Chaoufi wins in Kigali

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Eritrean all-rounder Daniel Teklehaimanot took control of the Tour of Rwanda on Wednesday after finishing second behind Tarik Chaoufi (Morocco) on stage 8, between Butare and Kigali.

The five-time African Continental Champion already wore the yellow jersey after winning stage 2 but he went on to share the glory with his teammates in the following days. Tesfai Teklit and Teweldemedhin Natnael Berhane have also led the race overall, with the latter capturing a stage win. Frekalsi Debesai also took a stage victory, underlining the supremacy of the Eritrean brigade.

What was Teklehaimanot's plan when he jumped clear of the peloton with 36km to go, even though his team-mate Natnael was still in the pace? Samson Solomon, the directeur sportif of the Eritrean national team said: “That's a normal situation. Daniel had to take the jersey today and now the race is finished.”

That version could mean that Teklehaimanot had always been the Eritreans' team supreme, and that the success of his teammates was simply a case of team politics.

However, Teklehaimanot denied that he had planned to take the yellow jersey on the day. “I counterattacked behind a breakaway because I felt everybody was tired in the peloton,” he said. In any case, the UCI World Center stagiaire seemed to be the strongest rider in the peloton, according to his rivals themselves. It should also be noted that the peloton was dropping many riders and the leading group was almost caught when he launched his attack.

Up front, Tarif Chaoufi, Abdelati Saaoune (Morocco) and Meron Russom (Eritrea) were the survivors from a big group which started at kilometre zero, with Jasson Bakke (South Africa), Guy Smet (Avia Flanders) and Faysal Alsharaa (Libia). Their gap reached 3:56 in the middle of the race.

The peloton was certainly tired come the end of the day. By the finish of stage 8, the riders had clocked up 992.3km in eight days. “That's an unusual effort at the end of the season,” Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg said. The South African, who is suffering from bronchitis, managed to hold his third place overall but lost fifteen seconds and is now under pressure from Moroccan Adil Jelloul for the final podium.

The winner of the uphill sprint, Chaoufi, was three times on the podium of the Tour of Rwanda in 2009. This year the 24-year-old has won a stage at the Tour of Mali and the GP Al Massira at home.

The Moroccan team was understandably pleased with the success of its youngest rider. They dominated the 2009 edition of the race by capturing the general classification and six stages out of eight. National coach Mohammed Bilal explained: “This year we were not powerful at the beginning because this is just the beginning of our season. We had a break from August to October and then we only rode the Tour of Tunisia. So today we rode flat out in the breakaway even though the Eritrean Russom could take Jelloul's fourth place overall. We decided to take the risk because a stage win was our big priority.”

The Tour of Rwanda seems to be a critical event for Moroccan cycling. In 2009, the team’s domination was in part a response to criticism from the King of Morocco, as cycling is one of the most popular and subsidised sports in the country. It is understood that each rider earns arround 1000€ a month and has professional status even though the national squad is not registered as an UCI Continental team.

Thursday sees the Tour of Rwanda's conclusion around Kigali, with a predominatly flat 120.9km stage that is officially dedicated to the 1994 genocide victims, when 800,000 people died. The last stage may well herald Teklehaimanot’s first win in an African tour after his best African jersey at 2007 Tour of Ivory Coast.

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