Ethiopia’s Kenya vs. Compal with each having two riders apiece.
Gabon with four La Poste riders required to stand a chance against the one and only Bakari.
And finally South Africa with four riders, two from Kenya, Thomson and Venter racing against Smit and van Zyl.
Sendeku and Bakari join the break today, one from Ethiopia and one from Gabon so they both have no reason not to collaborate.
The peloton reach 12km to go a long time down on the break so it looks like only South Africa has a race now. Thomson launches the first attack of that race now.
With 10km left Seid and Smit bridge up to Thomson, although Seid doesn’t have much to contest at this point.
They only have 35 seconds on the pack though.
Sendeku ditches Bakari with 4km left, although the Gabonese rider doesn’t look particularly worried.
Sendeku wins the race and claims the Ethiopians Champions Jersey! Bakari takes 2nd place on the day and the Gabon Champs Jersey behind him.
4km left for this group and Thomson tries to go solo again, although the gap to the others is still tiny.
Smit is struggling though and so is the chase group behind as Seid accelerates up to Thomson with 2.5km left!
Under the flamme rouge Seid seems too strong for the others, as Thomson blows up and Smit is slowing reeling him back in!
And behind Seid, Smit does it with a stunning comeback to lurch past Thomson and claim the South African Champions Jersey!
And now the ITT, Ngandamba winning seems a forgone conclusion with him being the only rider who knows what a time trial is in Gabon, while the other races should be more interesting as Thomson is favourite in South Africa and all but Seid can contest Ethiopia pretty equally.
Despite the close levels of abilities in the Ethiopian startlist, Sendeku doesn’t have too much trouble securing the Time Trial jersey to accompany his road one.
Ngandamba heads onto the course and as expected dominates the Gabonese race, finishing in 1h20’37!
Thomson is the last rider on course and he smashes it, easily being the fastest rider out there today and taking the South African Time Trial Champions Jersey to make up for barely missing the road one!
