Dutch wins 7th stage

Stage 7
Kigali-Nyagatare (153km)
1)  O.Dirk (NED)
4:00:9
2)E.Tavares (FRA)
4:00:9
3)  I.Ayoune (MOR) 4:00:9
4) A.Jelloul (MOR)
4:04:5
5)  D.Tekou (CMR) 4:04:19
12) N.Byusukenge
(RWA) 4:04:19
18) A.Ruhumuriza (RWA) 4:04:19
21) A.Niyonshuti (RWA) 4:04:19

Today
Stage 8(Nyagatare-Kigali)-153km

A good ride today will all but seal a third spot finish for Rwanda’s top cyclist Adrien Niyonshuti in this year’s Tour of Rwanda.

Today, riders return to Kigali from Nyagatare covering 153km. Despite finishing 21st in yesterday’s 7th stage, Niyonshuti, who is riding for Karisimbi is still three minutes and 27 seconds clear of stage three winner Mohammed Erragragui of Morocco.

Yesterday, it had to take micro-seconds to up stage the Moroccans from claiming what would have been a sixth stage win in seven attempts.

Oude Ophuis Dirk of the Global Cycling club of Holland clinched the second last stage after using 4 hours and 9 seconds.

He was closely followed by Tavares Edgar of the Castel Sarrasin cycling club of France and Morocco’s Ismail Ayounne who used the same time to finish second and third respectively.

Niyonshuti, 22 reasoned that finishing 21st was a strategic move from his team ‘Karisimbi’.

"The idea was to push my team mates into finishing in the top positions because we know that we have a good chance of finishing second in the team category,”
‘We don’t want to miss out on the Euros 400 that has been reserved for the second team,” Niyonshuti added.

Ministry of Sport and Culture, MTN, Rwanda Development Board (RDB), OCIR-THE, Fina bank, Western Union, Soras and CNLG are some of the sponsors of this year’s Tour of Rwanda.

General Classification

1) A.Jelloul       (MOR) 25:25:43
2) S.Abdelaati (MOR) 25:28:58
3) A.Niyonshuti (RWA) 25:33:20
4) M.Erragragui (MOR) 25:36:47
5) A.Ruhumuriza (RWA) 25:39:16

Ends