Craven wins from 3-man break

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The Tour of Rwanda's stage 4 will be a legendary day in the history of Rwandan cycling as the national champion Adrien Niyonshuti took over the lead of his home Tour from Tesfai Teklit of the formidable Eritrean team. Namibian all-rounder Dan Craven (UCI Continental Center) won the 148.9km stage which featured five first category climbs and torrential rain at the finish. Craven bested his two breakaway companions Teweldemedhin Natnael Berhane (Eritrea) and Adrien Niyonshuti (Rwanda) at the finish for the victory.

Despite the weather a massive crowd attended the finish in Gisenyi, on the Congolese border, close to the national park known for its gorillas and volcanoes. The spectators had plenty to celebrate as the 23-year-old Niyonshuti, a professional with the South African MTN team, donned the leader's jersey.

The stage started aggressively right from the start in Kigali as a breakaway formed after only one kilometre of racing on a long ascent. The breakaway included Nicodem Habiyambere and Gasore Hategeka (Rwanda), three teammates of race leader Tesfai Teklit: Teweldemedhin Natnael Berhane, Frekalsi Debresai and Meron Russom (Eritrea), Gabriel Combrinck (South Africa), Abdelati Saadoune (Morocco), John Njoroge (Kenya) plus UCI Continental Center teammates Dan Craven and Tsgabu Grmay who were the most active throughout the stage.

The UCI Continental Center squad had decided to launch a big attack that day and they succeeded. The team's coach, Jean-Pierre Van Zyl, explained: "We wanted to make the race difficult, to take time on the general classification, support Grmay who was 10th overall and help [Estifanos] Gebresilassie, who was 5th, and could take advantage later if the Eritrean riders grew tired chasing the breakaway."

In August, Ethiopia's Grmay and Gebresilassie joined the UCI Continental Center team based in Augu, near Johannesburg, South Africa. Despite slight builds, the two U23 talents have big engines as Grmay, 62kg, tested for 25 minutes at 360 watts while Gebresilassie, 57kg, rode for 25 minutes at 350 watts.

"They couldn't manage to follow a straight line on the road at the beginning but they improved a lot," Van Zyl said. "Both also gained 80 watts in four months!" Ethiopian riders are the new outside contenders of the Tour of Rwanda, their first international race.

The breakaway's lead extended to 4:25 at kilometre 60 which put Meron Russom into the virtual yellow jersey while Natnael Berhane sprinted at the top of the climbs to win the polka-dot jersey.

Three riders were dropped from the break due to crashes: Njoroge, Hategeka and Habiyambere. It was particularly unfortunate for Hategeka who was highly motivated to be in front for the stage finish in his hometown.

The Rwandan team took comfort with the performance of their leader Adrien Niyonshuti who attacked the peloton at 60km to go.

"I saw nobody was following me so I extended my effort," Niyonshuti said. After a 10km solo effort, the Rwandan joined the breakaway which soon exploded on the challenging terrain. With 30km remaining in the stage only Niyonshuti, Berhane and Craven remained at the head of the race.

With five kilometres to go, Craven, a professional for Rapha Condor professional and a former Africa Continental Champion, attacked as he knew the route having spent two weeks training in the area with the Rwanda team. The 27-year-old from Namibia held off his two breakaway companions to win by two seconds.

"That's really the cycling I like, not because of the victory but the breakaway, the epic day, the team work," said Craven, who captured his last UCI success in May, in Ireland's FDB Insurance Ras.

Craven moves to third overall in the Tour of Rwanda, 37 seconds behind Niyonshuti. Eritrea is still dominating the general classification with Natnael Berhane (2nd at 10 seconds), Teklit (4th at 42 seconds), Teklehaimanot (5th at 1:17) and Russom (7th at 1:44).

On Saturday, stage 5 will cover the same route at today's stage but in the opposite direction. The peloton will immediately face a climb nearly 30km long which should shatter the field.