Race Around Rwanda: When a Cycling Race Becomes Something Much Bigger
There are races that test your legs. Then there are races that test everything else — your resolve, your adaptability, your sense of purpose. Race Around Rwanda, held in February 2026, belongs firmly in the second category. And for Gianluca Scafuro, a Tuscan olive farmer and endurance cyclist from the Maremma, it became something he hadn't quite anticipated when he signed up: a journey that raised questions far bigger than any finish line.
From the olive groves of Grosseto to the hills of Kigali
Gianluca has been pedalling since adolescence. Born and raised in the Maremma — that rugged, salt-aired corner of Tuscany — he spent years racing on road and mountain bike before discovering the particular pull of long-distance cycling. While bikepacking was still a niche pursuit, he was already deep into it, accumulating starts and finishes in some of the most demanding endurance events in the world: the Silk Mountain Race through Central Asia, the Atlas Mountain Race across Morocco, the Cape Epic in South Africa, the Mule Trail Race.
He returned to Grosseto in 2019 to take over the family farm, producing extra virgin olive oil with the same obsessive attention to detail he brings to his riding. Two worlds — the rural and the athletic, the slow and the extreme — coexisting in one life.
A race with a different kind of terrain
Rwanda is not a flat country. What it lacks in altitude it more than compensates for in relentlessness — a landscape of a thousand hills that punishes any cyclist who underestimates it. Race Around Rwanda is an ultra-endurance event that demands not only physical preparation but a certain willingness to sit with discomfort, uncertainty, and the unexpected for days on end.
Gianluca arrived with a bicycle that was, by his own description, out of the ordinary. The details of that bike — and the idea behind it — are part of what makes this story worth telling in full. Because somewhere between the climbs and the red dirt roads, a concept took shape: one that could change how people and goods move through Rwanda's rural communities. Not a product pitch. Not a startup deck. Just an observation, made from the saddle, about what a bicycle can be and do in a context where most of us have never had to think about it.
Why this story matters beyond cycling
Endurance sport has a way of stripping things back. When you are tired and far from home, the questions that surface tend to be the ones that matter. What are you actually doing this for? What does movement mean — not as sport, but as necessity? What can a bike accomplish when it isn't just a hobby?
These are the questions Gianluca will be exploring at M9 Museum in Venice on Saturday 9 May, in an event organised together with UDOG and Velopavé. It is not a lecture. It is a conversation — an account of a race that became an adventure, and an adventure that became an idea.
Join us at M9 Museum, Venice
The event takes place on Saturday 9 May at 5:00 PM at M9 Museum in Mestre, Venice. Entry is free, but registration is required. If you are curious about endurance cycling, bikepacking, sustainable mobility in the Global South, or simply a good story told by someone who lived it, this is worth your Saturday afternoon.
Reserve your spot here:
https://www.pedalandoavenezia.com/event/gianluca-scafuro-race-around-rwanda/