Young Briton Joseph Blackmore, who rides for the Israel-Premier Tech team, won the famous stage of the Tour du Rwanda that reached the summit of Mount Kigali.
He took advantage of the opportunity to take the new yellow jersey from William Lecerf of the Soudal-Quickstep team. The young Belgian lost 57 seconds on the final slopes and thus his domination of the race. The classification was completely turned upside down today with this very fast and very nervous stage, in which no breakaway was able to take a lead of more than 45 seconds.
The race for the overall classification of this 16th Tour du Rwanda is well underway ahead of the final weekend with five riders within a minute of each other in the general classification, Joseph Blackmore in the lead followed in order by Kazakh rider Ikhan Dostiyev (Astana) at 11 seconds, Colombian Jhonatan Restrepo (Polti-Kometa) at 13″, Belgian William Lecerf (Soudal-Quickstep) at 55″ and another Colombian German Gomez (Polti-Kometa). The TotalEnergies team, which was on the attack throughout the stage with Pierre Latour and Fabien Doubey, is not rewarded for its efforts, with the former finishing 18th at 1’45” and the latter 12th at 57″. But Fabien Doubey was still on the lookout, in 6th place 1’04” behind the yellow jersey.
All these leaders will be watching each other tomorrow on a slightly calmer stage before an uphill finish and perhaps waiting for the final day in the streets of Kigali on part of the 2025 world championships circuit, where the riders will once again find Mount Kigali.
Panorama
