Rwanda
Sep 6–15, 2026 · 9 days
Sep 6–15, 2026
9 days
Up to 14 participants
MTB
The challenge
The sun comes up over Kigali. Your bike sits ready, boxes unpacked, the support team close by. You roll out into the hills and the city wakes around you. The climbs start fast. Mount Kigali, the Cote de Kimihurura, the wall. These are the loops the world's best racers know well.
Over nine days you will ride west to Lake Kivu and back. Day three takes you 114km across quiet tarmac and village roads. Day four is the queen stage. You follow the lake, hit the Congo Nile Trail, then climb into the Giswati Reserve up to 3,000m. Your legs will burn. That is the point.
You will join a team led by Sarah Ruggins. Sarah is a British ultra-endurance gravel racer. She takes on the hardest unsupported events in the world, alone and self-reliant. She talks straight and rides hard, and her riders trust her for it. On this expedition she rides with you, not ahead of you.
There is a rest day in the middle. You can track gorillas or golden monkeys if you like (extra cost). Then comes the Three Lakes Route, 125km of mixed terrain with flowing descents and rough gravel. The last big day runs 124km back to Kigali, on the smoothest gravel of the trip, with one final climb into the city.
This is hard. The days are long and the climbs are steep. But the roads are quiet, the detours are kind, and the hills keep rolling. You finish in Kigali, tired, dusty, and grinning.
The hard bit
It's meant to be hard.
This isn't a holiday. You'll be cold, tired, and a long way past your comfort zone. That's the deal, not the warning. The hard bit is the whole reason the rest of it means anything.
The team
You don't do it alone.
You go with a small group who signed up for the same mad idea. You meet them before you leave. You suffer with them out there. You come home with them as friends.
Sarah Ruggins
You're with Sarah, properly.
Not a meet-and-greet. Not a photo at the finish. Sarah is on the trip with you, every single day. Same trail, same camp, same fire. You get to know the person, not the name.
Who leads
Sarah Ruggins
More from Sarah →Booking conditions
Full refund if Loaf cancels the trip. If you cancel, see our booking conditions.
Read booking conditions →How joining a team works
Here's what actually happens.
You apply. Not everyone gets a spot, so tell us why you want to come. We read every word.
If you're in, you're on the team. That's the bit people don't expect. This isn't a tour where you turn up on day one with a clipboard and a coach full of strangers. Weeks before we go, you meet everyone. We get the whole team on a call. You see the faces, learn the names, hear why each person signed up. By the time you land, these aren't strangers. They're your team.
Then you go and do something hard, together. Sarahleads. You climb, you carry, you keep going. Some of it hurts. That's the point. Shared adversity is the fastest way to know people properly, and you come home with a group of friends you'd never have found any other way.
You don't need to be a pro. You just need to be up for it.
Apply for a place
You apply for a place; you don't buy one. We read every form. The wrong person on a mountain ruins it for everyone.
Hear more from Sarah
New trips, notes from the trail, and hard things worth doing — from Sarah, not from a marketing team.
Every trip on this page is run by Loaf: small groups, every plan handled before you arrive. Sarah leads. You bring the will.
How Loaf works →