ROADTRIPPING RWANDA

Team GB went to the Tour of Rwanda in search of the kind of experience a European race just can't offer – and they weren't disappointed, writes James Shrubsall

- James Shrubsall

Sun, sand, a bit of culture... sounds like any ordinary winter break. But in this case 'all inclusive' meant team cars and buses provided, and the sand was on the road, not the beach and got between bottom bracket bearings, not toes.

That isn't to say the Great Britain U23 Academy team didn't have a rewarding, enlightening and successful trip when boss Matt Brammeier took them out to the Tour of Rwanda in February - with Leo Hayter managing to bring home 10th place on GC along with three top-10 stage finishes.

Determined to take his charges out of their comfort zones, Brammeier shipped them off to the eight-stage UCI 2.1 event in equatorial East Africa to get a little early-season, high altitude competition in their legs, and a little personal growth under the belts.

"I wanted to take them out of their comfort zone and do something a bit different,” Brammeier explains. “It's my kind of coaching philosophy you could say. It's just learning and growing through experiences, I think there's no better way to grow as an athlete and a person and a bike a rider than just to show them as many different experiences as possible.” So different, in fact, that there was a general sense of incredulity among the riders when Brammeier called to tell them where they'd be going.

Rwandan reality

“I thought, he's absolutely just kidding isn't he? This is just a joke," says 20-year-old London rider Oscar Nilsson-Julien. “I didn't [really] believe it, and I sort of never put a thought to it. Until he actually told us the team about a couple of weeks out. And then it got a bit serious."