This archive report was first published on 9 October 2021.
Published on October 9, 2021, the Great African Cycling Safari, a grueling 4,936km tour that covered Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania, has gained a global following thanks to social media.
The tour, which lasted 55 days, saw riders face challenging terrains, including long, rough, off-road stages in hill country and headwinds in the Dodoma area of Tanzania.
Canadian Scott Rowswell, a retired communication and IT expert, who helped with the routing of the Cycling Safari, monitored the event's social media activity and noted that the event has attracted a growing following from Europe, North America, and the Middle East.
"These are cyclists that are interested in distance cycling and touring," Rowswell said. "This group likes rides that are challenging. So I see spikes on posts that describe difficult stages especially those in hill country like Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi."
One such technically challenging stage was stage 22 of the tour from Kihihi to Ruhija in Uganda on August 26, which featured almost constant uphill of 197km, almost all on dirt road, with almost 10,000m of ascent and descent.
Ugandan cyclist Peter Ssali, who runs a bike spare parts shop in Kampala, said the Bwindi area of southwestern Uganda and Kwa Mtoro dirt roads in the Dodoma area, Tanzania were some of the toughest terrains he had to tackle.
By the end of the tour, the event had a combined followership of more than 20,000 on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, with East African viewers making up 65 percent of the total, and Kenyan followers being almost 50 percent of the total.
