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The eighth version of the Science In Sport Tour de Lunsar was held in Sierra Leone final week, highlighting the eclectic grassroots biking scene of West Africa.
The race expanded to 4 days for elite males with sponsorship from Science in Sport and added one-day races for ladies and junior males.
The lads’s race was dominated by the Nigerian Staff Pitstop Lagos, with Preye John Dede profitable three of the 4 phases, the general, factors and mountains classifications.
Nevertheless, the consequence was solely a part of the story. The occasion additionally included one-day races for ladies and juniors. Roxanne Hargreaves (Lunsar Biking Staff) gained the ladies’s race whereas Abdulrahman Koroma (Lunsar Biking Staff) led residence the junior subject.
Most of the riders within the junior race competed in donated kits from the British Biking Staff or USA Biking. Among the British package got here from Ethan and Leo Hayter. Some raced with mismatched clothes and poorly match sneakers, on cobbled collectively bikes with patched tubes and well-used chains.
Issues that riders in developed nations take with no consideration like having a bidon during which to combine a sports activities drink weren’t broadly obtainable in Sierra Leone till SiS stepped in to supply pallets of diet merchandise.
Riders are nonetheless studying easy methods to correctly hydrate and gasoline, with agony exhibiting on the faces of victims of cramps and warmth exhaustion.
Nonetheless, the racers took to the course with spirit and gusto, with greater than 70 juniors toeing the road. Koroma out-paced Mohamed Bangura (Kono Biking 1) and Henry Koroma (Makeni Biking) to take the gold medal.
The ladies’s subject was a lot smaller at 18 riders however with equally fierce competitors. Hargreaves, who works for an British NGO in Sierra Leone, acquired away from Blessing Jabbie (Kono Biking) with Elizabeth Mansaaray (C2C) in third.
The marquee males’s occasion was a rout, with Pitstop Lagos attacking from the gun on the opening stage and propelling Dede into the race lead. Teammates Harmless Emmanuel and Bassey Ntui rounded out the stage 1 podium.
Dede soloed to victory on the second stage with American Jack Duncan (Mike’s Bikes) and Ibrahim Kamara (C2C) second and third. On stage 3, it was a Dede present once more, together with his teammate Emmanuel once more in second and one other teammate Azeez Odebiyi third.
Within the last stage, Pitstop Lagos have been on the assault once more, with Vivid Emmanuel taking the stage win forward of Harmless Emmanuel, and their teammate Eyo Effiok rounding out the rostrum. Within the total, Dede gained the general by 10 minutes over Harmless Emmanuel, with American Nate Mesmer (Mike’s Bikes) in third.
