:00:07. > :00:23.Who are ugly? We are team Rwanda! -- who are we? In 1994 this country was
:00:24. > :00:28.torn apart by a genocide that killed over 1 million people. Since then it
:00:29. > :00:34.has gone through a massive transformation and one event
:00:35. > :00:38.encapsulates the recovery that the country has seen. It is an unlikely
:00:39. > :00:43.story. A cycling race that has become the focus for a country. A
:00:44. > :00:51.team that has emerged from one of the worst chapters of human history
:00:52. > :00:58.and is now providing hope. A bicycle can change the direction of the life
:00:59. > :01:04.permanently. Inspiration. And the future. Everything you want to do
:01:05. > :01:19.you have in your heart, you can change your life.
:01:20. > :01:32.SINGING. The tour of Rwanda began in 1989 had has become one of the best
:01:33. > :01:37.races in Africa. Cyclists come from around the world to take part. At
:01:38. > :01:40.its heart a group of riders was placed in the
:01:41. > :01:47.its heart a group of riders was been almost unthinkable a
:01:48. > :01:47.its heart a group of riders was who watched the tour over its
:01:48. > :01:51.journey with the who watched the tour over its
:01:52. > :01:58.reserved for their new heroes, team Rwanda.
:01:59. > :02:03.I am Rwanda.
:02:04. > :02:19.the prizes are being given out. I was
:02:20. > :02:22.the prizes are being given out. I out in their thousands. Villages
:02:23. > :02:29.the prizes are being given out. I towns, just the odd little
:02:30. > :02:30.the prizes are being given out. I Watching the tour had from the
:02:31. > :02:35.capital into Watching the tour had from the
:02:36. > :02:41.seeing how people responded to the cyclists was inspiring. Particularly
:02:42. > :02:47.when I thought back to the events of 1994. 20 kilometres from the finish
:02:48. > :02:53.line was a powerful reminder. 45,000 tootsies came to their local school
:02:54. > :03:01.seeking sanctuary. But on one night in April it became anything but.
:03:02. > :03:16.They came at three o'clock in the morning, that is when they attacked.
:03:17. > :03:41.The thing I am struggling with a little bit is that the country has
:03:42. > :03:42.come out of that so quickly and people seem to have moved on so
:03:43. > :04:22.quickly from it. My visit to the school left a
:04:23. > :04:28.lasting impression. What happened there was shocking. The numbers of
:04:29. > :04:31.people who died, unbelievable. But the same time I heard a powerful
:04:32. > :04:37.message of the country trying to move forward. Being at this sport
:04:38. > :04:42.event which has such an impact, and yet one hour later you are wandering
:04:43. > :04:48.around the site of such a terrible atrocity, it is hard to keep your
:04:49. > :04:52.emotions in check. The thing that struck me most is there proud of
:04:53. > :04:58.their country. They want to be Rwandans, to see the flag flying and
:04:59. > :05:01.people wearing the shirt. Perhaps in the Olympic Games or Commonwealth
:05:02. > :05:07.Games. They want to see a better image of the country, not one that
:05:08. > :05:19.is still hankering back to 1994. They have moved on and they want us
:05:20. > :05:25.to move on with them as well. Cycling is nothing new here. Every
:05:26. > :05:29.work you look there are bicycles but until 2007 there was no racing, no
:05:30. > :05:36.team. The idea of cycling as a sport did not really exist. It took an
:05:37. > :05:43.American charity bringing mountain bikes to coffee farmers to do
:05:44. > :05:46.something quite ground-breaking. What has been achieved here has
:05:47. > :05:52.never been seen anywhere before. From a cycling nation that came from
:05:53. > :05:56.zero to where we are. How can a country that has never been in
:05:57. > :05:59.cycling have the best race in Africa, with a budget that is
:06:00. > :06:05.minimal impaired to these countries that have cycling as their
:06:06. > :06:11.mainstay? Whether it is Morocco, Algeria, South Africa, they have
:06:12. > :06:16.riders that have been there for decades. And the culture of cycling
:06:17. > :06:22.here has only been in the last couple of years. It has not been
:06:23. > :06:26.easy. Creating a team from scratch in a country still coming to terms
:06:27. > :06:31.with its past and with no real history of sporting achievement has
:06:32. > :06:37.had real challenges. A lot of things we did not realise is how important
:06:38. > :06:42.education is. Not just about a bicycle team, we had to redesign the
:06:43. > :06:46.whole diet. Working with a lot of young men who have gone through
:06:47. > :06:53.trauma, that was entirely different. That is not something normal team
:06:54. > :07:01.has to deal with you have to start from zero and basically create a
:07:02. > :07:04.culture. We have about 20 minutes before the start of the race and
:07:05. > :07:09.rather touchingly we're having team photograph. I'm not sure if people
:07:10. > :07:15.would expect them to be more stressed out, warming up, getting
:07:16. > :07:33.ready for a race. I wish I had been like that for the start of a race!
:07:34. > :07:40.We will just get the traffic moving. We are heading to see one of the
:07:41. > :07:48.original members of the team, Adrian Nealon should you. His name is all
:07:49. > :07:55.over Rwanda. He is a bit of a local hero. Adrian is a success story of
:07:56. > :08:00.team Rwanda, he now writes for the best team in South Africa and went
:08:01. > :08:03.to the Olympic Games in London. During the genocide five of his
:08:04. > :08:11.brothers and his sister were killed. The bicycle really has changed his
:08:12. > :08:17.life. It is an inspiration for a lot of people in Rwanda. Today I
:08:18. > :08:23.finished a stage and a lot of people came to say well done and that they
:08:24. > :08:30.were big fans. And they think what you did was an inspiration. A
:08:31. > :08:34.nightly open the door for everyone because like all blossoming sports
:08:35. > :08:39.you have to have a hero and without that the kids have no point of
:08:40. > :08:45.reference of where they are going to go. Adrian is there ignition point.
:08:46. > :08:51.That is where they think, he did it so I can do it. He is Rwanda and I
:08:52. > :09:00.am Rwandan and he started with the incredible tragedy of that past and
:09:01. > :09:10.now he is doing it. Adrian is one of the first riders in Rwanda. He is
:09:11. > :09:18.very strong. He could ride in the Tour de France because they have the
:09:19. > :09:28.good team. I hope so. Everyone knows about Rwanda and the genocide.
:09:29. > :09:34.People say Rwanda is still not good. But it is safe. It is amazing.
:09:35. > :09:38.Adrian was the first, an inspiration. And he has shown how
:09:39. > :09:42.Team Rwanda is not just about the bike. None of the cyclists are rich
:09:43. > :09:47.but are paid a monthly salary and many have managed to buy a house, a
:09:48. > :09:52.massive achievement here. Becoming a cyclist is now up profession. -- a
:09:53. > :10:39.profession. We have ten riders on the team that
:10:40. > :10:46.have houses and they are in their 20s. You just cannot do that, it
:10:47. > :10:50.takes generations to buy a house here and we have 20-year-olds who
:10:51. > :10:55.through their race winnings have been able to support their families,
:10:56. > :11:16.have electricity, cement flooring, even running water.
:11:17. > :11:31.Here comes the main peloton. This is brutal. A real boneshaker of a
:11:32. > :11:39.section. If we go back to 1994, a bicycle meant you might escape the
:11:40. > :11:44.genocide. You come back to after the genocide. If you had a bike you
:11:45. > :11:49.could transport people, you had an income. Now you have a whole
:11:50. > :11:53.generation looking at cycling to actually be able to succeed. Racing
:11:54. > :12:00.cycling. It is putting people together that would have been
:12:01. > :12:04.enemies during the genocide. The team is all Rwandan. It consists of
:12:05. > :12:06.people from all regions and all different areas. They have to work
:12:07. > :12:27.together for it to succeed. You think cycling is helping people
:12:28. > :12:47.forget what happened? No home winner today but it has been
:12:48. > :12:53.an incredible event and a real eye-opener for me. The amount of
:12:54. > :12:56.people out to support this Tour of Rwanda has been incredible. They
:12:57. > :12:59.obviously love this sport. They do not have a winner to cheer today but
:13:00. > :13:07.I'm sure they will sometime in the future. In the meantime it is Adrian
:13:08. > :13:12.who the rest of the cyclists are having to chase. As my time drew to
:13:13. > :13:16.a close in Rwanda I was struck by something that Nelson Mandela once
:13:17. > :13:21.said. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair. It is
:13:22. > :13:26.not a grandiose statement, it is not difficult to see how this incredible
:13:27. > :13:29.team embodies the pride and hope of a nation whose progress in such a
:13:30. > :13:54.short space of time is in itself remarkable.
:13:55. > :13:57.This week, Britain has voted for its Members of the European Parliament.
:13:58. > :14:04.What will the result tell us about the political mood here in Britain
:14:05. > :14:09.of the results both here and across Europe.