Andrea Palini (Skydive) continued his great run of success in Africa by making it two in a row in the biggest bike race on the continent, Tropicale Amissa Bongo. The Italian was the fastest in the bunch sprint  after a flat ride through Gabon as he again beat Yauheni Hutarovich (Fortuneo-Vital Concept) into second, with Meron Teshome (Stradalli) completing the podium. He also extended his overall lead.

Going into Africa’s biggest bike race,  Tropicale Amissa Bongo, there was no doubt about who was the in-form sprinter at the moment. While all the professionals were starting their season, Andrea Palini has been in great condition during the month of December. He won a stage and was second overall in the Sahrjah International Cycling Tour, was second overall and won two stages in Jelajah Malaysia and just before Christmas he won the points classification in the Tour of Al Zubarah. In fact he has not finished outside the top 11 of a race since October 27 – in 23 days of racing!

After two days of racing in Africa, Palini has continued his run of success in dominant fashion. The professionals from Direct Energie and Fortuneo Vital Concept were unable to match his speed in yesterday’s opening stage and today he made it two in a row with another impressive sprint win.

The second stage brought the riders over 105 completely flat kilometres from Fougamou to Mouila and was always set to end in a bunch sprint. Somehow the organizers had found a small climb in the early part of the flat terrain where Yannick Lontsi (Cameron) took maximum points ahead of Mathias Sorgho (Brukina Faso) and Temesgen Buru (Ethiopia) after the former two had escaped. However, they were caught after 10km of racing.

At the 13km mark, Abdelkader Bemokhtar (ALgeria), Amanuel Million (Eritrea), Harouna Ilboudo (Burkina) and Estifanos Gebresilassie (Ethiopia) managed to get clear and they had a 1.20 lead after 20km of racing. It went out to 2.50 at the 45km mark where the peloton upped the pace. When Gebresilassie beat Belmokhtar and Ilboudo in the first sprint, the gap was less than a minute and at the 60km mark, it was back together.

3km later Jean-Bosco Nsengimana (Stradalli) attacked and he stayed clear to win the second sprint, followed by Tesform Okubamariam (Eritrea) and Buru. Emile Bintunimana (Rwanda), Okubamarian, Buru and Salah Eddine Mraouni (Morocco) used the sprint to escape but they had a hard time closing the gap. At the 72km marks, the gaps were 45 seconds and 1.30 respectively.

Nsengimana won the final intermediate sprint ahead of Okubamarian and Mraouni before he was caught by the chasers after 89km of racing. Mraouni tried to make a solo move but with 10km to go it was all back together.

From here, Skydive took control. Last year Yauheni Hutarovich grabbed a few wins in the African race but this year he has been up against an apparently unbeatable contender. For the second day in a row, the Belarusian had to settle for second while Meron Teshome finished a fine third as the first African. Like yesterday former winner Yohann Gene was fourth for Direct Energie.

With the win, Palini extended his overall lead over Yauheni Hutarovich to 8 seconds. However, he faces a harder test in tomorrow’s stage where he could be put under pressure. After a flat start with just an early climb, the riders face a much hiller final 30km where two of the climbs are categorized. The final of those come just 5.1km from the finish and after a short downhill section, the riders get to the final 500m which are slightly uphill.