Two weeks from now, 301 days before the UCI Road World Championships make their first stop on the African continent, Jan Bakelants will spend seven days on a gravel bike in Rwanda. Not to race, but to raise funds for youth education in Rwanda.

In cooperation with Vélo Afrique and Plan International Belgium, Bakelanz, along with more than 20 other riders, will participate in a 431-km support ride from eastern Rwanda on November 23 through volcanic landscapes, red clay roads, and forests with an elevation gain of 7,253 meters. They will participate in a support ride. The final day in Kigali will feature the “Kigali Wall,” a cobbled climb famous in the UCI stage race Tour de Rwanda, which will be part of the 15.1-kilometer circuit in next September's road world championships.

For Bakelants, the event is not about conquering gravel climbs and volcanic terrain, but about supporting “an equitable education for all children in Rwanda.” Using an online crowdfunding platform, Bakerantz is drawing attention to improving equitable education for all children in Rwanda, especially young girls, and to “help build new schools.”

“With the World Championships coming up in 2025, we want to raise awareness of the vulnerable situation girls still face in this country. We know that the key to solving this is proper education. The money raised through the participants should help build new schools,” Bakelanz, who has switched from road racing to gravel racing in the last two years, told Cycling News.

Vero Afrique arranges cycling adventures that include nightly camping. The group is using the trips for a fundraising project with Bonjour Afrique, a nonprofit that coordinates and monitors social projects in Africa. Another partner in this effort is Plan International Belgium, a humanitarian organization that “defends the equality of girls in the pursuit of a better future for all children.”

The Gravel Challenge will be the first African expedition for Bakelants, who switched to gravel after finishing his 15-year professional road career in 2022. He has finished twice in unbound gravel (14th in 2023) and in 2024 finished in the top 10 in a number of UCI Gravel World Series races, including Gravel Fonds Limburg and Wörthersee Gravel.

“This is my first time riding a bike on the African continent. It's very exciting,” the Belgian told Cycling News in a message. 'It will give us a big hint as to how hard the 2025 World Championships will be for the professional athletes.'

“Hosting this World Championships is a big event for Rwanda to showcase to the world. It will also raise awareness that we can contribute to the improvement of Rwanda.”

The UCI Road World Championships will be held in Kigali, Rwanda from September 21-28, 2025. A 15-time Grand Tour WorldTour veteran, Bakelants has competed in five road world championships in his road career and currently competes in one UCI Gravel World Championship, finishing 21st in 2023. Now 38 years old and with fewer days racing on the gravel circuit, he devotes more time to philanthropy.

“Since I stopped (road racing), I have started to raise funds and awareness for good causes every year. Last year, Piotr Havik and I ran 18 hours from north to south in Sri Lanka. We did this to raise money for the Liv Foundation,” he added.

Rwanda has hosted UCI stage races since 2009, attracting professional and national teams from around the world. This season, Rwanda was scheduled to host its first UCI Gravel World Series race, the Gorilla Gravel, in June.

The race, a qualifier for the UCI Gravel World Championships, was billed as the hardest challenge on the calendar, with a 108 km course and 2,685 m elevation gain. However, “too many circumstances made the race impossible,” so the event was canceled and rescheduled for June 7, 2025.

Bakelanz will depart for Rwanda in two weeks and his adventure will run from November 23-30, but his crowdsourcing efforts are ongoing online and he is accepting donations for the next month.