What the race results don't tell you? The first stage hasn't even started yet, but in Rukomo, once again on the professional cycling map, it's a day of celebration. From the Delight Hotel in Kigali, the transfer to the starting point seems to have taken much more than an hour. Rukomo is a crossroads with a few commercial establishments, and already reaching it, one encounters an entirely different notion of bicycle as a means of transport (doors, gigantic bunches of bananas, bamboo, milk cans, wood).

There are many images of how much passion cycling can generate in this country, not by chance destined to host the world championship. The call on the road is total emotional transport, along a perfect and wide asphalt ribbon, without particular roughness.

On both sides of the carriageway, there are real uninterrupted rows of spectators, thrilled by the feat of the local rider who decided to go on a 150-kilometer breakaway. These scenes will repeat in the coming days, say in unison the qualified workers of the organization, like the Tour Director Freddy Kamunzinzi, who jokingly reassures us: "No, they are not extras: it's total participation".

At the last kilometer of Kayonza, you can't find a spot in the fourth row of the barriers even if you wanted to, but it's the before that impresses. You don't cross large centers, but the fabric of Rwanda's rural areas not only honors the definition of the Land of a Thousand Hills. Banana plantations and rice fields, tea terraces follow one another alongside the riders' feats, an "backdrop" animated by the race protagonists, in this case, the public. In several stretches, the asphalt winds between a steep embankment packed with people, as if it were a natural stand. To be continued...