In short
| Stage winner | David VERDONCK |
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David VERDONCK |
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David VERDONCK |
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Julien GONNET |
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Ahmed RASHAD |
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Gueswende SAWADOGO |
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Abdelati SAADOUNE |
| » 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
Sunday 29 October 2006| stage 5 | Yako > Ziniaré - 150 km |  |
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Verdonck, child of Ziniaré
After the usual warnings on behalf of the Moroccans making the eventual rivals of Saadoune understand that a long distance breakaway was forbidden, a coherent group looked like it was going to manage quite a performance on the day. But among the nine riders only Charif Abdulah (Egy) was still able to fight it out for stage victory with David Verdonck (Bel). The Belgian, fresher and more powerful in the final part forgot about the deception of the previous day by clinching his second win in Ziniaré, a place where he had already triumphed back in 2005. Verdonck also positioned himself in the overall standing capturing fourth spot halfway through the event, only 26 seconds away from Saadoune.
The film of the stage
The longest stage
The day started badly for green jersey Lionel Syne (Bel) who punctured his rear wheel after only one kilometre of the stage. Meanwhile, attacking riders were already trying to take off. It would indeed be the longest day of the Tour with 150 kilometres to be covered. Not the kind of distance that worried Kiba (Bur), Tshabalala (Zim) and Franco-Senegalese Mickaël Barboza, who launched a first break. The group was then to be helped out by several other riders but the presence of Teguimaha (Cam) and Tall (Bur), both in the top ten of the overall, compromised the group’s chances of success. They were to be caught at kilometre 15.
No exit for Cameroon
Immediately after that, a violent acceleration in the leading positions of the pack saw a group of 27 men take off. But this time Teguimaha could count on the help of team mate Martinien Tega. The Moroccans, well aware of the danger that these two riders could represent (three Cameroon riders in the top eight overall), immediately organised the chase. At kilometre 33, the pack was bunched again.
Barboza in shape
Just after the first 50 kilometres of the stage four riders, not as dangerous for the leaders, managed to take off including last year’s winner Jérémie Ouedraogo, Mickaël Barboza, apparently in excellent shape, Aurélien Guilhon (Fra / Sarthe) and Kouamé Lokossué (Civ). They were later caught by a group of counter attackers and a bunch of nine riders joined together as they went through Ouagadougou, where their lead over the pack had reached 3’25’’. Ouedraogo could then count on the help of two compatriots, Ilboudo and Sanfo, but also had to deal with dangerous other riders like Karel Pattyn (Bel) and Charif Abdulah (Egy).
Abdulah on his own
The composition of the group and the lead they had with 25 kilometres to go (2’40’’) looked rather promising for final stage success. But when hitting the final dirt track portions, the pack had started chasing seriously under the influence of the Moroccan riders of course: only a 30’’ gap with 8 kilometres to go. Abdulah decided to take off on his own seven kilometre from the line. Behind, his former breakaway companions were caught back by the pack one after the other while two courageous men managed to take off: David Verdonck (Bel) and Julien Gonnet (Fra / Bre).
Verdonck, the freshest
This duo quickly managed to catch up the leading rider and a final three-man battle was to prepare. Once again unlucky, pink jersey Julien Gonnet suffered a puncture while seeing the finish line. He was therefore to leave victory go to Verdonck or Abdulah. The Belgian, more powerful, eventually won in Ziniaré for the second time in his career and captured the green jersey from team mate Lionel Syne who also punctured a tyre in the final kilometre. His third puncture of the day!
LE MAGAZINE
“How do you say control in Moré?â€
For the first time in its history the pack of the Tour du Faso has to face anti-doping controls set up by the UCI on a daily basis, like on any big elite cycling race. Michel Rivière, international UCI official and a jury president on European races has been named to conduct the controls all along the event. While the rules remain the same as on any other competition, the inspector has to learn to adapt to a different context to manage his mission.
What are the rules for the controls done this year during the Tour du Faso?
They are exactly the same as for any other race in the World. It happens that this year, the Tour has been put on the A list of international events where controls have to be done on a daily basis, whereas in the past only a few days of controls occurred at the end of the race. It was actually during the 2003 edition that Burkina Faso’s Amado Pafadnam, who was riding for a Spanish team was controlled positive after a doping test. Basically, these controls concern urine samples collected after each stage: the stage winner and the overall leader automatically have to come as well as four other random riders. The samples are then analysed by the official laboratory in Chatenay-Malabry.
The conditions here in Burkina maybe make the controls difficult to organise?
Yes, because we have to be very careful at respecting the rules to avoid any kind of appeal. The texts for instance say that the organiser must set up two rooms close to the finish line for the controls: a waiting room and another to get the samples. This place must be equipped with water and toilets. As it is impossible to find a camper van here in Burkina, we do the controls in a hotel room most of the time. But when a finish occurs in a village like Tiébélé, and that was the case for stage 2, there are no hotels that can offer what we are looking for. We therefore moved to Pô, some thirty kilometres away in order to do the controls according to the rules.
Other than the material what makes your job so specific on this Tour?
I’ve noticed that the controls often take longer than in Europe. The explanation is quite simple. With the heat here, the riders are rapidly dehydrated and loose a lot of water during the race. So those who are not careful and forget to drink big quantities of water have big problems to urinate. It allows us to have a chat because the atmosphere is basically very pleasant with the riders. I sometimes only need the help of my colleague Doctor Liliou, to take care of the translation from French to Moré!