While it is winter here and the time of cycle racing won't be reconvening until the upcoming spring, things get heated for our team abroad. At tropical temperatures our guys are en route in Central Africa: one prolog and four stages around the capital Yaounde.
Thanks to our success in March at the Tour de Cameroun our team was under particular observation, which did not the task any easier for them. The team showed superb collaboration and managed to always keep Mekseb Debesay third in the overall ranking. Daniel Bichlmann became second during the third stage and barely missed a stage win. Eleven of our riders were only a few seconds apart in the overall ranking until the last stage. This was a difficult situation because all favorites practically checkmated themselves. However, our riders managed to turn the page during the last hour of the race at the 169km long final stage. A competitive racing situation with mountain and sprint classifications caused a bit of unease. Still we managed to attack and challenge the competition especially thanks to the good preparatory work and Mekseb’s 15km solo run. In the end he celebrated the stage win as well as the overall win of the tour. In addition he now tops the continental ranking of the UCI Africa tour with one point lead.
Keeping this lead until the end of the season would be a great milestone for our project: supporting African riders and giving their performance in Germany and Europe a platform. Because of this we felt sorry for the riders in Cameroon – we would not have begrudged their win. For us this was no race against the riders of Cameroon but for Mekseb in the UCI Africa Tour.
Prolog Rundfahrt Tagebuch auf Radsport News von Matthias Schnapka
1. Etappe Rundfahrt Tagebuch auf Radsport News von Matthias Schnapka
2. Etappe Rundfahrt Tagebuch auf Radsport News von Matthias Schnapka
3. und 4. Etappe Rundfahrt Tagebuch auf Radsport News von Matthias Schnapka