Eritrean Nahom Zeray is the winner of Tour du Rwanda 2025 Stage 6, before Milan Donie and Henok Mulubrhan.
Nahom Zeray holds off young Belgian Milan Donie in Tour du Rwanda mountain stage
Saturday, March 1, 2025 at 1:22 PM
fot. Tour du Rwanda
Nahom Zeray has won the sixth stage of the Tour du Rwanda. The rider from Eritrea defeated Milan Donie and Henok Mulubrhan in a tough stage. Fabien Doubey is the new leader in the general classification. The Tour du Rwanda will conclude on Sunday.
The sixth stage of the African stage race started in Nyanza. The riders then had to cover 131.5 kilometers to finish in Kigali. There, the finish line was drawn on a climb of five kilometers. The average gradient was not too high at 6.8%, but the last kilometer had an average of 9.3%.
It seemed for a long time that the early escapees would fight for the victory, but with a good kilometer to go they were caught by the peloton. From that peloton Nahom Zeray surprisingly climbed to victory. He was able to hold off the upcoming Milan Donie, a young Belgian from Lotto Development, and
Henok Mulubrhan . Fabien Doubey came fourth and is thus the new leader.
Tour du Rwanda (2.1)
Stage 6 | Nyanza - Kigali (131.5km)
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Tour du Rwanda 2025: Nahom Zeray with 1st professional victory
Nahom Zeray won the 6th stage of the Tour du Rwanda, finishing on Canal Olympia. The Eritrean attacked on the final climb and crossed the finish line alone. Fabien Doubey is once again the leader of the 17th edition.
On the eve of the end of the Tour du Rwanda, the cyclists had to complete a stage from Nyanza to the capital of Rwanda β Kigali. Along the way, the cyclists had to overcome several smaller climbs, but the most important ones were those in the capitals of the metropolises β first, not marked as a mountain premium, but 7.7 km long with an average gradient of 4%, and then the final Canal Olympia, i.e. 5 kilometers with an average gradient of 6.9%.
Moritz Kretschy (Israel-Premier Tech) and Enea Sambinello (UAE Team Emirates Gen Z) did not show up for today's stage. In view of this, only 64 cyclists started the competition, and 7 of them took part in the day's break - Moise Mugisha , Didier Munyaneza and Mike Uwiduhaye (Rwanda National Team), Samuel Niyonkuru (Team Amani), Shemu Nsengiyumva and Shafik Mugalu (Java - Inovotec Pro Team) and Ryno Schutte (South Africa National Team). The group cooperated harmoniously, and Shemu Nsengiyumva won valuable points in the mountain climbs, strengthening his lead in the classification of the best climbers.
The breakaway reached a maximum advantage of 5 minutes, and with time, among others, the Eritreans began to chase the skirmishers. However, the work in the peloton was not very strong and 20 kilometers before the finish line, the escapees, among whom Didier Munyaneza and Shafik Mugalu were already missing, still had a reserve of over 3 minutes.
The breakaway reached the foot of the final climb to Canal Olympia (5 km; 6.9%) with an advantage of almost 2 minutes. This certainly fueled the hopes of the hosts, who, since the Tour du Rwanda became a first-class race in 2019, have only been able to celebrate the victory of their rider once β in 2022, Moise Mugisha, who is also present in today's breakaway, won at the top of Canal Olympia. The Rwandan fought hard this time too, with only Samuel Niyonkuru and Ryno Schutte holding out . At the back, the TotalEnergies riders were working hard, quickly making up for the losses to the skirmishers.
1400 meters before the finish line, Nahom Zeray (Eritrean National Team) attacked from the peloton . The 22-year-old quickly passed Samuel Niyonkuru and Ryno Schutte, from whom Moise Mugisha jumped away. The Eritrean caught up with and left behind the Rwandan at the end of the climb, and a moment later took the stage win. Milan Donie (Lotto Development Team) and Henok Mulubrhan (Eritrean National Team) crossed the finish line 10 seconds after him, while Fabien Doubey (TotalEnergies) lost 4 seconds more, who returned to the lead in the general classification after today's stage.
fot. Tour du Rwanda
