Kagimu going one pedal a time in Paris

“I have a lot of mixed feelings about it,” he told this paper in an interview. Kagimu will be the first Ugandan cyclist at the Olympics in 40 years.

No individual had qualified for the quadrennial Games since Muharud Mukasa and Ernest Buule failed to complete the men’s road race over 190.2 km on a course in Mission Viejo, California during the Los Angeles 1984 Olympics.

“Looking at the history of this sport and thinking about 40 years, you know like, that’s already like 15 years before I was born because I am now 25,” Kagimu reacted.

“I just really feel proud to be the first one to have qualified even before the past people who went, there was no qualification system.”

Based in Kaptagat, Kenya with the Ineos Camp for the past three years, Kagimu has a long cycling background dating back to his childhood that morphed into a career.

“I always liked to ride bicycles since I was a kid. As you know in Uganda, a bicycle has always been a really important tool in all families. Long time ago, almost all families used to have a bicycle and it was a really huge sign of accomplishment.

Bicycles have existed in Uganda since missionary Rev Robert Ashe’s ‘Iron donkey’ was imported in 1891. Kagimu used to cycle to school daily while attending St Margaret College Makerere and he faced many challenges but as well, therein was an opportunity.

“I had to go through a lot of bad experiences with morning traffic and rush hours in Kampala. I used to get myself into several accidents because I was still young, I was also an excited person,” he recalls.

“I had my bike having a lot of mechanical problems, most of the time so I had to find somewhere really good at fixing such bikes because I had quite a special bike. I found one of the guys who was part of the national team called Achilles Katumba. He was also a mechanic and had a small bike shop. And he used to help me a lot to fix this bike, so then; he started to tell me about bicycle racing and so on.”

Kagimu joined Katumba and others and began cycling in 2014 with Super Cycling Club in Kalerwe, a suburb of Kampala, where he was for about one and half years.

With a 10-year experience documented competitively, Kagimu arrived in Paris on the back of a gold medal in the individual time trial during the African Games in Ghanaian capital Accra back in March.

In the individual road race, Kagimu came sixth while using a time trial bicycle. On Sunday though, the Uganda Olympic Committee and government presented him with a new S-Works specialized bicycle worth $15000 (Shs56m).

He wants to repay the faith back to Uganda. “First and foremost, my main goal is to start the race. I just hope that I stay in a really good condition and I stay really healthy. And secondly, I want to finish the race because it’s really long. We are talking of 275 km which is the equivalent of going to Masaka and back,” Kagimu noted.

“After that, I want to finish. I want to get a good position and good result and if everything goes well, I would also love to get a medal. I have set my goals to be quite realistic,” he added.

With the help of the Ineos team, UOC and government, Kagimu has been training in the Netherlands back in April and May, Mauritius in June before returning to Kenya in July.

“One of the biggest problems we face is you don’t have a lot of roads to train on (in Uganda). You have a few roads and they are really busy. The rest for the drivers is really bad. Kenya is quite nice and it is more sports friendly, the place where I live. It works just fine for me and that’s why I stay there,” he stated.

He will race for more than six hours in a field of 90 men starting at Trocadéro district, near the Eiffel Tower and there will be climbing all day through Côte de Senlisse, Côte d’Herbouvilliers, Côte de Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse, Côte de Châteaufort, Côte de Bièvres and Côte du Pavé des Gardes towards the finish in Montmartre district.

World champion Mathieu van der Poel from the Netherlands leads the favourites for gold but expects a fight from time trial medallists Remco Evenepoel and Wout van Aert of Belgium.

PARIS 2024 OLYMPICS - TEAM UGANDA SCHEDULE

SATURDAY, AUG 3 - DAY 11

12pm: Charles Kagimu (Cycling - Men’s Individual Road Race)

12.20pm: Athletics - Women’s 800m Repechage

SUNDAY, AUG 4 - DAY 12

11.50am: Peruth Chemutai (Athletics - Women’s 3000m Steeplechase Heats)

10.10pm: Athletics - Women’s 800m Semi Final Heats

UGANDAN MEN IN THE ROAD RACE AT THE OLYMPICS

Los Angeles 1984: Muharud Mukasa (DNF), Ernest Buule (DNF)

ABOUT CHARLES KAGIMU

Full name: Charles Kagimu

Date of birth: Sept 15, 1998

Age: 25

Nationality: Uganda

Weight: 63 kg

Height: 1.80 metres

Place of birth: Kampala

Olympic Discipline: Cycling (Men’s Individual Road Race)

Appearances: 1 (Paris 2024)

Last Race: Kaptagat Cycling Challenge (66km, 3rd place on Jul 6)

Union Cycliste Internationale World Ranking: 477

Pro Cycling Stats Ranking: 407

CYCLING: MEN’S INDIVIDUAL ROAD RACE

Number of athletes: 90

Course: 273km; 2.8km of ascent

Start: Trocadéro, Paris

Finish: Trocadéro, Paris