Trouche tops breakaway companions in Byumba

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While an Eritrean rider remains the leader of the Tour of Rwanda after two stages, ownership of the yellow jersey passed from Daniel Teklehaimanot to Tesfai Teklit, who now sits atop the general classification by three minutes.

The unexpected turnaround happened strangely on a descent despite Rwanda being famous for its brutal climbs. The Thursday afternoon half stage was neutralised untill the middle of the first descent as technical incidents and a crash forced the peloton to stop and wait 15 minutes before kilometre zero.

Belgian riders of the Flanders-Avia team positionned themselves in the front, ready to launch an attack and after some flat-out corners a 12-rider group escaped, with four Belgians - Evert Verbist, Philip Van Baele, Bram Delie and Joeri Calleeuw - plus Frenchmen Guillaume Soula and Benjamin Trouche (CA Castelsarrasin), Luthando Kaka (South Africa), Raoul Hervé Mbah (Cameroon), Ibrahim James Yousef (Egypt), Faysal Alsharaa (Lybia) and Tesfai Teklit (Eritrea), Teklehaimanot's teammate who was willing to work in the breakaway.

The peloton lost a swathe of time on the descent due to some unrest in the bunch and at the bottom of the final six-kilometre ascent, the gap between the escapees and the bunch was 5:16. The last climb was irregular, with a maximum gradient of 16 percent. At the top, the breakaway riders were exhausted and the sprint was very close between James Yousef and stage winner Trouche.

The 26-year-old French rouleur took advantage of a conservative effort on the morning stage's final hill. "Because I'm afraid of crashes, I was at the back of the peloton and I missed the breakaway. So I could climb at my own speed," he explained.

Trouche, who has enjoyed just two first division wins in his career, is considered a generous teammate. Since his first Tour of Rwanda last year he has enjoyed competing in Africa, having ridden the Tour of Morocco and the Tour du Faso this year. Employed by the French gas distribution service GRDF, Trouche says cycling is pure leisure for him.

Meanwhile the new yellow jersey, Tesfai Teklit, who took third in the stage and ninth in the morning's half-stage, now holds a significant advantage at the front of the field. Although he's part of an Eritrean contingent that boasts many potential winners.

"Over the next days the team will ride for him except if he is tired," said Eritrean national coach Samson Solomon. In case of emergency the squad has four riders in the top seven overall. Teklehaimanot is second at 3:08 - in the third stage he won the bunch kick, edging out South African Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg, who tried to drop him several times on the final ascent.

Stage four, from Kigali to Gisenyi, will take riders to the Congolese border. With 148.9km and five first category climbs it may be the queen stage. In 2009 it was the opening route of the Tour of Rwanda and the organisers decided to place it later in the race because of the deep time gaps at the finish.