Excerpt
http://www.english.rfi.fr/france/20140714-french-press-review-14-july-2014
Article published the Monday 14 July 2014 - Latest update : Monday 14 July
2014
French press review 14 July 2014
On inside pages, *Le Monde* laments the fact that there are no African
competitors in this year's Tour de France cycle race.
Eritrea's Natnael Berhane was forced out before the start because of a
slump in form. Daryl Impey of South Africa, the first African ever to wear
the Tour leader's yellow jersey (in 2013), can't take part because he
tested positive for a banned substance in a race back home earlier this
year. And even the Kenyan-born, South African-raised, English cyclist,
Christopher Froome, is out of the running following a bad fall last week.
The magazine Jeune Afrique says it's only a matter of time before the big
African events, like the Tour of Burkina Faso or its Rwandan equivalent,
produce the sort of talent needed to compete in the Tour de France.
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Original article magazine Jeune Afrique
http://www.jeuneafrique.com/Article/ARTJAWEB20140708160707/tour-de-france-cyclisme-tropicale-amissa-bongo-natnael-berhanecyclisme-africain-pas-de-tour-de-france-mais-un-sacre-braquet.html
***Internet auto-translation***
African cycling: Tour de France, but a sacred gear!
cycling (67) - tropical Amissa Bongo (16) - Tour de France (13) - Natnael
Berhane (7)
2014-07-09 15:01By Mathieu Olivier
The Eritrean runner of Europcar, Natnael Berhane. © AFP
It was hoped South Africans and Eritreans on the roads of the Tour de
France. But again this year, the competition is an orphan of the continent.
Yet, Africa is far from being a land without cycling.
Last updated at 15:49.
Do not search the African representatives in the peloton of the Tour de
France, who raced, Saturday, July 5, since Great Britain and that ends in
Paris in a little less than three weeks. Once again, Africa is absent from
the great mass of cycling, despite the beautiful hopes seen during the
season 2013/2014 and the abundance of races on the continent (see map
below).
Click on the image below to access the interactive map.
Indeed, if it was long believed involvement of Natnael Berhane (Europcar),
winner of the 2014 of the Tropicale Amissa Bongo, the Eritrean, in unhappy
in recent weeks, had to resolve to watch his teammates take the start
without him. Part no doubt to one of the most promising riders in the
professional peloton.
> > Read also: "These cyclists Eritreans who moisten the shirt"
Exit also Daryl Impey, South Africa, the first representative of the
continent to have worn the yellow Jersey in the competition. Tested
positive in a doping control at the Championships in South Africa in
February 2014, he won't see the Champs this year.
Froome, "the African" platoon
However, until the fifth stage, Africans could be consoled with the
presence of the titleholder, Chris Froome. Born in 1985 in Nairobi, the
short, since May 2008, under the colours of Britain, but began his career
in the country of birth of mother, the Kenya, he left, at age 15, to
Johannesburg.
Born in the Kenya, Christopher Froome participated under the kenyan Jersey,
Commonwealth Games and the Championships of the world hopes.
After winning his first stage in the Tour of Mauritius in 2006 race and
participated, under the Jersey, at the Commonwealth Games and Kenya hopes
World Championships, Froome was still, in 2014, which was more African on
the roads of the Grande boucle. Unfortunately, a fall on the roads of
Northern France, the Tour de France ended prematurely, Wednesday, July 9.
An African team in 2015, a winner in 2020?
However, the African absence should not last. Burkina Faso, Rwanda and
Eritrea tours, or even the Tropicale Amissa Bongo, are increasingly prized
by professional teams, particularly French, and many countries are trying
to settle permanently without the calendar of the Union cycliste
International (UCI). Further to the North, the Maghreb is also speak of him
with a flowering of a day races or by steps, especially in Algeria, but
also in other countries of the Maghreb where experience is missing.
Highlights: the Morocco Tour was inaugurated in 1937, that of Algeria in
1949, that of Tunisia in 1953, and that of Egypt, although having more run
since 2009, in 1954 (see map).
The first edition of the Tour of the Morocco took place in 1937.
Some observers may even to predict an African winner in 2020, when other,
more down-to-Earth, hope that the large loop, weakened by doping, will find
a second wind with the riders of the continent.
> > Read also: "when an African winner on the Tour de France?"
Whatever it is, is the time for optimism and the time where the only
representative of the continent was the Senegalese tirailleur
representative mark Bailey is probably just a bad memory. The South African
team MTN Qhubeka already announced its willingness to participate, with a
mixed team of white and black Africans, to Tour de France, 2015.
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Received on Mon Jul 14 2014 - 07:54:08 EDT