After a difficult start to the race, Yauheni Hutarovich (Bretagne) has finally got the ball rolling at the Tropicale Amissa Bongo. 24 hours after his first win in Africa’s biggest win, he doubled his tally when he won the bunch sprint in today’s seventh stage ahead of Andrea Palini (Skydive Dubai) and Yohann Gene (Europcar) while Rafaa Chtioui (Skydive Dubai) tested his legs before rolling to the finish with the main peloton to defend his overall lead.

Going into the Tropicale Amissa Bongo, Yauheni Hutarovich was widely tipped to dominate the bunch sprint but the Belarusian who has just joined the Bretagne team, got his race off to a difficult start. The hilly first stages made it impossible for him to show his fast speed and in stages 3 and 4 he came up short against his teammate Dan McLay – who was actually doing the leadout – and Andrea Palini (Skydive Dubai).

Now it seems that he has finally got his legs going. After he won yesterday’s morning stage in convincing fashion, he again showed that he is the fastest rider in the field when he won today’s penultimate stage of Africa’s biggest race.

After the team time trial of yesterday evening whose chaotic circumstances forced the organizers not to take it into consideration for the overall standings, the riders were back in their saddles just a few hours later when they tackled the 127km penultimate stage. It was held on a short, flat 6km circuit and with its criterium format, it was expected to be another day for the sprinters.

The riders again took the start under very hot conditions and as it has been the case in all stages, they had no plans to take it easy. The first part of the stage was very fast with lots of attacks but no one managed to get a bigger gap.

Essaid Abelouache (Morocco), Hichem Chabane (Algeria) and Hendricks Kruger (South Africa) got a 20-second advantage after 10km of racing but their attempt was ultimately unsuccessful. At the 30km mark, things were back together and the attacking continued.

The next rider to get a solid advantage was Abderrahmane Mansouri (Algeria) who was 30 seconds ahead at the 50km mark but 10km later, it was again back together.

The fast racing even inspired race leader Rafaa Chtioui (Skydive Dubai) to give it a go and he joined forces with his teammate Adil Jelloul, his nearest rival Giovanni Bernaudeau (Europcar), Anthony Delaplace (Bretagne) and Tom Devriendt (Wanty) to form a really powerful move with representation from all the big teams. They attacked at the 75km mark and 5km later, they were already 1.15 ahead.

With 30km to go, their advantage had been reduced to 52 seconds as the peloton was forced into a fierce pursuit. As they approached the finish, there was a lack of cohesion in the group and while Chtioui, Bernaudeau and Delaplace dropped back to the peloton, Devriendt and Jelloul pressed on.

With 20km to go, they were still 52 seconds ahead and as they passed the 10km to go mark, they still had 33 seconds in hand. However, the Bretagne team had now hit the front and they managed to catch the duo in time to set up a bunch sprint where Hutarovich paid his teammates back for the hard work by holding off Andrea Palini and Yohann Gene.

Chtioui finished safely with the bunch and so defended his lead of 2.24 over Bernaudeau. He now just needs to survive one stage before he can be crowned overall winner of the race and as tomorrow’s stage is another circuit race in Libreville over just 127km, it seems that another bunch sprint will end the 7-day race.