He still has haunting memories of the day 60 close relatives, including six brothers, were brutally slaughtered during Rwanda’s 100-day genocide.

Some sources estimate more than a million Rwandans were killed, about 10,000 a day, in a frenzy that wiped out about 70 per cent of the Tutsi population.

The shooting down of a plane carrying Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana in early April,1994, sparked the genocide. The country’s Hutu population was ordered to kill Tutsi and were under strict instructions to spare no one, not even children.

Death by machete was most common, and any Hutu refusing to participate in the massacre became targets themselves.

Rwandan streets became piled with bodies, and rivers ran red with blood as a horrified international community looked on from afar.

“It was six of my brothers, a lot of my cousins, a lot of family from my cousins and my mum, it was terrible,” Niyonshuti said.

“It’s kinda tough because we can’t forget what happened. There’s a lot of things I remember. If we’re talking like this it’s not easy to go into the deep of the things that happened.

“From here I just have to remember my family. I want to be with my family but you can’t find them because they’re gone, they’re gone without doing anything.

“I have to thank God, too, he kept me alive during the genocide.”

Twenty years on and Niyonshuti is now a national sporting hero, an ambassador not only for cycling, but for the rebirth of Rwanda.

On Sunday, he

He’ll also be riding in the blue and yellow colours of his country – a nation that still means so much to him, despite its unbearable past.

He’s proud of that fact that Hutu and Tutsi stand side by side now, that the country as one continues to ensure the violence of the genocide stays buried forever.

“In Rwanda now we are same Rwandans, same people, we are looking forward, our historic past is 20 years ago,” Niyonshuti said.

“You go to Rwanda if you’re from America, from Europe from Africa, you get into Rwanda without visa. That would show how Rwandan now is improving.

“You want something sent to Rwanda, whatever you want in England you can send it to Rwanda. Just come to Rwanda and I think you will find how Rwanda now is not Rwanda of the past 20 years.”

Niyonshuti’s blood-stained past provides a constant inspiration when he’s on two wheels. The 27-year-old spent a decade shrouded in grief before he took up cycling in 2004.

He became an instant star and was soon spotted by Jacques Boyer, the first US cyclist to ride in a Tour de France.

Since 2007, Boyer has been heavily involved with Rwandan cycling, and has proven an excellent mentor for Niyonshuti, who rides professionally for South African UCI Continental team MTN Qhubeka.

His career highlight came in 2012 when he carried his country’s flag at the 2012 London Olympics.

After the Olympics he started up the Adrien Niyonshuti Cycling Academy to help young Rwandans take up the sport.

“I said to Jacques, this is very important if we want to develop more cycling, we need more young riders from eight, nine years to 15 years,” Niyonshuti said.

“Also for their parents to change their mind, to understand that cycling or sport is something the younger generation can do and make money, make a good life and learn more, not just to go to school and do mathematics or something like that.

“After almost one year now, some young riders have been representing Rwanda for a few races in Africa.

“We’re looking for the next Olympics in Rio for some riders in mountain bike and the road, it’s something very special.

“I can say I’ve done a good thing for them, and they want to be like me. I wanted to change my life and I used cycling to change my life. Now I’m changing a lot of things for myself and also for the country.

“It’s good education for them and a good dream. I really hope it to be in the next year or after next year ... to see some African rider in the pro team, pro tour or racing around in Europe and changing the life for them. And I will be happy for that.”