Mission Impossible

Top Five SILVA RAMOS Kleber; Real Cycling Team (BRA)CORREIA DINIZ Alex; Real Cycling TeamGUAMA DE LA CRUZ Bayron; Team Ecuador Ciclismo (ECU)SIMON Edgardo; Real Cycling Team (ARG)NARDIN Thiago São Francisco; Saude/Powerade (BRA)How Rwandans finished46 Emmanuel Rudahunga48 Abraham Ruhumuriza53 Hadi Janvier64 Nathan ByukusengeGeneral classificationReal Cycling Team-ARGEPM-UNE/Colombia EPMSão Francisco-Saude-PoweradeClube DataRo de Ciclismo/Foz do Iguaçu DATPetroli Firenze-Cycling Team/Italia PFCTeam Type 1 - Sanofi/(USA TT1Funvic/Pindamonhangaba (FUN)Team Ecuador Ciclismo (ECU)Jamis Sutter Home/USA JSHVelo/Seme Rio Claro VEL15 Team Rwanda Cycling The mission was to finish inside the top ten but Team Rwanda cycling team could only manage 15th position out of 16 teams that participated in this year’s Tour of Rio de Janeiro, which ended on Sunday in Brazil.In the build-up to the race, Team Rwanda head coach Jonathan Boyer and officials of Rwanda Cycling Federation had set themselves a higher target than last year’s 14th place finishing but when the time came to deliver, things could not be worse.In the wake of the team’s dismal performance when the country expected more, the national cycling federation president Aimable Bayingana yesterday said that it was not because the riders are not good enough but rather because the opponents were just too good.“Yes we failed to finish in top ten, that was our target and we genuinely believed we could achieve it but, unlike last year, this year’s race attracted worldwide top teams like Real Cycling Team (Argentina) and Colombia’s EPM, among others, which were too good for our guys to match under difficult conditions,” Bayingana told Times Sport. The team was composed of six elite riders namely; team Captain Nathan Byukusenge, Abraham Ruhumuriza, Nicodem Habiyambere, Emmanuel Rudahunga, Hadi Janvier and Joseph Biziyaremye, but Habiyambere and Biziyaremye failed to finish the race after being involved in separate accidents.Rudahunga was Rwanda’s best finisher in the 46th position with team captain Nathan Byukusenge finishing 64th.After the Tour of Rio, Team Rwanda is turning focus on the Tour de Faso and African Continental championship slated to take place in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in November before returning for the Tour of Rwanda slated for November 18-25.Past winners since 20022012- Kleber Da Silva Ramos (Bra)2011- Suarez Suarez Juan Pablo (Col)2010- Alberto Tomas (Ita)2007- Medici Matias (Arg)2004- May Marcio (Bra)2003- Gutierrez Garcia Herbert (Col)2002- May Marcio (Bra)

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Mission Impossible