After the second stage of Le Tropicale Amissa Bongo, Linus Gerdemann is still placed just outside the podium. Last year, it was Songezo Jim who was placed as fourth when the race ended. But due to time loss he will not be able to repeat that achievement this year.

The stage was won by Jerome Baugnies, who took his second career victory and the first Team Wanty - Gruope Gobert victory ever. Songezo Jim joined the five man breakaway, which drove away from the peloton after 20 km.

With only 10 km to go, Songezo Jim and Omar Fraile attacked the breakaway group to go for the win, but they were caught just 5 km before the finish line. The performance made him win the most aggressive rider title and the prize was given by Tour de France legend Bernard Hinault, which made a great impression on the young African rider.

“About 20 kilometres into the race, five of us got a good gap. We went away and I got second at the first king of the mountains. We kept rolling through and the time gap kept getting bigger. After a while five guys came across to us so the group was swollen to ten. I decided to reduce the group and I attacked. This left us with only four guys in front so I attacked again.”

“A guy from Caja Rural went with me. We were working together but he wasn’t giving 100% because their leader was in the bunch behind. If both of us were committed we would have had a really good chance of staying away I think. I attacked him with 10 kilometres to go but I couldn’t get away from him and we were caught with 5 kilometres to go and that was pretty much the end of our day,” he said about the breakaway.

He admits that he is not able to repeat his GC performance from last year and he will help team captain German Linus Gerdemann to reach the podium in his first race after a year of absence.

“I missed the winning move yesterday. I was disappointed because I’ve been training really hard for this race but on the other hand I was happy for my teammates as Linus is fourth on GC now. It’s an honour to be presented with the most combative jersey on the podium by Bernard Hinault but I didn’t win the stage so I am committed to looking for more opportunities and I am hungry to bring the team success. We’re working really well together and looking forward to the rest of the race.”