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 Sunday 6 November 2005 |
| stage 11Sapone > Ouagadoudou - 136 km |
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| Mission accomplished |
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Jeremie Ouedraogo and his troops have done it – they kept the Tour du Faso yellow jersey, conquered last year by Abdul Wahad Sawadogo, on the shoulders of a local rider. Also winner of the points classification green jersey, Ouedraogo won the Tour ahead of his team captain Saidou Rouamba, who finished 11 seconds adrift and never attempted to play his own card. The only concern, at the start of the last stage, was to keep a close eye on Belgian Karel Pattyn, who was only 22 seconds behind overall, but it was another Belgian, Christof Marien, who finaly took the last stage after a two-man breakaway led with Cameroon’s Sadrac Teguimaha.
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Glad to finish
The problem at the start was rather simple – 22 seconds behind the yellow jersey overall, Belgium’s Karel Pattyn was Burkina’s number one public enemy in the last stage. Any sign of a move by the Belgian would immediately be countered by the whole local team, determined to repeat last year’s national triumph. Four kilometres after the start, the local riders started imposing a high tempo, leading the also-ran of this Tour, exhausted by the 1,289 kilometres covered so far, to relax and let the leaders ride their own race. While the majority of the bunch were content with just finishing, a group of 23 riders emerged, who took a 50 seconds lead at kilometre 16.
Two men on their way
As the head of the race reached Ouagadougou, and while some brave underdogs attempted to bridge the gap, the leading group still led the rest of the pack by 1:15. It was the time chosen by pink jersey Marien and Cameroon’s Teguimaha, at one time joined by Senegal’s Olvier Keita, to take advantage of Burkina’s watch of Pattyn and give it a try.
Third Belgian victory
In the 12 final laps in the streets of the capital, the two breakaways maintained a steady gap of between 40 seconds and a minute, the chasers looking indifferent. Nine kilometres from the finish, their lead was still of around 40 seconds while the main bunch was some five minutes behind. The two still kept a 30 seconds edge on the bell, which was enough for Marien to attack in the last stretch to hand Belgium their third stage victory in the Tour.
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African cycling sticks to tradition
Jeremie Ouedraogo did not allow himself to get carried away. In front of Ouagadougou’s presidential palace, he has just achieved a childhood dream – winning the biggest cycling Tour in Africa. Greeted by his fans, who out of tradition hand him money to express their joy, he hardly smiles anymore than in previous days. When the fans release him, his first words are, as every day since he took the lead, for his team: « They did a great job to help me keep the yellow jersey. Without them I’m nothing, in the tough stages they maintained a hell of a pace in the front to prevent any attacks. I owe them everything. »
Classic post-race talk? Not only.
Throughout the 11 stages, the race underlined the evidence of the extraordinary team spirit in the Burkina ranks. To defend the national cause was every rider’s priority. In the first stages, the team held tight to fend off Cameroon’s challenge. In Kaya, when Ouedraogo took the lead, three riders found themselves in exactly the same second and the points scored in the previous stages had to be taken into account. Jeremie Ouedrago was almost ashamed of taking the yellow jersey away from veteran Saidou Rouamba, a little like Italian Andrea Carea in the 1952 Tour de France, when he cried after stealing the garment at the expense of his hero, Fausto Coppi.
The team spirit in Burkina is not so remote from what it was for Italians in the 1950s. Here, the boss was on paper Saidou Rouamba, the Stallions team captain. He was on Jeremie’s heels, in the very same second in the overall standings. But he is the one who decided that the team should now focus on defending Jeremie’s lead. “he would have done exactly the same if the situation had been the other way round,” said “the old man” as his team-mates naturally call him.
Saidou’s attitude owes a lot to the cycling tradition he learnt as a young rider. In the mid-eighties, the champions were called Tiega Tasambedo, Joseph Legouri or Sana Ilboudo. When the young kid from Kombissir decided to ride a bike, pushed by his older brother, the best riders were battling it out on tje « Route du Sohurou », the race that was to become the Tour du Faso. In 1990, and after only three years of practice, the young Rouamba won the race’s green jersey. The year after, he conquered the yellow. His blistering rise to the top delighted his elders: “They were extremely happy to see me take over, the same as Jeremie and the others are trying to do better than me “. As simple as that.
Jeremie takes the baton and has not enough words to thank his captain: “He was my idol when I started to ride a bike and as a result, it’s very special to find myself in front of him. He taught me evrything I know. There is so much respect between us.” Gueswende Sawadogo, one of the most dedicated team-mates, who took strong headwinds without a sigh for the whole of the race, shares the pleasure of victory: “The main thing was to keep the yellow jersey in Burkina.” The respect for Saidou goes far beyond the Burkina camp. Cameroon, the leading rivals, have nothing but praise for the « old man »: “I’ve known Saidou a long time and the whole bunch respect him. At the start of the Tour, there were problems between his riders and ours – a row that ended in punch-ups -, I went to see him and he solved the problem right away. He has a mentality that all riders admire. It’s cycling the African way and we’re all trying to follow his example, » said Pascal Bouba.
Respect is the word most frequently used to evoke Rouamba. And it is not contrived. At the finish, Saidou Rouamba finished 11 seconds behind Jeremie Ouedraogo and was as happy as if he had won himself. On Monday, he will return to the mechanic workshop he opened with his brother. And after a week’s rest, he will return to train with rest of the guys.
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