For the past year and a half, mountain-bike icon Tom Ritchey has aimed his time and energy at Project Rwanda. Alongside a growing number of volunteers, Ritchey has undertaken an ambitious plan to help revitalize the central African nation’s economy and public image through the use of the bicycle.

Ritchey's involvement with the project centers on designing affordable bicycles to help Rwandan coffee growers distribute their crop. Boyer's job is to establish and develop a team of elite Rwandan cyclists.

With a group of reporters, tourists and cyclists in tow, both men will travel to the central African nation for the September 8-9 Wooden Bicycle Classic, the bicycle race Ritchey first organized in 2006. The race is held in Butare, about 60 miles south of the country’s capital of Kigali. Ritchey hopes to grow the race into an international event for cyclists from around the world.

VeloNews caught up with Ritchey has he was visiting his son, Jay, in Juneau, Alaska.

VeloNews: You débuted the Wooden Bicycle Classic last year — how have you grown it for this year?

Tom Ritchey: It’s a much more serious project this year. We’ve added a road race from the Capital of Kigali to Butari, which is where the whole coffee bike program is based. We have a big banner for the finish in downtown Butari and we’ve invited the President and he has said he will come. We have press outside of Rwanda coming as well; Outside Magazine has confirmed that they’ll be there and apparently two French television people will be there as well, which is a very positive thing. I think the French are now willing to look past [the 1993 Genocide] and look at Rwanda in a more positive light.

So we have the races and that night we’ll have a dinner celebration with dancing. That’s new for this year.

We’re going to have more countries represented at the even this year; I think we’ll have around 100 people [not including Rwandans] which will be incredible growth. This year it’s a lot easier because the project is coming into its own. It’s on people’s radar, and they’ve heard of the coffee bike program. Last year I was happy to get a dozen or so to come over and most of them I had to beg to come. But this year there are a lot of people who are interested in Rwanda, which is our ultimate goal.

VN: Where do you hope to see the Wooden Bicycle Classic in five years?

TR: I’m talking with Kevin Vermaak and David Martin from the Cape Epic at Eurobike this year and we’re in discussions about possibly doing a second mountain-bike tour in Africa with their equipment.

They have this entire race infrastructure that goes dormant for an entire year, and we’re talking about for September of next year planning a Tour of Rwanda. Right now they’re interested, and we think we have a winning program to do it. We’d love to do a back-to-back road and mountain tour, and get people to come ride in Rwanda. We’d like to make it two weeks long and have it be both road and mountain biking — possibly like the Iron Horse classic but expanded.

There is an existing Tour of Rwanda right now, in fact, it’s going on right now and our Team Rwanda riders are running away with it. It’s really cool to see. But the race is pretty poorly done and needs better management.

I’d like [the Wooden Bicycle Classic] to be the ultimate African experience for cyclists. I suppose that would make us compete with [South Africa’s] Cape Epic, but to me South Africa is a bubble, and you don’t feel too much of a difference between it and Europe or North American when you are in the cities. Rwanda will give you the total cultural African experience.

VN: You’re starting into your second year with the program. Has your vision of the project at all changed?

TR: No, not really. The four pillars that we’ve based this project on are still the same. The idea that there needs to be a sustainable program built to plug pride into the country and aid a second chance for forgiveness through the use of the bicycle is still the same. The project continues to be a multi-level project with new people coming on board and investing their time. I love being part of this project, because I love being the connector of the talent that comes in — I feel like that’s my skill when it comes to business, other than design. I think that’s the reason that Ritchey is still a company.

I think that I can move out of the way as I get older let talented people come in and do great work. That’s how I see Project Rwanda succeeding. It was important for me to start something, but not important for me to be the one who finishes it. There are a lot of talented people who are coming to help me, and not one person wants to be the front man. We want Rwanda to be the story.

Prokop, Kintner take Jeep King of the Mountains opener
Two-time defending Jeep King of the Mountains series winners Michal Prokop and Jill Kintner (GT) grabbed the opening round of the 2007 Jeep KOM competition, held August 4 in Park City, Utah.

Kintner, who currently leads the UCI World Cup in four cross, disposed of South African Joanna Petterson and Dutchwoman Anneke Beerten in the opening rounds to reach the finals. American Melissa Buhl (KHS), the newly crowned U.S. champ in gated racing, faced off against Kintner in the finals, but couldn’t quite match the reigning world four-cross champ.

“Today was a lot of fun, with the fast speed of the course and the competition on hand,” said Kintner. “It was tough out here in the heat, but I was able to get the burst of energy when I needed it, especially when going up against someone like Melissa Buhl. You can never let up against her, and she always pushes you to give it your all. I was happy to get the win.”

Prokop (Author) took his win ahead of young Australian Jared Graves (Yeti-Fox). The Czech, who is also a hopeful for the 2008 BMX Olympics, nearly lost to Graves in the first of two runs; however he made up the time differential on the second run.

The Jeep King of the Mountains is an invite-only competition for gated racers. Riders leave the gate at oppose sides of a “Y” shaped course before plunging down opposing dual slalom course that meet for a four-cross like finale.

The action from the race can be seen Saturday, August 18 on CBS sports at 5:00 p.m. [EST].

The Jeep King of the Mountains series continues on Saturday, August 18 with the second round, held at the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo, California.

USA Cycling announces Nominees for 2007 World Championships
USA Cycling has nominated 61 athletes to represent the United States at the 2007 UCI world mountain-bike championships, held September 3-9 in Fort William, Scotland.

Adam Craig received the only automatic nomination to the men’s team after winning the 2007 USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Championships last month. He is joined by Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski, Todd Wells and Jeremiah Bishop, who were nominated via coaches’ selection, as well as Michael Broderick, Barry Wicks and Carl Decker who received discretionary nominations. On the women’s side, Willow Koerber and Mary McConneloug were automatically nominated – Koerber by virtue of her two podium performances at UCI World Cup events this year in Switzerland and Canada and McConneloug as the USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Champion. Heather Irmiger and Georgia Gould were coaches’ selections. Sue Haywood, Lea Davison and Shonny Vanlandingham received discretionary nominations. Vanlandingham and Haywood both declined their nominations and will be replaced by Kelli Emmett.

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2007 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships
Fort William, Scotland
September 3-9

U.S. Team Nominations:

Elite Men’s Cross Country
1. Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Boulder, Colo.)
2. Todd Wells (Durango, Colo.)
3. Jeremiah Bishop (Harrisonburg, Va.)
4. Michael Broderick (Chilmark, Mass.)
5. Barry Wicks (Corvallis, Ore.)
6. Adam Craig (Bend, Ore.)
7. Carl Decker (Bend, Ore.)

Elite Women’s Cross Country
1. Willow Koerber (Ashville, N.C.)
2. Heather Irmiger (Boulder, Colo.)
3. Mary McConneloug (Chilmark, Mass.)
4. Georgia Gould (Ketchum, Idaho)
5. Sue Haywood (Davis, W. Va.)
6. Lea Davison (Jericho, Vt.) trek
7. Kelli Emmett (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
8. Shonny Vanlandingham (Durango, Colo.)

U23 Men’s Cross Country
1. Sam Schultz (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
2. Colin Cares (Boulder, Colo.)
3. Tad Elliott (Durango, Colo.)
4. Mitchell Peterson (Sandy, Utah)
5. Sam Jurekovic (Colorado Springs, Colo.)

U23 Women’s Cross Country
1. Chloe Forsman (Boulder, Colo.)
2. Caitlyn Tuel (Boulder, Colo.)

Junior Men’s Cross Country
1. Ethan Gilmour (Ludlow, Vt.)
2. Gregory Carpenter (Canton, Conn.)
3. Stephen Ettinger (Cashmere, Wash.)
4. Chris Peterson (Sandy, Utah) devo
5. Tristan Cowie (Dawsonville, Ga.)

Junior Women’s Cross Country
1. Stephanie White (Bedford, N.H.)
2. Amy Cox (Scottsdale, Ariz.)

Elite Men’s Downhill
1. Cole Bangert (Twin Lakes, Colo.)
2. Duncan Riffle (Santa Barbara, Calif.)
3. Luke Strobel (Renton, Wash.)
4. Gerritt Beytagh (Fletcher, N.C.)
5. T.J. Sharp (Boulder, Colo.)
6. Chris Van Dine (Salt Lake City, Utah)
7. Christopher Herndon (Etowah, N.C.)

Elite Women’s Downhill
1. Kathy Pruitt (Lake Almanor, Calif.)
2. Melissa Buhl (Chandler, Ariz.)
3. Lisa Myklak (Boulder, Colo.)
4. Amelia Colosurdo (Seattle, Wash.)
5. Darian Harvey (Durango, Colo.)

Junior Men’s Downhill
1. JD Swanguen (San Diego, Calif.)
2. Logan Binggeli (St. George, Utah)
3. Brad Oien (Fountain Valley, Calif.)
4. Tim Price (Great Falls, Va.)
5. Tyler McCaul (Aptos, Calif.)

Junior Women’s Downhill
1. Chrissie Pinney (Concord, Calif.)

Elite Men’s 4-Cross
1. Brian Lopes (San Clemente, Calif.)
2. Ross Milan (Golden, Colo.)
3. Eric Carter (Winchester, Calif./Mongoose)
4. Rich Houseman (Temecula, Calif.)*
5. Tommy Tokarczyk (Durango, Colo.)
6. Jeremiah Work (Austin, Texas)

Elite Women’s 4-Cross
1. Jill Kintner (Seattle, Wash.)
2. Melissa Buhl (Chandler, Ariz.)
3. Jessica Vogt (Boulder, Colo.)
4. Tara Llanes (Los Alamitos, Calif.)
5. Neven Steinmetz (Boulder, Colo.)

Observed Trials
1. Cameron Kowall (Gates Mills, Ohio)
2. Neil Wiley (Tucson, Ariz.)
3. Brian Yezierski (Middleton, Conn.)
4. Dave Campbell (Lilburn, Ga.)

*declined nomination
Rusch, Ross take inaugural National Ultra Endurance crowns
Rebecca Rusch (Red Bull-Specialized) and Nat Ross (Subaru-Gary Fisher) wrapped up the respective series titles for the inaugural USA Cycling Mountain-bike national ultra endurance calendar. The series included six races: the February 15 Mas O’ Menos 100k; the February 17 12-Hours of Razorback; the April 28 Dirt, Sweat and Gears marathon; the May 5 Payson Stampede 24-hour race; the June 23 Cowbell Challenge marathon and the July 28 Galena Grinder. Ross bested mountain-bike legend Tinker Juarez (Cannondale) 130-90, and took the title with podium finishes at the Mas O’ Menos 100K, 12-Hours of Razorback and Payson Stampede races. Rusch outdid Carey Lowery, 160-130. Rusch, an accomplished adventure racer, won the Payson Stampede and Cowbell Challenge races. She finished second at the Mas O’Menos 100K. The ultra-endurance calendar is the first of USA Cycling’s new mountain-bike national calendars to hit its conclusion. The cross-country calendar runs through October 27 and the gravity calendar runs through October 7.

Men’s Individual Standings
1. Nat Ross (Boulder, Colo./Subaru-Gary Fisher) 130
2. Tinker Juarez (Downey, Calif./Cannondale) 90
3. Rob Lichtenwalner (Nazareth, Pa./Bare Naked-Cannondale) 90
4. Travis Brown (Durango, Colo./Trek-FRS) 90
5. Chris Janiszewski (Gainesville, Fla.) 65Women’s Individual Standings
1. Rebecca Rusch (Ketchum, Idaho/Red Bull-Specialized) 160
2. Carey Lowery (Athens, Tenn./Team Outdoor Store) 130
3. Monique Sawicki (Mililani, Hawaii/Ergon Elsworth) 60
4. Lynn Stott (Boise, Idaho) 60
5. Christina Smith (Denton, Texas/Team Ortho-Sage Cycles) 40

Bishop, Shogren take Wilderness 101
Jeremiah Bishop (Trek-Volkswagen) and Betsy Shogren (WV F29er/Cannondale) took the August 4 Wilderness 101 race in State College, Pennsylvania. Both riders set new course records on the fast, dry course.

Bishop took over from teammate and 2005 champ Chris Eatough, who wasn’t fully recovered from claiming the National 24-Hour solo cross-country championship. Bishop attacked out of a front group containing Tinker Juarez (Cannondale), Harlan Price (Independent Fabrications), Brandon Dragulais (Bear Naked-Cannondale), Sam Koerber and Josh Tostado (Giant). Bishop’s finishing time of six hours and 52 minutes bested Eatough’s former record by nearly seven minutes.

Taking the women’s race was Betsy Shogren, wife of mountain-bike legend Gunnar Shogren. Shogren outlasted Carey Lowery and Erica Tieszen, finishing in eight hours and 35 minutes, another course record.

The Wilderness 101 was the fifth event of the National Ultra Endurance Series. The series continues with the Endurance 100 race in Utah on August 25 and the Shenandoah Mountain 100 in Virginia on September 1.