The Tour d'Afrique bills itself as the longest and toughest bicycle race in the world. Considering that it runs over four months and covers almost 11,000 kilometres, it's probably not an idle boast.
The first Tour d'Afrique was run on January 18th, 2003 in Cairo, Egypt and finished four months later on May 18th, 2003 in Cape Town, South Africa. The tour went through ten countries (Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa) and covered 10,967 kilometres.
The format of the tour is a stage race (100 stages varying from 40km to 180km) with 20 rest days. The 2003 race had one time trial in Malawi.
The Tour d'Afrique was founded by Henry Gold and Michael DeJong of Toronto, Canada. The first winner of the Tour d'Afrique was Sascha Hartl of Vienna, Austria and the top female finisher was Marie-Claude Baehler of Switzerland. The 2003 Tour d'Afrique also set a Guinness World record for fastest crossing of Africa by bicycle and this was achieved by nine participants of the race.
The second running of the Tour d'Afrique will start on January 17th, 2004 and finish on May 15th, 2004. It will cover 10 countries (Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa) and will cover over 11,600 kilometres.
