Considered the most demanding stage of the Tour, Saturday’s 155km Stage 7 crossed nearly half the country and included three KOMs totalling 2,500m of climbing. Eritrean national Kudus Merhawi missed the winning breakaway, and his yellow jersey, by over six minutes to Lill, who also won the stage’s gruelling uphill finish to the Regional Stadium in Kigali.
Today began with an immediate 29km climb out of the lakeshore city of Gisenye (also called Rubavu), on the Congo border. While rebel insurgents fought the DRC Army just miles from our race hotel and we watched refugees flee across the border into Rwanda, the fighting in the peloton began in earnest after the neutral rollout and continued well into the three KOMs of the day.
Merhawi however, missed the early break, and later bridge attempts. While himself and a number of Ethiopian riders eventually organized and attacked a chase out of the dozen riders left in the main group, it wasn’t nearly enough to reel in the six-man breakaway that included Lill.
Canadian and Garneau-Québecor rider Bruno Langlois, however, was one of the few to bridge across to this early winning move and work with Lill and his teammate Dylan Girdlestone. Langlois, well down on GC, was looking for his second stage win before flying home to Quebec on Monday. He attacked the break with 20km, and then 1km, to go, but it wasn’t enough to hold off Lill and Girdlestone.
Langlois finished sixth today. Teammates Tim Abercrombie and Jean-François Racine were further back in the decimated field, while I ended up popped from the chasers on the final KOM and crawled in ahead of the groupetto. Rémi Pelletier-Roy pulled out of the Tour two stages ago, having been dealt a final blow by his intestinal / stomach illness.
Sunday’s 103km Stage 8 takes us near, and through, the streets of Kigali. Daren Lill will likely defend his 1:39 lead over second place GC rider and Ethiopian Getachew Atsbha. The stage may also hold some last minute surprises from the Canadians.
Full results HERE.