In short
| Stage winner | Abdelati SAADOUNE |
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Abdelati SAADOUNE |
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Abdelati SAADOUNE |
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Julien GONNET |
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Wahab SAWADOGO A. |
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Wahab SAWADOGO A. |
| » Jerseys' description | |
All classifications
| Stage |
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• Individual time |
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| Overall |
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• Individual time • Individual points • Best team |
Stage by stage
| 1 | Wednesday 25 October | 91 km |
| Ouagadougou > Manga | ||
| 2 | Thursday 26 October | 121 km |
| Manga > (Pô) > Tiébélé | ||
| 3 | Friday 27 October | 140 km |
| Pô > Ouagadougou | ||
| 4 | Saturday 28 October | 129 km |
| Boussé > Ouahigouya | ||
| 5 | Sunday 29 October | 150 km |
| Yako > Ziniaré | ||
| 6 | Tuesday 31 October | 136 km |
| Kokologo > Boromo | ||
| 7 | Wednesday 1 November | 83.5 km |
| Bobo Dioulasso > Banfora | ||
| 8 | Thursday 2 November | 121 km |
| Bobo Dioulasso > Bobo Dioulasso | ||
| 9 | Friday 3 November | 115 km |
| Boromo > (Sabou) > Koudougou | ||
| 10 | Saturday 4 November | 96 km |
| Linoghin > Pouytenga | ||
| 11 | Sunday 5 November | 88 km |
| Loumbila (Barrage) > Ouagadougou | ||
| Total | 1270.5 km | |
The race
Thursday 26 October 2006| stage 2 | Manga > (Pô) > Tiébélé - 121 km |  |
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Saadoune hits hard
Looking at the stages of this 20th edition, one could expect decisive moments between Manga and Tiébélé that welcomed the Tour du Faso for the first time. The Moroccan team made the best of favourable circumstances to hit hard in Burkina Faso. Dropped behind, title holder Jérémie Ouedraogo and the captain of the Satllions Saïdou Rouamba struggled because of the fast pace set by and Egypte-Morrocco association in the front positions. On the final dirt track portion the Moroccan festival led by maestro Abdelati Saadoune worked out perfectly. The 2002 winner of the event captured the yellow jersey while four Moroccans entered the top seven positions of the overall.
The film of the stage
Pack broken in three
The day’s program was to be tough but the keenest riders of the pack didn’t lose time to show what they had. In the wheel of Gueswende Sawadogo (Bur), Conan (Fra / Bre), Teguimaha (Cam), Tall (Bur), Barboza (Sen), Jeloul (Mar) and Verdonck (Bel) slightly broke away from the main field after only four kilometres of riding. Despite being caught back five kilometres later they made the best of their front positions when the pace eased up. Several riders were on the other hand distanced and the pack broke up in three parts.
North Africa in pole
Twenty-six riders were to be in the leading group including all the early adventurers except for Barboza. At kilometre 20, their lead was of 2’10’’ on a main pack including the green jersey holder. But Roosen wasn’t the only loser of the day: indeed among the best Burkina riders, only Abdul Wahab Sawadogo was still in a decent position. No Jérémie Ouedraogo or Saïdou Rouamba. On the other hand the Egyptian team enjoyed having all their members in the leading group while Morocco had only lost one man. The occasion was just too perfect not to make the best out of it. The north Africans indeed decided to work together against the rest of the World and eased up the pace of a group that also could count on the likes of yellow jersey Lionel Syne (Bel) and pink jersey Julien Gonnet (Fra / Bre).
24 for the win
While Julien Gonnet consolidated his jersey by clinching extra points at the intermediate sprints, his team mate Roger Cren started suffering in the same way than Mahamadi Balima (Bur). At the entry of the dirt track portion, the main event of the day between Pô and Manga (26,5 km long), 24 riders remained together and started preparing the big battle with a 2’20’’ lead over the first pack.
Saadoune makes the difference
A selection started. All was to be decided on resistance, knowing how to avoid the stones and quite a bit of good luck. Julien Gonnet was the first to puncture and two other Brittany riders failed to follow the leaders. After ten kilometres of dirt and razor sharp stones, 15 riders were still concerned by stage victory. One Egyptian was left but the five Moroccans continued impressing. Adelati Saadoune, winner of the 2002 Tour, hadn’t however finished his master-piece. With five kilometres to go before the finish line, he managed to break away and no-one was able to react. Not the slightest rider was able to catch him until the line. Especially not yellow jersey holder Syne, who suffered two consecutive punctures in the final part.
LE MAGAZINE
Roger De Vlaeminck’s new challenge
Roger De Vlaeminck, a three time winner of Paris-Roubaix, now spends his time between Zimbabwe and Belgium. After having coached Mario Cipollini at the beginning of the 90s, the king of the Classics now takes care of the Zimbabwe riders who are this year discovering the Tour du Faso. An experience that delights the former Belgian rider.
How did this adventure start?
It all came from a proposal on behalf of a company that produces programs for the VTM television. They had the idea to allow African riders, who have no culture of the sport, discover cycling and especially cyclo-cross. They needed someone to surround them and teach the young and all that was filmed like a real-TV show. I was immediately seduced and I have been in this project for three years. I now consider them a bit like my children.
How did the first meetings go?
The first year, we went to Zimbabwe to start a campaign to try and discover talents and eventually select them. After a month, we found five boys who looked rather promising. They came to spend three months in Belgium and then competed in the World cyclo-cross championships, to learn. Since then, there have been quite a few trips and the team has been slightly modified; and this summer they competed in the criterium race season where they did quite well.
What is their real potential and what are the perspectives?
Among the team, I believe one is very talented, his name is Brian Zengeni and he only started cycling six months ago. Then I really want Tshabalala and Martin to carry on and improve. They’ve been with us ever since the start and I believe they can manage to live from their sport and that’s already quite something seeing from where they come from. They will never have what it takes to win big races and become real stars of cycling but they have all the qualities, both physical and mental, to become good team mates.