Natnael Berhane takes stage and overall lead

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The Eritrean national team is still leading the Tour of Rwanda overall with two stages to go albeit with a different rider, Teweldemedhin Natnael Berhane. He removed his colleague Tesfai Teklit of the race leadership on Tuesday and offered further evidence of the nation’s growing hegemony in African cycling.

The new yellow jersey also won the stage between Kibuye and the former Rwandan capital of Butare. Natnael crossed the line just millimetres ahead of his team-mate Daniel Teklehaimanot, stage 1 winner Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg (South Africa) and Adil Jelloul (Morocco). Indeed, the sprint was so close than the commissaires had to consult the photofinish to confirm the winner.

At 155.8 kilometres, stage 7 was the last hilly day of the race and probably the last opportunity for the leaders to try their luck. Right after the flag was dropped, seven riders went off the front: Sollomon Bittew Shiferaw, Tsgabu Gebremaryam (UCI Continental Centre), Frekalsi Debesai (Eritrea), Tarik Chaoufi (Morroco), Gabriel Combrinck (South Africa), Evert Verbist (Avia Flanders) and Samuel Mwangi (Kenya).

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27km later a second group joined the breakaway with all the race stars: national champion Adrien Niyonshuti (Rwanda), African Continental Champion Daniel Teklehaimanot and Teweldemedhin Natnael Berhane (Eritrea), Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg (South Africa), Adil Jelloul (Morocco) and Estifanos Gebresilassie (UCI Continental Centre).

Niyonshuti, who was leading the race two days previously, suffered misfortune at the 34km mark, when he punctured on a descent and lost around 45 seconds. As a result of that mishap, he dropped from 2nd to 7th in the general classification. An the head of the race, the escapees worked together until the last 40km, when the Moroccans Jelloul and Chaoufi launched vicious attacks. Teklehaimanot marshaled their efforts and stayed in his domestique role until the finish, expertly supporting Natnael.

The Eritrean squad explained they were pleased to put Natnael into the yellow jersey as he is the youngest member of the roster, aged just nineteen. "I had no problem with riding for him," Teklehaimanot said.

Natnael, who found "the race very hard," was until now considered more of a sprinter. At the Tour of Eritrea in May, he took five stages as well as the yellow, green and U23 jerseys. He looks set to ride in Europe next season as part of the UCI Centre based in Aigle, Switzerland. He would be the second Eritrean to experience this "World cycling academy" after Teklehaimanot.

In the general classification, Natnael holds a 45-second lead over Teklehaimanot and has 58 seconds to spare over Janse Van Rensburg.

Stage 8, more or less flat, will conclude with the same finish as stage 5, near the regional stadium, a perfect place for puncheurs to take a few seconds. The Eritreans seem unbeatable, as they have done since the begining of the race, but some rival teams think their domination is also something of an Achilles heel.

Mohammed Bilal, coach of the Morrocan squad, is among those looking to take advantage: "Eritrea will have a difficult race as they currently have got almost all the jerseys. Everybody will fight to take one. We can't say they have already won. We tried today and we'll insist tomorrow again. Jelloul gained two places overall. He's now fourth at 1:24 but he still can jump onto the podium."

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