April 24, 2024

Merhawi Kudus of Eritrea wins 2019 Tour du Rwanda

Mamo Gebrehiwot March 3, 2019
Merhawi Kudus of Eritrea is the 2019 Tour du Rwanda Champion (photo: Tour du Rwanda)

As anticipated, it was an Astana Pro team affair, the only World Tour team that participated at the inaugural edition of Tour du Rwanda with a double swoop on the final of the eight-day event as Eritrean Merhawi Kudus emerged the overall winner while his teammate Rodrigo Contreras Pinzon clinched a stage win.

Despite a very frustrating penultimate stage performance from the Eritrean 25-year old star in which he crashed and lost 10 seconds on his lead on the general classification, he managed to keep his composure during the gruesome 61.7km which had a total of three laps on the famous cobbled wall of Kigali and managed to finish ahead of his closest contender Taaramae Rein from Direct Energie by 10 seconds.

Kudus who claimed the yellow jersey after his stage two; Kigali-Huye before stretching the lead during stage three; Huye-Rubavu retained until the final day having used 12h12’37” while Taaramae came second with 24h12’47” while Matteo Badilatti of Israel Cycling Academy took the third place with 24h12’55”.

Team classification

RANK TEAM TIMES  GAP
1 ERYTHREE 72H49’16”  
2 Interpro Cycling Academy 72H52’09”  02’53”
3 Astana Pro Team 72H55’49”  06’33”
4 Israel Cycling Academy 72H59’39”  10’23”
5 Delko Marseille Provence 73H32’18”  43’02”
6 Benediction Excel Energy 73H35’39”  46’23”
7 Kenya 73H40’32”  51’16”
8 Equipe de France Espoirs 73H51’22”  01H02’06”
9 Direct Energie 73H58’37”  01H09’21”
10 Dimension Data For Qhubeka Continental Team 74H09’24”  01H20’08”

Individual Classification

RANK RIDER RIDER NO. TEAM TIMES
1 Merhawi KUDUS 21 Astana Pro Team 24H12’37”
2 Rein TAARAMAE 41 Direct Energie 24H12’47”
3 Matteo BADILATTI 73 Israel Cycling Academy 24H12’55”
4 Hernan Ricardo AGUIREE CAIPA 111 Interpro Cycling Academy 24H13’08”
5 Sirak TESFOM 31 ERYTHREE 24H16’41”
6 David LOZANO RIBA 81 Team Novo Nordisk 24H17’27”
7 Yakob DEBESAY ABREHAM 33 ERYTHREE 24H19’28”
8 Suleiman KANGANGI 151 Kenya 24H19’42”
9 Joseph ARERUYA 51 Delko Marseille Provence 24H19’47”
10 Rodrigo CONTRERAS PINZON 23 Astana Pro Team 24H19’48”
 
Read more at: Tour du Rwanda
 
 
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