Cameroon Int'l Cycling Tour gets first woman commissioner.

The European was appointed by world cycling governing body, the Union of international cycling. She has the task of overseeing the smooth running of the forthcoming 2025 edition of the competition set to hold next month.

The Cameroon Cycling Federation, FECACYCLING, confirmed the development in a post on its official social media handle on Wednesday this week. 

“Of a Portuguese nationality and appointed by the International Cycling Union, UCI, Paula Martins will be the first woman to officer as president of the jury of race commissioners the Cameroon International Cycling Tour scheduled to hold from June 04 to 15, 2025,” the federation said in a statement. 

Per the federation, the commissioner is expected to arrive Cameroon on May 31.

Martins has a rich track record serving as a cycling official in national and international cycling competitions across the world.

Notable among the competitions that she has handled include the UCI-sanctioned 83-year-old Paris-Nice which is organized annually in the French cities of Paris and Nice made up of a total of eight stages competed across eight days. 

Other competitions that she has participated in as an official include the Sao Paolo Tour in Brazil in South America, the Morocco cycling tour and the African Youth Games in Rwanda both in Africa.

She has equally handled the European Youth Olympic event, three Road World Cup competitions, a World Cup Nations, a European Road Championship, four World Road Championships and Olympic Road Games events. 

The European has equally handled events in track competitions. Notable among them is an Asian Track Cup, nine United Nations Track World Cup competitions, seven Track World Championships and the Track Olympics. 

Per FECACYLING, the commissioner earlier this year, officiated the Junior Track and Road World Championships and previously officiated both at the regional and national level on Road or Track MTB and other events.

The 2025 Cameroon International Cycling Tour will involve 10 stages.

The event will assemble athletes from three European cycling teams, four African teams and three Cameroonian outfits.

The event, will, as it obtained last year, flagged off in in the Far North region with the first lap scheduled to be the Maroua-Mora-Maroua stage with a distance of 127.9 km on June 4. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3454 of Saturday May 24, 2025