By Innocent Mbunwe
Cameroon's poor performances in the fourth edition of the international cycling tour of the country have been blamed on lack of preparations by the cyclists. The competition has moved to the seventh out of the eleventh laps with foreign cyclists taking the lead.Ignatius Choh of the Cameroon SNH team, speaking after the second phase: Puma - Kribi lap, said poor preparations ruined their chances.
"We did not succeed in carrying the day because we did not prepare well. We trained only for one week. In fact not up to a week, for five days." Anyway, all is not lost, I will work hard in the remaining tours," he added.
Choh also complained about bad roads that causes frequent tyre punctures as another hindrance. The first phase of the tour ended in Ngaoundere with the athletes going through the three northern provinces of the country in sweltering heat.
After the seventh lap, Kazakh Pavel Nevdakh Brisaspor from Turkeya and fellow countrymen Mamyrov Bakhtiyar and Rabiea Rashad Ahmed of Egypt, respectively, are leading the overall classification.
The foreigners have an edge over their Cameroonian counterpart because they have been training for long, and of recent had participated in many international tours around the world.
According to the President of the Cameroon Cycling Federation, Claude Bernard Messy, this year's race had a lot of innovations. The race will pass through nine out of 10 provinces in the country. Only the East Province will be left out. The tour kicked off in the Far North Province, precisely in Waza, and the innovation this year is that from the northern part of the country, the race will continue in the South Province, which has always been the last but one Province to cover.
From the South, the race will go to the Littoral and Southwest Provinces before going to the West and Northwest Provinces. In the West Province, the athletes will have to climb the Batie hill, which will be the most difficult and delicate lap. The Centre Province as usual will be the last province.
Another innovation will be in the last lap. The athletes will ride from Monatele to Yaounde via Okola in the Lekie Division of the Centre Province. Four teams: SNH, Wood Work, Douala Velo club and the Cameroon Mixed team, are representing the country in the tours. The race ends on March 10.
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