Date: Friday, 28 February 2025
Big party for Duarte Marivoet in the Tour du Rwanda. The 20-year-old Belgian from the UAE Team Emirates training team won the fifth stage in Rwanda on Friday. For Marivoet it is his very first victory as a pro.
Stage five of the Tour du Rwanda contained quite a bit of climbing, but the longest and toughest climbs were in the first part of the stage. The finale was spiced up with some shorter slopes. In the last fifteen kilometers, the riders first encountered a climb of almost three kilometers at 5.5 percent. Just before the finish, another bump of a good kilometer at a good seven percent awaited. There were still twelve riders within a minute of leader Joris Delbove (TotalEnergies), who had scored a double on Thursday.
From the climb through the Nyungwe National Park (8.7 km at 5.7%) – before the halfway point – the pace increased for the chasers. The lead of the attackers quickly diminished and the peloton thinned out just as quickly. An elite group of only seventeen riders formed behind the leaders. This included Delbove, his teammate Fabien Doubey (second in the classification), Oliver Mattheis (third), two-time stage winner Brady Gilmore (fourth) and Henok Mulubrhan (fifth). The big favourites for the final victory were therefore alert.
