First Asian cyclists to compete in Kenya’s Migration Gravel Race impressed with the set-up and Maasai people’s welcome
- The Migration Gravel Race, a 4-day slog across Kenya’s Masai Mara with 8,000 metres of vertical ascent, is an endurance test for the 108 competitors
- It’s also a chance to meet Maasai tribespeople and, for two Taiwanese riders – the first from Asia to take part – a lesson in self-reliance
For the third time since 2020, the Migration Gravel Race (MGR), a four-day bicycle competition that weaves across Kenya’s Masai Mara – savannah wilderness best known for its wildlife migrations and safaris – was held in late June 2023.
Although many of the 108 competitors (86 men, 22 women) were Caucasian, the 10-strong Team Amani – East Africa’s premier gravel-racing team and one that provides opportunities to cyclists from the region – was the host of the race.
And for the first time, the MGR had two Asian racers – friends Terry Hsiu Min Hao, 36, and Cody Lin Chen Yang, 39, both from Taipei, Taiwan.
Gravel racing is a discipline that sits between road racing and mountain biking, and ahead of this year’s race, the uninitiated prepared to dig deep within themselves to complete a bone-jarring 670km (420-mile) course that included 8,000 metres (26,000ft) of climbing over unpredictable terrain.
On the eve of the MGR, people mill about at the Mara Training Centre, where there are two wooden lodges, a few acacia trees providing much appreciated shade, and plenty of space on which to pitch tents, before settling in for the first of four nights of camping throughout the race.
Everyone has the same accommodation and eats the same meals – beans, rice, meat stew and tortilla chips – in a lodge filled with large picnic benches. Having eaten, some riders busy themselves with tweaks to their bikes; others wind down on a couch in the main lodge.