Date: Sunday, 27 February 2022
Tesfatsion, champion of the Tour of Rwanda
The Eritrean Natnael Tesfatsion (Drone Hopper - Androni Giocattoli) has been proclaimed the final winner of the 14th edition of the Tour of Rwanda after finishing the eighth and last stage, which started and finished in the capital, Kigali, over 75.3 km, in which the Rwandan Moise Mugisha (ProTouch) won in a sprint between three.
Tesfatsion (Asmara, 22 years old), achieved his second absolute victory in the Rwandan round, since in 2020 he took the yellow jersey. On this occasion, without stage wins, he endured in the complicated last day marked with 7 heights and was able to maintain the leadership that allows him to succeed the Spanish Cristian Rodríguez, winner in 2021, in the record.
The stage victory was awarded to the local cyclist Moise Mugisha (ProTouch), 25 years old, faster in a reduced sprint than the French Sandy Dujardin and Alexandre Geniez (Total Energies), the latter deprived of the triplet by the African cyclist, who He crossed the finish line with a time of 2h.08.16. Seventh crossed the Spanish Óscar Pelegrí (Burgos BH), at 1.52, and tenth, at 1.53 minutes, Tesfatsion , already as the final winner of the round.
The Eritrean cyclist, again on top of the podium, was joined in the places of honor by the Ukrainian Anatoliy Budyak (Terengganu Polygon) and the Irishman Jesse Ewart (Bike Aid), second and third respectively in the general classification.
The stage began with the presence of the country's president, Paul Kagame , at the exit, and then the battle took place from start to finish on a short route, but not an easy one, with 1,800 meters of unevenness and 7 climbs on a circuit that had to do 3 laps to finish on a slope.
In the escape of the day were the aforementioned protagonists, Dujardin and Geniez (Team TotalEnergies), Moise Mugisha (ProTouch), Edo Goldstein (Israel-Premier Tech) and the Spanish from Burgos BH Mario Aparicio.
In the end, the Arandino cyclist gave in and it seemed that Dujardin and Mugisha were going to dispute the stage between the two, but Geniez came back to join the party. Two Frenchmen from the same team against the African, but the Rwandan beat both of them and celebrated in style.
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