The Black Pantanis

September 9, 2008 1:18 PM

Up to now, no black cyclist has ever competed in the Tour de France. One man hopes to to change that. Last month Nicholas Leong, a Singaporean photographer and supporter of the Major Taylor Association (previously: 1, 2), travelled to Eldoret in Kenya, a place better known for producing world-class distance runners. There, he found two Kenyan cyclists and took them to France to tackle one of the Tour's most iconic climbs: Alpe d'Huez.

The two cyclists were 26 year old Zakayo Ndbri and 24 year old Mwangi Samwel. On their first attempt at the Alpe, Ndbri won a semi-pro race with a time of 46 minutes. Samwel finished a few seconds behind in 3rd place. A week later, Ndbri raced again and finished with a time of 42'10", which would have placed him 11th in the 2004 uphill time trial of Alpe d'Huez.

Although Africans are still a rarity in professional cyclin, cycling remains a popular sport in parts of the continent. Races include Burkina Faso's Tour du Faso (pictures and article), Gabon's Tropicale Amissa Bongo and Côte d'Ivoire's Tour Ivoirien de la Paix.

posted by afx237vi (30 comments total)

Great post, but I'm a little biased. If the Kenyans can hammer everyone at distance running - and we can and will probably discuss at great length why that is - it stands to reason that they could excel at another endurance sport. Watching the Tour de Faso the last several years has been great. Low or no budget, equipment that would draw scorn at the Saturday Morning World Championship, and brutal race conditions on what could charitably be called roads. Makes Paris-Roubaix look like a spin in Central Park.
posted by fixedgear at 1:25 PM on September 9, 2008

fixedgear writes "If the Kenyans can hammer everyone at distance running - and we can and will probably discuss at great length why that is "

High altitude = higher hemoglobin = better aerobic capacity. Is it really more complicated than that?
posted by mullingitover at 1:42 PM on September 9, 2008

Careful. It's rumored that Lance Armstrong might come out of retirement to race the Tour de France in 2009.
posted by onlyconnect at 1:47 PM on September 9, 2008

High altitude = higher hemoglobin = better aerobic capacity. Is it really more complicated than that?

There are plenty of other populated places in the world that are just as far above sea level as the region of Kenya that has produced so many champion marathoners.

So.....yes.
posted by rbellon at 1:49 PM on September 9, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

> A week later, Ndbri raced again and finished with a time of 42'10", which would have placed him 11th in the 2004 uphill time trial of Alpe d'Huez.

So these two fresh riders would have placed middling-well in a pack of racers who'd just completed almost 1,500 miles of daily racing, including four previous mountain stages.

Which is not to trivialize the Kenyans. Their results are fantastic (anybody who can make it up the Alpe d'Huez without dying is capable of kicking my ass).

I hope this someday leads to a shakeup of the top ranks of bike racing. Cycling remains one of the whitest of major sports. But this won't turn the Kenyans into pros until they can ride in teams, learn strategies and conventions, know when to go solo and when to sacrifice their own accomplishments for the sake of their teammates, and still turn out those kind of results a couple times a week for a season.

I'm rooting for them and I hope they get noticed by major squads.
posted by ardgedee at 1:50 PM on September 9, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

onlyconnect:
"Careful. It's rumored that Lance Armstrong might come out of retirement to race the Tour de France in 2009."

I wonder what enhancement cocktail he'll be using this time around.
posted by batmonkey at 1:57 PM on September 9, 2008

This is really neat.

I confess I didn't know about the Major Taylor Association, which seems unforgivable right this moment.

The suspense and desire to encourage their effort certainly makes me want to tune in to the Tour to see how they do. Well done, Mr. Leong. Well done.
posted by batmonkey at 2:00 PM on September 9, 2008

There has not been a black cyclist in the Tour de France? Really? How is that possible?
posted by maxwelton at 2:00 PM on September 9, 2008

> There has not been a black cyclist in the Tour de France?

I don't think there's been an east Asian in the TdF either. Nobody from the United States competed in the Tour until 1981.
posted by ardgedee at 2:07 PM on September 9, 2008

How is that possible?

Anecdata, without pretending to any explanation: I have seen maybe 4 African-American "serious" cyclists in my entire life. By serious I mean: road bike, lycra, trailing cloud of smug, etc.
posted by everichon at 2:12 PM on September 9, 2008

As far as I can tell, there are only two black professional cyclists full stop, and neither of them are anywhere near Tour de France level. Rahsaan Bahati and Rony Martias. Why? No idea.
posted by afx237vi at 2:14 PM on September 9, 2008

There has not been a black cyclist in the Tour de France? Really? How is that possible?

Not a lot of black riders. Historically, competitive cycling is a European and American sport. I don't think it has anything to do with genetics. It might have something to do with economic status -- a bike costs a bit more than a ball -- but I'm not sure that's it either.

You need a large enough pool of talent to excel at a sport. There's a reason that there are few to no professional British baseball players -- British kids don't play baseball. Same goes for American kids playing cricket, and the lack of well regarded US cricket players.

The question of "Why aren't there lots of black kids riding hard and heading into the sport?" is one I have no idea on how to answer.
posted by eriko at 2:15 PM on September 9, 2008

High altitude = higher hemoglobin = better aerobic capacity. Is it really more complicated than that?

There is a running culture in Kenya, some of the world's best coaches, excellent competition from an early age, and a national identity with the sport that makes Kenyans champions. Altitude has nothing or at least very little to do with it. Success in running, particularly distance running, is (as in cycling), measured by the runner's individual ability to endure agony. Small differences in areobic capacity are subordinate to this. Watch the Kenyan in the race. Far from striding to effortless victory, you'll probably see him giving it his all and really suffering. They totally deserve their props.
posted by three blind mice at 2:27 PM on September 9, 2008

Bike cost for a talented amateur is a big part of it, economically. In Canada riders up to a top-end cat3 pretty much fund themselves, with maybe very minor sponsorships from their local bike shop or a coffee place. At least on the west coast I see a lot of parallels between road cycling and other dominantly white sports like golf or skiing. Predominantly it's urban professionals working office jobs, outside the under-30 courier/messenger demographic.

The one-time cost of buying a bike isn't the only factor, there's ongoing training cost. If a road cyclist is training 9,000km+ per year, a figure that upper-end amateurs might achieve in their spare time (riding once per day, 300 days a year, distance of about 30km each ride) it is going to wear out equipment. Once riders reach a certain level of ability such as being able to complete a metric century in approx. 2.85-3.00 hours, the quality of your equipment starts to make a performance difference. A custom built/custom fitted road bike such as a CAAD9 frame or medium-range carbon frameset with SRAM Force, Ultegra, DA7800 or Red components will run $2500, plus another $1100 for a deep cross section high quality wheelset, plus $500 for training/every-day wheels, etc etc...

Another race that features riders/teams from developing nations is the Tour de Langkawi in Malaysia:

http://www.tdl.com.my/
posted by thewalrus at 2:34 PM on September 9, 2008

Great post. I was unaware of all of this.
posted by everichon at 2:38 PM on September 9, 2008

Um, the current US national criterium champion, Rasaan Bahati, is a black man. So is the Under-21 champ.
posted by jmgorman at 2:47 PM on September 9, 2008

I linked to Bahati's website a few comments up. Although US-style criterium racing is very different to the traditional point-to-point racing of the Tour (as Bahati is no doubt finding out this week at the Tour of Britain).
posted by afx237vi at 2:57 PM on September 9, 2008

I'm sorry, I find this incredibly racist. What this man is doing and what many of you are encouraging is simply finding a black man to compete in a sport for the simple fact of their skin color. If that isnt the definition of racism I don't know what is.
posted by CCK at 3:09 PM on September 9, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Just wanted to point out that there has been at least one African finisher in the Tour de France. A Moroccan rider, Abdel Kader Zaaf, won the Tour's 'Lanterne Rouge' (previously on MeFi).
posted by grounded at 3:21 PM on September 9, 2008

These guys should totally hit up the NHL next and find us some black hockey players.
posted by GuyZero at 3:47 PM on September 9, 2008

CCK, I don't see it that way, though I don't pretend to know much about professional cycling. I see it as "Hey, Kenyans have excelled at that endurance sport, I wonder how they'd do if given the funding and opportunity to participate in this endurance sport?"
posted by desjardins at 3:48 PM on September 9, 2008

CCK:
"I'm sorry, I find this incredibly racist. What this man is doing and what many of you are encouraging is simply finding a black man to compete in a sport for the simple fact of their skin color. If that isnt the definition of racism I don't know what is."

? That's not what *I'm* encouraging, 'though I can't speak for the rest. Based on the Major Taylor Association concepts that Mr. Leong is said to support, this seems like an interesting way to promote MTA, the Tour, and Kenyan athletic programs.

If you look at a sport, wonder why a certain culture isn't represented, and then go do something about it...I think that's actually the opposite of racism.

Should it turn out that Mr. Leong was doing something more nefarious or supporting narrow-mindedness, then I'll retract my supportive comments.
posted by batmonkey at 3:58 PM on September 9, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

These guys should totally hit up the NHL next and find us some black hockey players.

Found
posted by Rubbstone at 4:05 PM on September 9, 2008

Nelson Vails, not TdF, but crazy fast ex-messenger track star.
posted by fixedgear at 4:13 PM on September 9, 2008

CCK: I disagree and take them at their word. Kenya produces the world's greatest distance runners. This is an attempt to see what happens when those same athletes try a different sport that utilizes roughly the same abilities. Skin color, as far as I can tell, has nothing to do with it.

Remember Eric Heiden? He was a world class speed skater who converted to road racing at an elite level because he knew that the tools for that were already in place.

This year's world class sprinter? Next year's NFL kick returner and wide receiver. see: Trindon Holliday
posted by turbodog at 4:18 PM on September 9, 2008

> Just wanted to point out that there has been at least one African finisher in the Tour de France.

Team Barloworld fielded three (white) South Africans in the 2008 Tour de France. Robert Hunter in particular did a great job and I hope he either finds a new team or the Barloworld reneges on their announcement to end team sponsorship.
posted by ardgedee at 7:13 PM on September 9, 2008

Just wanted to point out that there has been at least one African finisher in the Tour de France. A Moroccan rider, Abdel Kader Zaaf, won the Tour's 'Lanterne Rouge'

I'd imagine that Paul Sherwen has some insight into this as well.
posted by Stylus Happenstance at 7:34 PM on September 9, 2008

If that isnt the definition of racism I don't know what is.

Perhaps you should keep that moral high horse in the stable until we start lynching white guys?
posted by sebastienbailard at 7:54 PM on September 9, 2008

Speaking of the Tour du Faso, there is a London screening coming up of some East Asian cyclists competing in it. Details (and link to a short clip here: Les Ninja du Japon.
posted by Kiwi at 6:46 AM on September 10, 2008

I'm sorry, I find this incredibly racist. I'm sorry, I find this incredibly racist. What this man is doing and what many of you are encouraging is simply finding a black man to compete in a sport for the simple fact of their skin color. If that isnt the definition of racism I don't know what is.

Holy republican talking point leakage.
posted by srboisvert at 7:37 AM on September 10, 2008