Close race before Tour of Rwanda’s final stage
In the eighth and penultimate stage of the Tour of Rwanda, Daniel Teklehaimanot took the race lead from his Eritrean teammate, Natnael Berhane, after finishing second to Moroccan Tarik Chaoufi in the stage,
but the race remains close going into the final stage on Thursday November 25. Etritrea's team looks to have a good grip on the event, but
it's far from a sure thing.
“Today we rode flat out in the breakaway even though the Eritrean Russom could take (Adil) Jelloul's fourth place overall,” said Moroccan coach Mohammed Bilal to the race press. “We decided to take the
risk because a stage win was our big priority.”
The top five riders in the race all have a fighting chance in the race, while the sixth overall is significantly further back. Moroccan Adil Jelloul stands in fourth overall, 2:19 behind the leader, but
his national team is prepared to be satisfied with a stage win. The team won the Tour of Rwanda in 2009 and Chaoufi, the winner of the eighth stage, won three stages that year.
“This year we were not powerful at the beginning because this is just the beginning of our season,” said Bilal. “We had a break from August to October and then we only rode the Tour of Tunisia.”
Teklehaimanot, five-time African Continental Champion, first took the leader’s jersey after winning the second stage on Thursday November 18. He passed the jersey first to Eritrean teammate Tesfai Teklit
and later to Berhane, who won the seventh stage.
“I counterattacked behind a breakaway because I felt everybody was tired in the peloton,” he said in explanation of why he attacked when his teammate wore the leader’s jersey.
“That's a normal situation. Daniel had to take the jersey today and now the race is finished,” said Eritrean team director Samson Solomon.
While Solomon expects his team to win, the one-two leadership by Eritrean cyclists is trailed by a South African, a Moroccan and an Ethiopian. Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg of South Africa is in third place
overall, 2:11 behind the leader, but he has expressed his exhaustion after a 991.3km of racing in eight days.
“That's an unusual effort at the end of the season.”
The South African is also suffering from bronchitis, leaving Jelloul, who trails him by eight seconds, in a good position. However, if anything is going to ensure the Eritrean team’s victory in the race,
it’s a struggle over third place. If the riders support each other, on the other hand, they could take control.
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