Being a 'pioneer' for other East Africans among goal for Jordan Schleck at Unbound Gravel

Gravel racing is typically harsh and unforgiving, but Jordan Schleck (Team Amani) has found a way to galvanize any brutal blows, like a DNF at the 2023 Unbound Gravel 200, and turn them into motivation.

A return to Unbound Gravel 200 for redemptive ride is all about ‘keep my head up, finish strong’ and ‘be a pioneer of the team’. It’s a rare statement of leadership for a 21-year-old, but then again, the Uganda rider is a rare gem and is looking for ways to polish his off-road vocation.

Now in his fourth season of off-road racing, Schleck took on a new challenge and is one of the youngest riders in this year’s 60-rider field of the Life Time Grand Prix. 

“This is pretty exciting, with a serious racing field, and I can really get to know where I am in terms of fitness as well,” Schleck told Cyclingnews about being selected for the Grand Prix. “Luckily, I got approved, and I felt really happy. We started loading up, some explosive training, long rides, big rides. 

“It's a great motivation, because you have a lot of black athletes back home, who are like, ‘we want to do what Jordan does’. That's the best way to get the experience, so that I give the feedback to those guys. I need to be there physically if you want to improve. So it's like being the pioneer of the team.”

He is officially Jordan Schleck Ssekanwagi, with his family giving him the Schleck surname as his role models growing up were road cyclists Andy and Frank Schleck. As a teenager, Schleck became a four-time junior national champion on the road. His first Ugandan title came when he was 11 years old, and that same day, his father, David Matovu, won the elite race. 

As an aspiring road cyclist, that career path was blocked several times when the Ugandan Cycling Association blocked requests to approve visas for him to compete abroad. After struggling with these challenges for several years, he moved into off-road racing in 2021 with an opportunity with Team Amani, which develops athletes from East Africa to excel in endurance cycling. 

His first long-distance off-road race was 2021 Cape Epic in Kenya, where he raced in the mixed category with Nancy Akinyi Debe, who later won the Migration Gravel Race. The eight stages across the rugged bushland of South Africa ignited his spirit. There he raced alongside many of the top gravel riders he now sees on a regular basis, like Matthew Beers, Keegan Swenson, Petr Vakoc and Lachlan Morton. This year he partnered with Morton for his third trip to Cape Epic.

“Jordan races on the road, on the mountain bike, on the gravel, and he is pretty handy in all of the disciplines,” Morton said this spring. “He can do it all. He has got a lot of punch and definitely has an engine, but he is also race savvy and he has spent a lot of time dedicated to the process of getting better. 

“I have been able to spend a lot of time with the AMANI team, and it has been cool to see Jordan develop as a rider. This year, he managed to qualify for the Life Time series, which is a good stepping stone for him and a big step for AMANI, so it seemed like a no-brainer to pair up for Epic.”

Unbound and new horizons

At Unbound Gravel 200 last year, Schleck rode alongside Team Amani teammates Charles Kagimu and John Kariuki but fell victim to the mud pit at mile 11 and then stomach issues to end his ride 10 hours later at the final checkpoint 38 miles from the finish line. 

“Oh, last year it was a bit terrible. I had, like, some stomach issues a few days. I felt the body's OK, but the system wasn't really OK since I was doing lots of training," he recalled to Cyclingnews. 

“So the body started really feeling bad, and I stopped several times when I was throwing up, and that's when I knew the body's totally [drained]. On the second feed station, after getting rained on, I had no jacket, I couldn't recover. I could see the legs are cramping. I couldn't make it to the end, but yeah, all in all, what is more important? There is always another way to make improvements.

“It gave me a lot of things to work on, and to keep my head up, to plan out into the race, so that, all in all, at the end, I finish really strong with good results. And, yeah, it's a good motivation this year.”

This year at Unbound he’ll be joined by one teammate, Seth Hakizimana, of Rwanda. The duo used Gravel Locos as preparation for Unbound Gravel, Schleck finishing sixth, just 37 seconds behind former Unbound champion Ivar Slik, and Hakizimana came in behind Laurens ten Dam and Alex Howes in 11th. He used Gravel Locos to fine-tune his setup with his Factor Ostro bike, complete with a custom animal-print design, and going from 40cc to 44cc Vittoria Mescal tyres for Unbound.

The biggest challenge in 2024 for Schleck seems to be geographical logistics, which is echoed by all the international competitors in the Grand Prix, as the seven events stretch between April to October.

“According to the plan this year, it looks like I may travel two or three times. So that means, after Unbound, I'll travel home to see my family and do the Migration Gravel Race as well and some local races. If everything goes well, I then travel back to continue to catch up with the season. We'll see in the mid-season if I need to go back home again. I may stay for quite a long time, until October. So it's a bit crazy, staying away from the family, but you accept what's on the table and fight for it.”

A team manager for Team Amani lives in Texas, and that is where Schleck makes his US base. It is also a good place for training, he said and makes it easier to access many of the races that are clustered in the western states, including Crusher in the Tushar. That high-elevation contest on July 13 in southern Utah is the one he is most eager to ride on the calendar.

“Tushar will be a really great race, because it looks to be a bit short, and it's a hilly race that kind of suits my body. I love hills.”

Schleck said he would welcome a second trip to the UCI Gravel World Championships to represent Uganda, but “it’s 50-50; it will depend on how the body feels”. Until then, he was focused on success at the Life Time Grand Prix and getting acquainted with a US lifestyle.

“I haven’t really got so much time to hang out, like look at Texas football culture, but I would love to. I used to be a footballer in high school. Experiencing new things would be really nice. I should say I love enjoying burritos; that’s a good one.”