UCI 2011 Africa Cycling Rank: Eritrea 2nd

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Daniel Teklehaimanot sweeps 3 Gold medals and an Olympic competition slot at the African Continental Cycling Championships in 2010

By UCI Africa Tour,

Eritrea has lost its ‘leader of UCI Africa Tour 2010’ rank to Morocco this year to become Africa’s second most powerful cycling nation.

Thanks to their overall performance, the Moroccans have surged to the top of the team rankings and are just one point away from the top spot in the individual rankings. The Moroccans, used to dominating cycling on their continent, found themselves suddenly outmatched by the Eritreans in November last year, in the African Championships and the Tour of Rwanda. They learned from this reversal, and last month they answered their rivals’ fire and form with the hard science of persistence. The Eritreans ended up being ousted as leaders of the UCI Africa Tour.

Eritrea (with 505.64 points) came second in the rankings by nation, behind Morocco (715 points) and ahead of South Africa (445.32 points).

The turnaround came at the end of March and the beginning of April, in the Tour of Morocco. Mouhcine Lahsaini, a seasoned rider, won the event, the first Moroccan rider to do so for 46 years. Lahsaini laid the foundations for his win two days before the end, after launching a breakaway on the road to Meknès. He shot from 15th in the UCI Africa Tour individual rankings to 3rd. The top two places remain unchanged, occupied by Eritrea’s Daniel Teklehaymanot, multiple African Champion, and Adil Jelloul, a teammate of Lahsaini.

Jelloul is just 1.66 points away from taking the lead. His supporters believe he would already be in front if he had not launched an attack some way from the finish, without support, in the Challenge Benguérir, the third of the Challenges Phosphatiers, no doubt still riding high on his previous day’s success in the Youssoufia Challenge. But 29-year-old Jelloul knows it will be his turn soon.

You must have hope, patience and self-confidence to succeed,” summed up Mohamed Belmahi, President of the Royal Moroccan Cycling Federation. Morocco’s new-found dominance and their historic performance in the Tour of Morocco are a tribute to a country that has invested a great deal in cycling, even opening a sports study department for young riders in Casablanca.

In the UCI Africa Tour team rankings, MTN Qhubeka remains the continent’s top team, with 231.66 points, ahead of Team Bonitas (128.32 points) and the Groupement Sportif Pétrolier Algérie (102.66 points).

African riders competing in the UCI Africa Tour now have no hesitation in riding in Europe, which shows that the standard of events in the UCI Africa Tour is rapidly approaching that of European races. The talented young African riders also caused a stir in the UCI Under-23 Nations Cup events in Europe.  Algerian sprinter Youcef Reguigui, 21, came second in the first stage of Toscana-Terra di Ciclismo and third in the very fast ZLM Tour in the Netherlands. 20-year-old Tsgabu Grmay of Ethiopia came 16th in the ZLM Tour, but was crowned the best young rider in Tuscany and came 3rd in the Montecatini stage. He lost 45 seconds in a fall on the first day, exactly the distance that separated him from the eventual winner.

UCI AFRICA TOUR RANKING – BY NATION

Rank

Name

Nation

Points

1 (1)

MOROCCO

MAR

1,212

2 (2)

ERITREA

ERI

806.68

3 (3)

SOUTH AFRICA

RSA

576.67

4 (4)

ALGERIA

ALG

543.99

5 (5)

BURKINA FASO

BUR

300

6 (6)

CAMEROON

CMR

202

7 (-)

ANGOLA

ANG

140

8 (7)

LESOTHO

LES

140

8 (7)

ZIMBABWE

ZIM

140

10 (9)

NAMIBIA

NAM

126

11 (10)

TUNISIA

TUN

120

12 (11)

RWANDA

RWA

80

13 (12)

IVORY COAST

CIV

51

14 (13)

ETHIOPIA

ETH

47.01

15 (14)

KENYA

KEN

11.01

16 (15)

EGYPT

EGY

7.01

17 (16)

LIBYA

LBA

3.99

18 (17)

SENEGAL

SEN

2

UCI AFRICA TOUR RANKING – BY INDIVIDUAL

Rank

Name

Nation

Team

Age*

Points

1 (1)

Adil JELLOUL

Morocco

 

29

446

2 (2)

Daniel TEKLEHAYMANOT

Eritrea

 

23

325.67

3 (5)

Ezzeddine AGAB

Algeria

GSP

25

248.33

4 (3)

Tarik CHAOUFI

Morocco

 

25

203

5 (4)

Mouhcine LAHSAINI

Morocco

 

26

184

6 (6)

Abdelati SAADOUNE

Morocco

 

35

124

7 (7)

Freqalsi ABRHA

Eritrea

 

28

120.67

8 (9)

Anthony CHARTEAU

France

EUC

32

112

9 (10)

Johann RABIE

South Africa

BNT

24

109

10 (18)

Natnael BERHANE

Eritrea

 

20

106

11 (8)

Meran RUSSAN

Eritrea

 

24

105.67

12 (13)

Youcef REGUIGUI

Algeria

GSP

21

104

13 (11)

Reinardt JANSE VAN RENSBURG

South Africa

MTN

22

103.67

14 (12)

Martinien TEGA

Cameroon

 

37

93

15 (14)

Rasmane OUEDRAOGO

Burkina Faso

 

23

82

16 (15)

Oumarou MINOUNGOU

Burkina Faso

 

23

79

17 (16)

Dan CRAVEN

Namibia

RCS

28

79

18 (17)

Daryl IMPEY

South Africa

APP

27

75

19 (19)

Julien SCHICK

France

 

30

71

20 (20)

Kristian HOUSE

Great Britain

RCS

32

68

21 (21)

Mohammed Said ELAMMOURY

Morocco

 

34

66

22 (22)

Essaïd ABELOUACHE

Morocco

 

23

58

23 (23)

Geoffrey SOUPE

France

FDJ

23

57

24 (24)

Darren LILL

South Africa

BNT

29

52

25 (25)

Yohann GENE

France

EUC

30

51

26 (26)

Ismail AYOUNE

Morocco

 

24

49

27 (41)

Dawit ARAYA  Eritrea    24 49