Zorgho, Burkinabè Paul Daumont won the 5th stage of the Tour international du Faso, run Tuesday between Tenkodogo and Zorgho (75.4km) and consolidates his yellow leader's jersey with a 16-second lead on his challenger , the Belgian Wouters Rutger, we noted on site.
This 5th stage , the shortest of the competition, was fiercely contested with two intermediate sprints. The contenders for the yellow jersey set a hellish pace, relegating the less informed to the background.
Paul Daumont, who was only 3 seconds ahead of his Belgian runner-up, began looking for bonuses. He tames Koupéla (44km) at the first hot point and gains 3 seconds on his clock. From then on the Moroccans, the Cameroonians and the Belgians doubled their pace and were at almost 50km/h.
It was the Cameroonian Sadikou Jérémie Kossoko who won the 2 nd and last intermediate sprint from Sapaga at kilometer 53. The Ivorian Abou Sanogo, who had been shy until then, decided to mark Daumont and Ed-Doghmy from Morocco, without attacking, preferring to keep his strength for the final sprint.
It was almost 100m from the finish line that Paul Daumont blasted the group with a powerful pedal stroke to drop off his competitors. He crossed the line in 1h33mn27sec, an average speed of 48.410km/h ahead of the Ivorian Abou Sanogo and the Moroccan Achraf Ed-Doghmy.
In addition to the lead of 16 seconds over his direct opponent, the Belgian Wouters Rutger, Paul Daumont seizes the three precious jerseys of the competition: the yellow of the time classification, the green of the points classification and the pink of the intermediate sprints.
The Moroccan Achraf Ed-Doghmy is on the lookout with a delay of 56 seconds on the yellow jersey while the Ivorian takes the lead with 1mn11 seconds from the yellow tunic.
Paul Daumont's stage victory in Zorgho is Burkina Faso's 2nd in history, 23 years after that of Amado Pafadnam in 2000. The national A team of Burkina Faso also won there, but against the team watch in 1991.
The 6th Ouagadougou -Koudougou stage, 120,600 km long, will be run tomorrow, Wednesday, with two intermediate sprints in Kokologo and Sabou.
Source: Burkina Information Agency