Joseph Rosskopf wins third stage as also snatch leader jersey in Tour of Rwanda 2011
Type 1 – Sanofi team’s Joseph Rosskopf powered to beat his teammate Kiel Reijnen, who wins the three stage of Tour of Rwanda. Rosskopf proved fastest and took a lead in third stage and also snatched overall leader’s yellow jersey in the hilly course between
Kigali and Gisenyi.
In the last 33 kilometres, the American quickly joined the group of six breakaway cyclists including his leader Reijnen and Adrian Niyonshuti (MTN Qhubeka), Kbrom Giday (Ethiopia National Team).
He launched an attack on the final climb and increased his pace by easily caught the two Rwanda Karisimbi cyclists, Gasore Hategeka and Abraham Ruhumuriza while the duo had formed an early breakaway lead.
The African squads displayed superior performance in the mountain course, first with Ethiopian riders who gain a small lead with six riders. After 50 kilometres to go, Emmanuel Rudahunga (Rwanda Karisimbi) rode alone and gained an advantage of 3 minutes
and 29 seconds over the other cyclists.
However, his two teammates Hategeka and Ruhumuriza launched an attack and able to reach three minutes lead but all of them were caught by Rosskopf in the final kilometres.
Rosskopf launch an attacked and crossed the final line with a timing of 4 hours, 17 minutes and 51 seconds to cover the distance of 150 kilometres. Hategeka was in second place with 47 seconds and Ruhumuriza finished third with 1 minute down to American.
The previous race leader’s Reijnen failed to hold his lead and grabbed fourth place with a difference of 3 minutes and 4 seconds. Kbrom Giday (Ethiopia National) showed less effort and finished 13th place with a difference of 3 minutes and 10 seconds.
MTN Qhubeka Adrien Niyonshuti showed his good mountain tendency and took the overall mountain standing with 60 points while Gasore Hategeka (Rwanda Karisimbi), 37 points.
Rosskopf also took overall standing with the timing of 7 hours, 39 minutes and 33 seconds while Hategeka was in runner-up’s spot with 1 minute and 5 seconds adrift ahead of Abraham Ruhumuriza, 1 minute and 38 seconds.
The next stage will run in Gisenyi and finish in Gitarama and all the cyclists will cover the distance of 140 kilometres.
aadmin is a contributor at SportQA. We are committed to providing well-researched, accurate, and valuable content to our readers.