The victory was obtained this time by Daniel Habtemchael covering the 147km long lap in 3h4’32.

Eritrea is exercising her hegemony over the maiden edition of the Race of Hope currently taking place in Cameroon. After the victory of Natnael Mebrahton on the first day of the competition, it was the turn of his fellow countryman, Daniel Habtemchael to clinch a second victory for Eritrea, beating the Rwandan Jean Paul Rene Ukinwabo by sprint on the finish line. The third position was occupied by Gregory Rougier-Lagane from the Mauritius Island.

However, Natnael Mebrahton conserves the yellow jersey of the race leader given that he still has a good time advantage though he didn’t win the lap. According to the winner, much attention was focused on the winner of the first day which gave him a chance to break away from the peloton without raising eyebrows and conserved the breakaway lead until the finish line.

It is worthy to note that the second lap of the race ran between Idenau and Douala proved to be more difficult judging from the number of abandonment and injuries recorded. There were eleven cases of abandonment and two injuries with the runner up collapsing on the ground immediately after crossing the finish line.

The organisational aspect has been hectic with heavy sound equipment deployed to animate the public while waiting for the arrival of the cyclists. The public also showed much interest in the race judging from the number of people who lined up the road sides to cheer the cyclists.

They were however disappointed with that fact that no Cameroonian has yet mounted the podium.

To the president of the Cameroon cycling federation, Honoré Yossi, the performance of the national team is understandable given that it is constituted of amateurs who have to compete with professionals. He said the race was a learning process for them and that they hope to improve on their performance in the next laps of the race.