{"id":55759,"date":"2025-09-26T15:50:49","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T15:50:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/tour-de-france-winner-kasia-niewiadoma-touched-by-rwandans-warmth\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T16:44:49","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T16:44:49","slug":"tour-de-france-winner-kasia-niewiadoma-touched-by-rwandans-warmth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/tour-de-france-winner-kasia-niewiadoma-touched-by-rwandans-warmth\/","title":{"rendered":"Tour de France winner Kasia Niewiadoma touched by Rwandans\u2019 warmth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Initially, Niewiadoma admitted she arrived with doubts, worried about health risks and focused only on making it safely to race day. But once she began exploring Kigali and its surroundings, her perspective shifted. She described it as a \u201cheart-opening moment\u201d that helped her discover compassion and connection with people she had never met.<\/p>\n

She said the joy of children running alongside the roads especially moved her. \u201cSeeing all the kids splits my heart in half. I feel for them, but at the same time I see joy and happiness in their eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

At one point, Niewiadoma and her compatriot Marta Lach were captured on video handing out candies to schoolchildren who cheered them during training. Reflecting on the moment, she remarked, \u201cThe more we open up to people, the more smiles.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A post shared by Katarzyna Niewiadoma Phinney (@kasianiewiadoma94)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Niewiadoma added that while outsiders may believe children in Rwanda need help, the opposite can also be true. \u201cProbably they are actually helping us, softening our hearts,\u201d she reflected.<\/p>\n

The Polish star concluded that her experience in Rwanda reminded her of the deeper lessons of sport and travel. \u201cTravelling teaches you life, kindness, love and understanding for others, and I\u2019m so grateful for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Niewiadoma, who rides for Canyon\u2013SRAM, won the Tour de France in 2024 after securing the climber\u2019s jersey in the same race a year earlier. She will line up for Poland in the women\u2019s road race on Saturday, September 27.<\/p>\n

\"Polish<\/figure>\n
\"Initially,<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Polish rider Kasia Niewiadoma, winner of the 2024 Women\u2019s Tour de France, says her time in Rwanda has been transformative as she participates in the UCI Road World Championships in Kigali.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000095188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[75],"byline":[192],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-55759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-homenews","byline-wycliffe-nyamasege"],"bylines":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"contributors":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"featured_image":{"id":2000095188,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/i_want_to_share_the_transition_i_experienced_while_spending_the_last_days_in_rwanda_coming_he-385f3.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/i_want_to_share_the_transition_i_experienced_while_spending_the_last_days_in_rwanda_coming_he-385f3.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/i_want_to_share_the_transition_i_experienced_while_spending_the_last_days_in_rwanda_coming_he-385f3.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/i_want_to_share_the_transition_i_experienced_while_spending_the_last_days_in_rwanda_coming_he-385f3.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/i_want_to_share_the_transition_i_experienced_while_spending_the_last_days_in_rwanda_coming_he-385f3.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/i_want_to_share_the_transition_i_experienced_while_spending_the_last_days_in_rwanda_coming_he-385f3.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000095188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55759"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=55759"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=55759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}