Dan Craven managed to achieve the first round-trip victory of the Tour de Cameroun, a main country round-trip of the international agenda in Central Africa. After Craven took over the leader’s jersey at the sixth stage, the team could defend the overall lead until the end. The team from the Saarland did not only manage to win the overall ranking but to earn the polka dot jersey and team colleague Daniel Bichlmann also won one stage and became eighth in the overall ranking.
Races in Central Africa pose a particular challenge in many ways because of the climate, organization, road conditions and culture. Basically everything is different from what we are used to. Next to the sportive load the riders have to be of mature character, able to adapt to new unfamiliar circumstances easily and hope that their bodies respond to the different circumstances accordingly. For this reason there are many riders in the team that have participated in various round-trips in developing countries. Nevertheless, Elmar Hantzsch had bad luck and caught Malaria. He is in the tropical station of the hospital and hopefully will recover soon.
Captain of the team Dan Craven said “We are very proud of this achievement and never expected to be this successful at the first appearance. But the team has put everything in the balance and was rewarded for its great team spirit and hard work. We very much hope that Elmar’s condition will improve soon.”
Please read more about Dan Craven’s individual impression in the round-trip diary.
