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Africa, Dan Craven, Grand-Prix Cycliste de Saguenay, Nashville, Queens University, Romania, Tour de Beauce, Tour du Rwanda, Tour of Szeklerland

“It was never a question if I’d go back to East Africa, but when? And what for?” – Tim Rugg

October 30, 2016 By Lowest Rates Cycling Team Leave a Comment

tim2

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Africa, Blog, cycling, Cycling News, Grand-Prix Cycliste de Saguenay, LowestRates Cycling, Rwanda, Tim Rugg, Tour de Beauce, Tour du Rwanda, UCI

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