Cyclist
Racing Africa: Inside the Tour de Lunsar
Weaving around the sun-scorched grasslands, mud plains and palm trees of Sierra Leone is an unexpected sight: a technicolour peloton of road cyclists racing full gas in blistering 38°C heat. The Tour de Lunsar represents an exciting new frontier in the global road racing scene, fuelled by the passion of local racers and fans.
Ambitious, sweat-drenched riders are locked in tactical race duels. Fans honk their car horns in support or gather in crowds at roundabouts. Traders selling bananas, mangoes and papaya pause to cheer on the riders. One fan is wearing a Jonas Vingegaard T-shirt. All the while, local children scream with excitement or play tunes on homemade pipes, confirming the race’s reputation as ‘Africa’s noisiest bike race’.
Launched in 2013, the Tour de Lunsar is based around Lunsar, a remote iron ore mining town of 30,000 people in the northwest region of the West African country. It includes a three-day men’s race, a two-day women’s race and a one-day junior race, and is the brainchild of Abdul Karim Kamara, a pioneering cycling mechanic and the founder of the Lunsar Cycling Team – a dedicated community of local Sierra Leonean riders who train and race together.
‘I started as a teenager as a bicycle mechanic,’ says Kamara. ‘I got the passion for cycling and I became stronger and faster. I grew up in Freetown [the capital of Sierra Leone] but when I moved to Lunsar, which is in a more rural part, nobody was cycling. I started riding on the road and tried to organise a sports meet. I managed to get my friends and colleagues to ride, but I won everything so I decided to step down and become an organiser.’
Having set up the Lunsar Cycling Team, Kamara launched the inaugural Tour de Lunsar in 2013. About ten local racers took part. The prize was a USB flash storage drive donated by a local business. The race has grown every year – despite enforced breaks for the Ebola and Covid-19 viruses – into an impressive cycling jamboree.
The event retains its Sierra Leonean character: road signs warn of cows on the roads; traditional dancers in colourful dress greet the exhausted riders at the finish. But something bigger is brewing here. In 2024 sponsors included global indoor racing giant Zwift and kit supplier Le Col. Riders received cash prizes (with equal rates for men and women). The event drew teams from other parts of Sierra Leone, such as Bo, Kenema and Freetown, as well as men’s teams from Nigeria and the Benin women’s national team.
‘It was a really super race – one of a kind!’ says Kamara. ‘It was the biggest, with a lot of spectators and for the first time a women’s race over two days. It was very lovely. This race is a platform for young people to understand and to love and to consume cycling. People came from across the country to watch. The noise and the screaming was incredible, not only in Lunsar but in rural communities too.’
Power of the bike
Tom Owen is a cycling copywriter and founder of the Fausto agency, whose clients have included Bianchi and Canyon. He has encouraged Kamara ever since they met on a fundraising bike tour from Sierra Leone to Liberia, organised by Street Child, which aims to provide children with access to education.
‘Someone told Karim I ran a cycling club in London, and he was like, “Ah, I’ve got a cycling club here!”’ recalls Owen. ‘Back in London I got my club of uni mates to spare a bit of cash so we could send kit to Sierra Leone. That micro-fundraising snowballed into us making a kit for the Lunsar Cycling Team. I went out to see the Tour de Lunsar in 2019 and it was incredible. The fans love it because it is the biggest, noisiest, most exciting thing in Lunsar.’
Kamara, whose nickname is ‘Stylish Man’ (‘It’s less to do with how he dresses and more to do with how he rides,’ says Owen), says the race is a platform for change. He works with Village Bicycle Project to distribute bikes to people across Sierre Leone, such as nurses, repair workers, salespeople and children, for transport or work. Sierra Leone, whose history has been scarred by the Civil War of 1991-2002 and the Ebola epidemic of 2014, remains one of the poorest countries in the world, with 60% of rural people living below the international poverty line. Bikes, in all their simple beauty, are helping to change this.
‘If you give a kid a bike, their attendance at school goes up and they can still help at home, which is a big pressure on kids here as they are needed at home,’ says Owen. ‘And a bike helps people work and find independence too.’
Kamara collects used bikes from the UK and US, ships them to Sierra Leone and distributes them to local people.
‘Bikes support massively the education of Sierra Leone children,’ he says. Kamara also trains young boys and girls to be bike mechanics.
‘It is a mode of transportation and good for your health. The culture of cycling in Lunsar is becoming more trendy. Women and girls want to cycle. My inspiration is to see cycling become a platform for giving people happiness and empowering people to explore Sierra Leone and the world.’
The Tour de Lunsar provides a showcase for the everyday power of bikes, but it also serves as a shop window for talented local riders with big ambitions. Most local cycling clubs have one or two top spec bikes from brands such as Specialized or Canyon, which are shared by riders and used in races.
‘I am a big fan of cycling races,’ says Kamara. ‘I watch the Tour de France and Paris-Roubaix. My biggest thing is seeing how I can make the Tour de Lunsar the biggest race in Africa. I want to see the Tour de Lunsar become like the Tour de France. I want to invite people in the UK, France and Africa to experience this race. It is a special experience. And I want to see other cycling teams experience this.’
How the races were won
The 2024 Fundsmith Tour de Lunsar men’s race took place on 19th-21st April and featured around 50 riders. Stage 1 for the men saw a 132km dash from Lunsar across undulating terrain around the Rokel river, over Okra Hill and back to Lunsar, with 1,064m of climbing overall. There were breakaways and blow-ups before Nigerian rider Bright Emmanuel of Team Ilubirin won a four-man battle to the finish by a whisker.
‘It is a breath of fresh air – pure bike racing,’ says Owen.
Stage 2 was a breathless 135.2km out-and-back dash to Makeni, with 1,100m of climbing. The course saw relentless attacks before Sierra Leone’s Tenesie Dixon of Flames Cycling Club caught the lead group, attacked over the top and powered solo over the final 15km to win by 54 seconds.
‘You hear this scream, like a rising roar, as riders get close to the finish,’ says Owen. ‘A Sierra Leonean rider crossing the line to win his stage solo meant thousands of kids were screaming.’
Stage 3 was a technical 75km route, featuring 30 laps of a criterium course around Lunsar, with 614m of climbing. Bright Emmanuel finished second behind fellow Nigerian Preye John Dede to take overall GC victory by a single second. Ibrahim Jalloh of the Lunsar Cycling Team was third, 19 seconds behind.
‘Before 2023, the Lunsar Cycling Team dominated, but the entry of Nigerian teams raised the level last year,’ says Owen. ‘The cycling scene in Sierra Leone is one of lots of small cycling clubs, but Lunsar is the biggest thanks to Karim. Freetown, which is a massive, densely populated area, has maybe four or five clubs, but Lunsar has the biggest membership. Then in 2023 teams arrived from Nigeria, which has a very big economy and a large and affluent middle class, and these Nigerian lads on their S-Works bikes kicked the local riders’ asses.’
To improve the local riders’ fitness, race skills and ambitions, the Salone Cup – a criterium series – was launched in 2023/24.
‘This series really put bike racing into new communities,’ says Owen. ‘People went nuts for the races. It was a real vindication of the idea that if we actually show people bike racing, we can build it as a sport.’
And the progress of local riders was clear this year.
‘The Sierra Leonean riders were much more competitive,’ says Owen. ‘The Nigerians won the GC by just 19 seconds and the Lunsar Cycling Team was in it to the end. Sierra Leone riders were chasing breakaways and setting up moves. They are really pushing the Nigerians already.’
Stage 1 of the women’s race, sponsored by Zwift, featured around 30 riders. It was a 73km ride with 684m of climbing, involving two laps of a Lunsar circuit, a dash to Port Loko and then back to Lunsar. Stage 2 saw more criterium laps over a course of 50km overall, with 400m of climbing. The race was dominated by Hermione Ahouissou of the Benin national team, although Esther Mansaray and Blessing Jane Jabbie, the two top riders in the Salone Cup domestic racing series in Sierra Leone, showed strong potential, finishing fourth and fifth.
More than 60 riders competed in the junior race, a 75.6km course with 561m of climbing, with Abu Bakarr Kamara of the Lunsar Cycling Team riding clear to win by 29 seconds, offering a positive sign for the future.
Not like other races
The excitement of the Tour de Lunsar can match any race in the world, although it is still a long way from races on the European circuit. Most riders stay fuelled with rice and coconut water, and some have cassava leaf stew with rice and fish or meat, or spicy peanut soup, the night before.
‘Some riders use energy gels for the Tour de Lunsar, but for most that will be the only time in the year that they use that kind of product,’ says Owen. Some use Dioralyte in their water bottles for rehydration in the hot conditions.
‘The terrain is humid and dry with the foliage looking brown and desiccated at this time of year,’ says Owen. ‘It is inland so there is no refreshing sea breeze and it is near the equator.’
The race gets police motorbike support but the roads are open so there are often trucks or buses stacked up behind the peloton.
‘Last year was the best organised caravan but it doesn’t mean it bears any resemblance to a European bike race convoy,’ says Owen. ‘If somebody who owns a motorbike wants to drive in the middle of the race and chat to his mate from his village who’s racing, he will do that. We do a lot of work on the local radio, just making sure people know that it’s happening, and we see the crowds grow year on year, not just in the centre of Lunsar but in all the communities that the race passes through.’
This interest from local people helps to conjure up the uniquely noisy race atmosphere.
‘Karim is a showman and he wants to make a festival,’ says Owen. ‘Sierra Leone is noisy all the time. At the race there is a PA playing Afrobeat or Bob Marley. During the race it is just car horns and yelling and kids playing bamboo pipes.’
The Tour de Lunsar is helping people in Sierra Leone think differently about bikes, but it is also changing opinions about life in Sierra Leone, both locally and around the world.
‘I think the most valuable, wonderful thing about it is that it is a completely new way for people to think about Sierra Leone,’ says Owen. ‘It lets people around the world see that it’s fun, that it’s joyful, that it’s vibrant, that this is a place that you might actually want to go, whether to spend the week sitting on the beach or to come and race.
‘Riders here are starting to think that they can go and be a pro in Europe. But this is also helping to build a community in Sierra Leone where people feel engaged with cycling and think more positively about the home where they live.’
The 2025 Tour de Lunsar will be held on 24th-27th April. See lunsarcycling.com for details.
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