A couple more African nationals to squeeze in as the Namibians and the Algerians decide to merge their championships, over the lengthy and slightly lumpy African course:
Dan Craven is the big favourite here of Bimbo Nutella and is fast becoming one of the big celebrities of this nation in the South of the continent. The TTer cum hilly specialist has had a very useful season in the CTour circuit this year and looks set to improve in the next year and could even be an outsider for individual honours there.
No other Namibians have a pro contract Marc Bassingthwaite and Ermin Van Wyk are probably the pick and maybe the rumoured division two expansion could give them a chance of riding. Craven however was in no mood to take any chances and moved away with 150km to go to win comfortably by over ten minutes from the rest.
The four Algerians will be led by Red Bull's Criterium only man Abdelkader Belmokhtar, he is about the only one who can cope with climbs. However he missed an early split with two Namibians going away with Algerian Lagab. This group had more than five minutes on the Red Bull rider but in the end Belmokhtar managed to bridge the gap. He only did this with 20km to go and had to take his national title by winning a sprint.
It was a good job that Hannachi had not made it across!
No competition really in the TT, Craven is competative at the highest CTour level and Belmokhtar is even more dominent in his nations field. Duly both rode round and both very easily managed to double up their RR title with the TT ones.
Belmokhtar managed to time better than any of the secondary Namibians probably meaning that few of them will interest CTour managers once again.
