A 15-year veteran of the pro peloton, Estonian climber Line Taaramae is accustomed to traveling and competing in exotic locales.

Ninety percent of the peloton will spend December and January in training camps along Spain's Mediterranean coast and on Tenerife before beginning their campaigns in Spain and France, the traditional centers of cycling.

After starting the season this week at the Tour of Oman, far from Western Europe, Taaramae heads to Rwanda, Africa, for another far-flung destination for a preseason camp.

Rwanda, which hosts its own national tour and will host the road world championships in 2025, is a cycling battleground, but not the kind of place you'd expect to see European pros in January.

"I spent four weeks in a high-altitude training camp," Taramaye told Cycling News before the third stage of the Tour of Oman outside Sultan Qaboos University in Muscat. Not many people know about it, but it's a great place to come."

"There is accommodation exclusively for cyclists and the village was provided by the government in 2015; there are 15 small houses and a small restaurant. The altitude is 2,000 meters, the roads are well maintained and the people are very friendly.

"If you go from Central Europe, there is no time difference and it is better than going to Tenerife or Sierra Nevada. It's cold there and there's nothing but ups and downs, but Rwanda is a little flatter but there are some climbs. Training camp was the best experience of my 15-year professional career."

Taaramaye, 34, is currently in the second year of a three-year contract with Intermarque Wantigovert and has raced in the country before, finishing second in the Tour de Rwanda in 2019 and winning the mountains in 2020.

He said he heard about the cycling center where he stayed during training camp on a previous visit, adding that he was so impressed with its facilities that he would go there to train even when his training partners and teammates could not join him.

"I remember after one stage we were near the cycling center and I heard about it and said to the team boss, 'Let's go and see.'"

"My teammates had a training camp in Calpe. Jan Hilt, Taco van der Hoorn, and Lorenzo Rota spent time in Colombia, and I wanted to go to Rwanda. But I wanted to go to Rwanda. For me, it was my first time camping in Rwanda, and I was a little afraid of food poisoning or something, but for four weeks it was totally fine."

Taaramae, who won a stage at the Vuelta a España last year and added the red jersey to his record that includes a stage win at the Giro d'Italia, leads Intermarché Wanti-Gobert with Hilt at the Tour of Oman, but Kurayat and Green Mountain, it remains to be seen how they will fare at the GC.

"If we get there, maybe we can play together a little bit at the end. Maybe we can "flick" the others a little bit tactically," he said of the team's chances at the summit finish.

"Obviously, we want to get there, but the level is high. But the level is high.

The four weeks at altitude will no doubt have helped his current condition, even if he had to miss the pre-season test at team camp as a result.

But beyond the obvious performance benefits of the Rwanda camp, Taramaye also raved about the country's cycling culture when asked by Victor Kampenaatu, who attended a similar extended camp in Namibia.

"People were riding around the city, walking or biking from city to city. The roads are really well maintained, no holes or anything. There are a lot of cyclists, a lot of regular people using bicycles, drivers are used to cyclists, and the speed limit is 60 kilometers per hour, so it's safe. If a car comes up behind you, they honk their horn so you know immediately if a car is coming. It never overtakes you [close].

"It's a whole different world. They have a totally different lifestyle, a great way of life, and for four weeks I just laughed and enjoyed life."