Kiel Reijnen beat Dylan Girdlestone to retain his stage victory in the Tour of Rwanda 2011
Type 1 – Sanofi team’s Kiel Reijnen won his third consecutive stage victory after taking a lead in the second stage of the Tour of Rwanda on Monday, between Rwamagana and Kigali. He also maintained his overall leader’s yellow jersey.
After a few kilometres, four cyclists made their breakaway lead and built an advantage of a few seconds over the peloton. There were: Nathan Byukusenge (Rwanda Karisimbi), Adrien Niyonshuti (Team MTN Qhubeka), Dylan Girdlestone (Team MTN Qhubeka) and Paul
Agorir (Kenya National Team).
Girdlestone displayed a good performance throughout the stage. He launched an attack with Agorir but the duo failed to attain a lead.
Meanwhile, Adrien and Byukusenge rode together, but Nathan increased his pace and took the first mountain with 7 points.
In the final 2 kilometres, two riders of Ethiopia National, Alem Abebe and Kbrom Giday, along with Adrien Niyonshuti (Team MTN Qhubeka) toiled hard and quickly joined the two leading cyclists, Girdlestone and Kiel Reijnen.
However, the American continued with his tremendous efforts and crossed the finish-line ahead of the other cyclists with 10 points.
Kiel covered the distance of 85 kilometres in 2 hours, 4 minutes and 57 seconds while Dylan was the runner-up, 2 seconds down to the American, ahead of Niyonshuti.
Alem Abebe was in the fourth place with a difference of 5 seconds. Giday finished fifth, 9 seconds adrift, ahead of Benjamin Kogo (Kenya National Team) and Weldemikael Weyo (Ethiopia National Team).
Rwanda Karisimbi Team’s Nathan Byukusenge did not perform as impressively and snatched the 17th spot with a difference of 21 seconds, ahead of his teammate Abraham Ruhumuriza.
Kiel took the overall standing with a timing of 3 hours, 21 minutes and 13 seconds while Niyonshuti was in the second spot, 16 seconds adrift.
Girdlestone stood third with a difference of 22 seconds, ahead of Alem Abebe and Joseph Rosskopf.
MTN Qhubeka rider, Adrien Niyonshuti exhibited an aggressive tendency that earned him the title of the Best Mountain rider, with 17 points ahead of Reijnen and Girdlestone.
Team Type 1 – Sanofi took the overall team standing ahead of Mtn Qhubeka.
All the cyclists will cover a distance of 150 kilometres for the next stage, that will start in Kigali and end in Gisenyi.
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