Daniel McLay (Bretagne) got his professional career off to the perfect start when he won today’s third stage of the Tropicale Amissa Bongo. After a hot day in the Gabonese hills, a reduced peloton sprinted for the win and here the Brit beat his teammate Yauheni Hutarovich and Salah Edine Mraouni (Morocco) while Rafaa Chtioui (Skydive Dubai) defended his overall lead.

After his stage win in last year’s Tour de l’Avenir, it was evident that Daniel McLay has the potential to become a future top sprinter and the Bretagne team was quick to give the young Brit a chance at the highest level. Today their decision paid off when the young Brit took his first pro win in the third stage of the Tropicale Amissa Bongo.

The hard stage in the Gabonese hills came down to a sprint from a reduced peloton and here Bretagne completely dominated the show. With McLay leading his teammate across the line, it was a 1-2 for the French team while Salah Edine Mraouni was the best of the rest in third.

Held over 157km from Mounana to Loulamoutou, the stage was the hardest of the entire race as it had several big climbs in the first half. The second half, however, was made up of a long descent and a flat run to the finish, meaning that the most likely outcome was a sprint from a reduced peloton.

As it had been the case in the previous stages, the riders took off under a beautiful sunny sky and again they got the race off to a very aggressive start. The attacking continued for a while until Jean-Bosco Nsengimana (Rwanda), Meron Teshome (Eritrea) and Salah Eddine Mraouni (Morocco) got clear.

The trio managed to build an advantage that reached 50 seconds at the 14km mark and after 25km of racing, they had extended it to 2.35. After the hectic finales in stages one and two, however, the peloton was in no mood to take any risks and at the 55km mark, the trio were only 1.45 ahead.

The peloton was riding hard in the hilly zone and this spelled the end for the break which was caught after just 65km of racing. This opened the door for new attacks and for a long time, no one was able to get clear.

The peloton had now reached the flat finale which prompted them to slow down and they allowed Mohamed Amine Er Rafai (Morocco) to take off. At the 100km mark, he was 35 seconds ahead and with 50km to go, he had extended the advantage to 2.40.

It reached 3.30 with 37km to go but the peloton started to stabilize the situation. With 35km to go, the chase kicked off in earnest and with 10km to go, the Moroccan was only 35 seconds ahead.

Wanty-Groupe Gobert were riding hard on the front of the peloton and as Bretagne also came to the fore, Er Rafai was caught with 8km to go. From there, it was a big battle between the sprint teams and in the end McLay emerged as the fastest.

Double stage winner Rafaa Chtioui finished safely in the bunch and so defended his lead of 2.24 over Giovanni Bernaudeau (Europcar). He will wear the leader’s jersey again tomorrow when the peloton tackles a short, mostly flat 133km stage that has a few small hills in the finale, including a tricky ascent with 3km to go.