(birds chirping)
(soft music)
- [Narrator] Team Illuminate has a mission
of shining the light on the bicycle.
The bicycle can really be used to bring individuals,
communities and cultures together.
- You know we're gonna load at least four wheels in there,
we have to carry all the bottles for the riders,
extra water, extra bags, can we make it work?
We've obviously been racing all over the world
in different countries this year,
we have to adapt to the situations
when we're in this countries,
so this is just another opportunity,
and you just gotta roll with the punches.
- Illuminate.
- Yeah, nice team.
- All black!
(speaks foreign language)
- [Narrator] The riders do this full time.
They live for cycling.
Five days, around 100 miles each day,
traveling through different parts of the country.
Really the Tour of Rwanda is a race
we've always wanted to do.
- Check that.
- It's water Chris, it's dirty water.
- Keep it really hard, going over the top of this
so that you're the front on descent
that's my job.
(speaks in foreign language)
- We wanted somebody local to help us out
you know, while we came over here,
and, uh, we reached out to the Rwandan Cycling Federation
and they told us actually that they had a female mechanic
who was one of their best and would be open to having her
into our team.
So this week we have the first woman
that's even been a mechanic for a team
at the tour of Rwanda and you know,
we love that.
And it's really cool to see how she's responded to it all.
She is probably breaking down more barriers
than she really even realizes.
(upbeat music playing)
- You are all together.
- She's the best!
- She's the best.
- Have a good day.
(whistle sounding)
Hundreds of thousands of people
line the roads everyday as we drive by.
You know, as an outsider, it is actually
very exciting for us.
You can really see the enthusiasm all around.
(sound of cheering)
(horn beeping)
Fuck that's us.
(horn beeping)
- So that's gonna be Edwin, this is gonna be Edwin.
Edwin has a problem.
Pedal, pedal, pedal.
Jesus.
Our car wouldn't start at the finish
So we had to push to start the car.
So I had to drive through everybody.
You win on this.
(upbeat music)
(sounds of cheering)
- This guy he just has to sit on that boy.
Get a good shot for the win, okay?
Stay with this group, you're gonna be in a
good shot for the win.
Do you need any food, or gels, or anything?
You can outsprint these guys, Simon, okay?
So stay with them, stay with them.
The other big thing here
is if Simon can't hold onto this
he'll be in the yellow jersey.
He should be in the yellow jersey.
Take this time to regroup Simon okay?
You're looking strong man.
You're riding the strongest you have all year okay?
Move over so I can.
One rider, one rider coming, get ready!
Fifteen pairs down at the finish.
The guy just had a wild day, like the weather
the longest stage of the race.
At a 180k, we knew coming in that this was gonna be
the decisive day for the race.
And we have Simon on the front.
I can't see him right now,
The race blew up, and essentially getting cut down
to a group of, I think like,
eight riders, nine riders.
(upbeat music)
It's been hard to get updates
So I think five seconds
Thirty-seven
We just gotta chill right now,
and channel our energy to Simon.
(upbeat music)
- So like, what was your secret
like yesterday you came like one minute
thirty seconds before others?
What was the secret?
- You're not the first person asking about the secret.
But I mean I don't have any secret,
I'm not able to follow the best climber here.
I'm not the best sprinter neither,
but I just have to play with the landscape
and with the weather conditions and with everything.
- You know we're here to race bikes
but really it's a lot more than that.
You know everywhere you look there's stories
and there's interesting people that we're meeting
and we're meeting these people through cycling.
And through the common love of the sport,
learning, really, about these places.
(upbeat music)
- Not only did Simon, you know
get the yellow jersey and you know
we had the team defending the yellow jersey
but having just the experience of connecting with
connecting with the athletes over here,
the Rwandan's are extremely,
extremely passionate about cycling.
They ended up winning the race,
it was awesome to see them celebrate
and capture the victory at home.
You know, even though we were
competing against them
the experience we had here was amazing
and what really made it special was
having Sandrine on the team,
having Yannick every day travelling with us.
Just an incredible experience and
we're really fortunate to be able to come to a place
and race our bike and meet people that we otherwise
probably wouldn't get the chance to connect with.
(sound of cheering)