Tour of Rwanda: Uwizeyimana claims stage 5

Rwanda has a fourth stage win at the Tour of Rwanda in 2017 after Bonaventure Uwizeyimana (Club Benediction) powered away in the finale of stage 5 for a maiden stage victory. Yacine Hamza (Algeria) and Edwin Avila (Illuminate) followed the 24-year-old home four seconds in arrears.

Race leader Joseph Areruya was sixth on the stage, also four seconds down on Uwizeyimana, and he carries his 38-second advantage over teammate Metkel Eyob into stage 6.

"I am so happy because this is my fifth Tour of Rwanda and it is my first win at the Tour of Rwanda," Uwizeyimana said after his visit to the podium.

The 2016 national champion jumped out the bunch in the final kilometre, using his power and local knowledge to hold off the peloton, which had split due to his pressure.

"I waited so long because I had one guy from my team in the breakaway. When they caught him at ten kilometres to go, I planned to go. I attacked with maybe 700 metres to go, I pulled very hard and then I won," Uwizeyimana said.

For Areruya, stage 5 was on paper a day for his rivals to test his grip on yellow. However, the challenges were avoided and the 21-year-old can now focus on stage 6 into the capital, and the treacherous Mur de Kigali that awaits.

"Today I don’t focus on winning stage as I want to keep the yellow jersey," said Areruya, who won stages 1 and 3 earlier in the week. "Maybe sometimes you try to win a stage and crash, if you crash maybe you go out of the race and lose the yellow jersey. "Tomorrow, it is a dangerous stage but it is a short stage and I have a good team."

How it unfolded

Rolling out of Nyamata for Rwamagana, stage 5 of the Tour of Rwanda was a day for opportunists and aggressors to enjoy ahead of the weekend's two GC stages. Nikodemus Holler (Bike Aid) took up the challenge. The German went clear to launch the first attack of the stage, and was joined by teammate Adne Van Engelen, Jean Damascene Ruberwa (Club Benediction) and Sébastien Fournet Fayard (Haute Savoie Auvergne Rhone Alpes).

Behind the leaders, the peloton was sitting at 35 seconds with a handful of riders trying to bridge across the gap. Sensing a break would be given clearance to ride, Cornelius Kipkemboi Kiplagat (Kenyan Riders Safaricom), Azzedine Lagab (Algeria), Amanueal Tsegay (Eritrea), Olivier Le Court De Billot (Mauritius) and Jean Claude Mfitumukiza (Les Amis Sportifs) bridged across to the two leaders.

In the peloton, Edwin Avila was dropped on the climb out of Nyamata and into Kigali as the bunch started to split. Passing back through Kigali, the race took several of the roads used in the prologue with the crowds again packing the roadside.

Entering Kigali, the breakaway was holding a 40-second advantage over the bunch. With the heavy rain initially favouring the move, the six-leaders extended the lead to over one minute when exiting the city several kilometres later.

Once out of Kigali, the peloton took the snaking roads to the third and final climb of the day and the most eastern stage finish of the race in 2017. GC contender Valens Ndayisenga (Tirol) launched an attack before the two-time winner was brought back into the peloton. His move assisted the peloton’s chase of the break, which saw its lead cut to just 25 seconds, and its size trimmed to three riders.

In Rwamagana, the hometown of Adrien Niyonshuti, the remaining escapees Van Engelen, Holler and Lagab started the circuit with a slender lead. The trio would quickly be swept up in the closing kilometres with the peloton reeling them in for a bunch finish.

In the slightly uphill sprint to the line, Uwizeyimana made his move to claim a fourth Rwandan stage win of the week, but for the GC men, it was a day to save the legs ahead of the decisive closing stages of the race in Kigali.

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