Rain, Cobblestones and Pure Emotions - Jean Bosco Moves up in GC

We already told a lot the last days about the incredible and enthusiastic atmosphere during this edition of Tour du Rwanda. But what happened today at the "wall of Kigali" was again much more we could ever expect.

A nation. A history. Surely not the easiest history, but what this generation of Rwandan's showed as emotion today, was much more we can even describe with words. Effusive, frenetic, even rollicking are the words we could try to describe this atmosphere today with and the fans cheered the riders on the "wall of Kigali" - an incredibly steep hill of 17% in the middle of Rwanda's capital.
Pictures that you never would expect in Germany or Europe - the so called "traditional cycling countries". But those pictures are real. The pictures in the same way as all the emotions. Not just people standing there watching an event that just passes by - no, not at all. These people are fans, enthusiastic and real fans of the sport - the sport of cycling and their heroes - the riders.
"After I worked a lot today I was in one of the last groups to save my energy for tomorrow but when I saw these people cheering us that way, I gave all I had again to climb this hill. I just felt I owe it to those people who came here, waited so long and now deserve that everybody gives the same as they did - incredible! I would love to see such pictures in Germany again", Matthias Schnapka explained after the race - obviously still flashed from such a lot emotion today.

But what happened in front of the race? Exactly one year ago it was Jean Bosco Nsengimana who won at the same place in solitude and secured the overall win of Tour du Rwanda 2015. And now? This year the dominator is Valens Ndayisenga. The man from Team Dimension Data - also Rwandan (and overall winner 2014) - climbed with an incredible performance and won the stage in front of his team mate Metkel Eyob from Eritrea.
Jean-Bosco Nsengimana finished in 8th place just 20 seconds down on Valens, and moved 1 place up in GC and now ranks 4th overall classification.
Just one more stage to go in Kigali tomorrow on a quite hard circuit race and the Tour du Rwanda 2016 will be in the books again. We are sure that the atmosphere will be great again!

Nsengimana Still in Reach - Tour du Rwanda

While Meron Amanuel took with his 7th place today another Top Ten result for STRADALLI - BIKE AID, the Rwandan Jean-Bosco Nsengimana stays in reach for the GC with just 1:27 down on leader Valens Ndayisenga

It is called the "country of the thousand hills" and that has a reason. Every day the guys have to fight with endless kilometers of uphill roads and suffer a lot on Rwanda's roads. While the African riders from Rwanda and Eritrea dictate the tempo in the hills, the European riders have to work very hard to follow them.

STRADALLI - BIKE AID rider Jean-Bosco Nsengimana knows the roads very well and is every day in the top of the race, so he currently ranks 4th in the GC with just 1.27 minute down on Valens Ndayisenga - also from Rwanda. The upcoming days will bring dramatic fight for the GC where Jean-Bosco will definitely have a word to say until the race finishes on Kigali's roads on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Meron Amanuel could show an impressive final today and sprint to a good 7th place when Rwandan rider Joseph Areruya took the stage win.

Meron Amanuel takes lead in KOM classification - Tour du Rwanda 1st stage

On today's first stage of Tour du Rwanda, Meron Amanuel from STRADALLI - BIKE AID took the lead in climbers classification while Jean-Bosco Nsengimana now ranks on 3rd in GC with 1 second behind.

After 96,4 hilly kilometers from Kigali to Ngoma, the Canadian Guillaume Boivin from Cycling Academy Team won the final sprint out of a 19 man front group that managed to break away 30 kilometers from the finish. Also in this group, STRADALLI - BIKE AID leader Jean - Bosco Nsengimana who came in with the same time and now sits on 3rd place overall with just 1 second down.
"Now it is a perfect situation for us and Bosco, as the gap is just 1 second and the responsibility to control the race is on the Rwandan team, so we can be relaxed and wait for the right time", Yves Beau (Sporting Director of STRADALLI - BIKE AID) said.

The Eritrean Meron Amanuel won the only KOM of the day and overtook the leaders jersey that he will wear on tomorrow's second stage.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Stradalli - Bike Aid Team to win Tour du Rwanda

Germany-based Stradalli–Bike Aid are very optimistic of becoming the second UCI Continental team to win Tour du Rwanda. Stradalli - Bike Aid pro cycling teams charge will be led by their Rwandan reigning champion Jean Bosco Nsengimana.

The 8th edition of the UCI-Africa Tour 2.2 race, slated for November 13-20, has been dominated by national teams since 2009 when it became part of the UCI Africa Tour, with United States-based Team Type 1–Sanofi the only UCI Continental team to have won it, back in 2011.

However, Stradalli- Bike Aid pro cycling which is among the four UCI Continental teams that will grace this year’s seven-stage showpiece, are confident that their star man, Nsengimana, who joined the club in June, can win the Tour for the second year in a row, provided he gets the support he needs from his teammates.

“For the Tour of Rwanda 2016, the goals of the team Stradalli- Bikeaid have a little bit changed; last year, we went for stage wins with Mekseb Debesay ( now world tour racer ) and Meron Amanuel. But this year, we have last year’s overall winner in our ranks and we will give him all the support we can for him to win the Tour again,” says the team manager.

"We hope that we can support Nsengimana the best way, the goals are set and the ambition is high. Seven hard days during the end of Tour du Rwanda will show us what we really can do.”

The 22-year old Nsengimana is currently training in Rwanda at Africa Rising Cycling Centre in Musanze District, along with the 15 local riders, who will represent Rwanda.

Among other competitors that will ride along Nsengimana includes Eritrean Meron Amanuel Mengstab (winner stage 2 and 6 of Tour du Rwanda 2012), Tanzanian Richard Laizer, Damien Garcia pro racer from France and Mathias Schnapka from Germany.

 Tour du Rwanda is very important for team Stradalli- bikeaid not only because we have Nsengimana, who can win it, but also because of the very special atmosphere and the huge enthusiasm by the locals and African racing overall 

This year’s edition will attract over 85 riders under 17 teams from different parts of the world. These include eight African national teams, four UCI continental teams, and five regional teams or clubs.

8 African national teams:

• Team Rwanda
• National Team of Kenya
• National Team of Cameroon
• National Team of South Africa
• National Team of Ethiopia
• National Team of Eritrea
• National Team of Egypt
• National Team of Algeria

4 UCI Continental Teams:

• Dimension Data For Qhubeka (South-Africa)
• Kenyan Riders Downunder (Kenya)
• Cycling Academy Team (Israel)
• Stradalli - Bike Aid (Germany)

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