{"id":120303,"date":"2026-02-22T09:03:40","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T09:03:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/tour-du-rwanda-mulubrhan-warns-against-distractions"},"modified":"2026-02-22T10:11:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T10:11:15","slug":"tour-du-rwanda-mulubrhan-warns-against-distractions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/tour-du-rwanda-mulubrhan-warns-against-distractions","title":{"rendered":"Tour Du Rwanda: Mulubrhan Warns Against Distractions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Rwanda. <\/strong><\/span>Eritrean star rider Henok Mulubrhan has sent a warning to rivals that he and his teammates are in the country with a mission to win Tour du Rwanda 2026.<\/p>\n<p>The eight-day race will kick off on Sunday, February 21 and run until March 1. It will attract 18 team including Team Eritrea which returned to the country with two past Tour du Rwanda winners Mulubrhan and Merhawi Kudus.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re not here for pictures,\u201d Mulubrhan said during the pre-race press conference on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Returning as one of the pre-race favourites, Mulubrhan emphasized that Eritrea\u2019s ambition goes beyond chasing stage victories.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLast year, the race wasn\u2019t on our side. But now we\u2019re back well prepared and ready to fight for victory again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Eritrea\u2019s redemption mission<\/p>\n<p>Eritrea last won the Tour du Rwanda in 2023 when Mulubrhan won it on his debut appearance. Despite not winning the past two edition, it still stands out as the most dominant nations in African cycling.<\/p>\n<p>During the 17th edition, Eritrean rider Nahom Araya reignited hopes by winning Stage 7, raising expectations of an overall triumph. But adverse weather conditions led to the cancellation of the final stage in Kigali.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, the general classification standings were frozen based on earlier results, handing victory to French rider Fabien Doubey of Team TotalEnergies. Mulubrhan narrowly missed the title, finishing just four seconds behind Doubey in the overall standings.<\/p>\n<p>Eritrea returns into this year\u2019s race with a formidable squad comprising Mulubrhan, Kudus, Nahom Araya, Natan Medhanie, and team captain Yafiet Mulugeta<\/p>\n<p>2026 Tour du Rwanda Itinerary<\/p>\n<p>Stage 1: Rukomo \u2013 Rwamagana (174 km, elevation gain: 2,128 m)<\/p>\n<p>Stage 2: Nyamata \u2013 Huye (135 km, elevation gain: 2,074 m)<\/p>\n<p>Stage 3: Huye \u2013 Rusizi (145 km, elevation gain: 3,107 m)<\/p>\n<p>Stage 4: Karongi \u2013 Rubavu (127 km, elevation gain: 2,586 m)<\/p>\n<p>Stage 5: Rubavu Criterium (82 km, elevation gain: 888 m)<\/p>\n<p>Stage 6: Rubavu \u2013 Musanze (84 km, elevation gain: 1,435 m)<\/p>\n<p>Stage 7: Musanze \u2013 Kigali (147 km, elevation gain: 2,190 m)<\/p>\n<p>Stage 8: Kigali \u2013 Kigali (99 km, elevation gain: 2,092 m)<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Rwanda<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Rwanda. Eritrean star rider Henok Mulubrhan has sent a warning to rivals that he and his teammates are in the country with a mission to win Tour du Rwanda 2026. The eight-day race will kick off on Sunday, February 21 and run until March 1. It will attract 18 team including Team Eritrea [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":120302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[924,4567,758,9437,3562],"class_list":["post-120303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-cycling","tag-henok-mulubrhan","tag-rwanda","tag-team-eritrea","tag-tour-du-rwanda"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Tour Du Rwanda: Mulubrhan Warns Against Distractions - Rwanda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Eritrean star rider Henok Mulubrhan has sent a warning to rivals that he and his teammates are in the country with a mis ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/tour-du-rwanda-mulubrhan-warns-against-distractions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tour Du Rwanda: Mulubrhan Warns Against Distractions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Eritrean star rider Henok Mulubrhan has sent a warning to rivals that he and his teammates are in the country with a mis ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/tour-du-rwanda-mulubrhan-warns-against-distractions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rwanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-22T09:03:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-22T10:11:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2026\/02\/sm_1771742434.12934.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"665\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/tour-du-rwanda-mulubrhan-warns-against-distractions#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/tour-du-rwanda-mulubrhan-warns-against-distractions\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Tour Du Rwanda: Mulubrhan Warns Against Distractions\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-22T09:03:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-22T10:11:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/tour-du-rwanda-mulubrhan-warns-against-distractions\"},\"wordCount\":334,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/tour-du-rwanda-mulubrhan-warns-against-distractions#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2026\/02\/sm_1771742434.12934.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Cycling\",\"Henok Mulubrhan\",\"Rwanda\",\"Team Eritrea\",\"Tour du Rwanda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/tour-du-rwanda-mulubrhan-warns-against-distractions#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/tour-du-rwanda-mulubrhan-warns-against-distractions\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/tour-du-rwanda-mulubrhan-warns-against-distractions\",\"name\":\"Tour Du Rwanda: Mulubrhan Warns Against Distractions - Rwanda\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/tour-du-rwanda-mulubrhan-warns-against-distractions#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/tour-du-rwanda-mulubrhan-warns-against-distractions#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2026\/02\/sm_1771742434.12934.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-22T09:03:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-22T10:11:15+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Eritrean star rider Henok Mulubrhan has sent a warning to rivals that he and his teammates are in the country with a mis ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/tour-du-rwanda-mulubrhan-warns-against-distractions#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/tour-du-rwanda-mulubrhan-warns-against-distractions\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/tour-du-rwanda-mulubrhan-warns-against-distractions#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2026\/02\/sm_1771742434.12934.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2026\/02\/sm_1771742434.12934.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":665,\"caption\":\"Tour Du Rwanda: Mulubrhan Warns Against Distractions\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/tour-du-rwanda-mulubrhan-warns-against-distractions#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Tour Du Rwanda: Mulubrhan Warns Against Distractions\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/\",\"name\":\"Rwanda\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Tour Du Rwanda: Mulubrhan Warns Against Distractions - Rwanda","description":"Eritrean star rider Henok Mulubrhan has sent a warning to rivals that he and his teammates are in the country with a mis ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/tour-du-rwanda-mulubrhan-warns-against-distractions","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Tour Du Rwanda: Mulubrhan Warns Against Distractions","og_description":"Eritrean star rider Henok Mulubrhan has sent a warning to rivals that he and his teammates are in the country with a mis ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/tour-du-rwanda-mulubrhan-warns-against-distractions","og_site_name":"Rwanda","article_published_time":"2026-02-22T09:03:40+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-02-22T10:11:15+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":665,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2026\/02\/sm_1771742434.12934.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/tour-du-rwanda-mulubrhan-warns-against-distractions#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/tour-du-rwanda-mulubrhan-warns-against-distractions"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Tour Du Rwanda: Mulubrhan Warns Against Distractions","datePublished":"2026-02-22T09:03:40+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-22T10:11:15+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/tour-du-rwanda-mulubrhan-warns-against-distractions"},"wordCount":334,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/tour-du-rwanda-mulubrhan-warns-against-distractions#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2026\/02\/sm_1771742434.12934.jpg","keywords":["Cycling","Henok Mulubrhan","Rwanda","Team Eritrea","Tour du Rwanda"],"articleSection":["all news","Sport"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/tour-du-rwanda-mulubrhan-warns-against-distractions#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/tour-du-rwanda-mulubrhan-warns-against-distractions","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/tour-du-rwanda-mulubrhan-warns-against-distractions","name":"Tour Du Rwanda: Mulubrhan Warns Against Distractions - Rwanda","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/tour-du-rwanda-mulubrhan-warns-against-distractions#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/tour-du-rwanda-mulubrhan-warns-against-distractions#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2026\/02\/sm_1771742434.12934.jpg","datePublished":"2026-02-22T09:03:40+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-22T10:11:15+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Eritrean star rider Henok Mulubrhan has sent a warning to rivals that he and his teammates are in the country with a mis ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/tour-du-rwanda-mulubrhan-warns-against-distractions#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/tour-du-rwanda-mulubrhan-warns-against-distractions"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/tour-du-rwanda-mulubrhan-warns-against-distractions#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2026\/02\/sm_1771742434.12934.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2026\/02\/sm_1771742434.12934.jpg","width":1000,"height":665,"caption":"Tour Du Rwanda: Mulubrhan Warns Against Distractions"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/tour-du-rwanda-mulubrhan-warns-against-distractions#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Tour Du Rwanda: Mulubrhan Warns Against Distractions"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/","name":"Rwanda","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}