Rafaa Chtioui (SkyDive Dubai) put himself in the perfect position to win Africa’s biggest bike race, Tropical Amissa Bongo, when he took a dominant solo win on the first stage of the race. Originally part of a three-rider breakaway, the Tunisian dropped his rivals in the finale and as the peloton arrived almost four minutes too late, he now has a comfortable lead in the 7-day race.

Rafaa Chtinou was once regarded as one of the biggest African talents but he never made an impact in Europe while he rode for Europcar and Acqua e Sapone at the professional level. Since then, he has stepped down to continental level with the SkyDive Dubai team and now it seems that he may finally start to fulfill his enormous potential.

A few weeks ago he showed great condition when he made a big solo escape in stage 2 of the Dubai Tour but he didn’t get any reward for his hard efforts. Today his attacking approach paid off on the biggest scene in Africa when he won the first stage of the Tropicale Amissa Bongo.

The 10th edition of Africa’s biggest race kicked off with a short 100km stage from Bongoville to Moanda and was held in very hilly terrain. There were no major climbs but the constant ups and downs made it a tough day.

Many riders were keen to be part of the action and so the race was off to a very fast start and it took a long time for the early break to be formed. After around 30km of racing, Chtioui finally managed to make a difference when he took off with Giovanni Bernaudeau (Europcar) and Abdelkader Belmokhtar (Algeria).

The trio had to fight hard to get an advantage and after 32km of racing, they were only 32 seconds ahead. However, the peloton finally slowed down and when Belmokhtar led Bernaudeau and Chtioui over the top of the climb at the 43km mark, the gap was three minutes.

The peloton never managed to organize a chase as the major teams failed to cooperate. Hence, it soon became clear that the three escapees would decide the stage.

With 12km to go, Chtioui made a solo attack and he quickly distanced his rivals. When he passed the 10km to go banner, he was already 20 seconds ahead while the peloton was still 3.30 behind.

Chtioui maintained his speed all the way to the finish and took a comfortable solo win while Belmokhtar beat Bernaudeau in the battle for second. Bonaventure Uwiseyimana (Rwanda) and Edgar Pinto (Skydive Dubai) were the best of the rest but they lost around four minutes to the strong Tunisian.

Chtioui now takes his comfortable lead into tomorrow’s second stage which is another hilly affair. The terrain is not as tough as today’s but with a small rise inside the final 3km, the finale will be a challenging one.