A shorter stage
After a bad surprise during the last checks of the Tour of Faso, the 2nd stage had to be reduced by 24,5 km. The road from Ouaga to Bobo, mostly rebuilt during the year still remains in bad state. For this reason, one third of the course had to be ridden in convoy. And as expected, attacks were ever present immediately after the start. In the following order, the 20 first kilometres “that count” saw attempts by Ado Kpanti (Ben) and Mahamadi Sawadogo (Bur), who really deserves his combativity jersey, as well as L.Jean Iboudo (Bur) and Houdo Sawadogo (Bur). None of these riders manage however to create a significant gap on the peloton.

Different goals
At kilometre 28, the first real “long” break takes place. Quite a perrformance seeing the pace of the peloton! However, the two leaders of the overall standings Pierre Chevalier (Fra) and Saïdou Rouamba (Bur), are among the escpaees alongside Denis Flahaut (Fra), Gunter Cuylits (Bel) and Senegal's Malick Thiam. But with such big names in the first positions, the leading group fails to work out together in significant manner and never manages to really take off. The riders “look at each other” and finally decide to stop their efforts. They are eventually caught less than 15 kms from the finish.

Two out of two
The peloton in rather good physical shape at this stage of the race, it appears vain to try anything alone. Victory is therefore to be decided in a bunched sprint. Thierry David, who now knows the race by heart and who finished second in 2003, claims victory with close to 5 metres on the peloton. For the mixed France-Japan team, it's the second win in two stages. The stage podium sees Denis Flahaut (Fra) and Saïdou Rouamba take second and third spot, while the peloton suffered a big fall after the finish line. The spectaculor collision due to a photographer luckily had no serious victims and all riders can prepare for stage 3.

Back on the Faso

Delighted! The Ivory coast riders are delighted. Not quite in the leading positions of the overall (yet!), they're just happy to be here. The three years they went through without riding the Tour of Faso have been lived like a long empty period. For an African rider, not competing in such an important continental event leaves a bad taste in one's mouth. “You understand, this is our Tour de France”, insists Kouame Lokossoue, who is riding his second Faso depite his young age.

The last three seasons, The Ivory Coast authorities felt it was more precautious not to risk travelling to the Faso. For security reasons due to the civil war, the eastern part of the country was recently considered dangerous. Frustrated but well aware of the difficult situation, the elite of Ivory Coast cycling carried on however working hard. Despite the problems in the country, the main actors of cycling never stopped supporting the sport. “We have three teams we can consider as professional and that's fairly rare in Africa. It's already lucky for one to be able to live form his sport, explains Coulibaly N'Gatta. We've always carried on competing because in our national circuit, only one race was cancelled.”

Far from the Tour of Faso, 40-year-old Filbert Nadogueu and his mates carried on racing in other events. And they never hesitated on how to prepare the Faso. The 7th of October, they left Abidjan on their bikes to head to Ghana (after two practices of 127 and 91 kms!), where they competed in the national tour that they easily won. With Abdoulaye Traore in the lead, the Ivory Coast clinched all six of the first positions, added to 3 out of 7 stage victories just leaving a few bread crumbs to the others. “When you are invited to dinner, you don't eat everything”, laughs Kouame Lokossoue.

The riders then carried on with their travels, heading across Ghana and Togo in a minibus to eventually make it to Ouagadougou the evening of the team presentation slightly tired. “I started riding back in 1999 and it's the first time I have cramps!”, admitted Ahmed Ouedraogo. And that didn't prevent him from taking 11th spot of the overall, before possible better days…