5th Tour of Eritrea - NE

Eritrea, March 18-27, 2005

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Stage 2 - March 20: Asmara Criterium, 130km

Reshuffle the deck and Telecom still comes up Aces

By Oyéshiku Carr

Before thousands of enthusiastic supporters, 78 survivors turned up in warm weather and under cloudless skies for Stage two - 80 laps around a short circuit in downtown Asmara. The early action was provided courtesy of a long solo break by Amanuel Abraham (Zula) but with Telecom driving the bunch it was all bound to come back together.

With impressive team tactics that resemble pro outfit Telcom, which didn't lose a rider to yesterday's 15-minute cut off was determined to set up the victory for one of its five sprinters, so the team bosses could not have been more pleased with Telecom's clean sweep of the podium for the second day in a row.

Stage winner Michael Tuku confided afterward that today's win was not guaranteed. Rather, the Telecom strategy was to force a sprint and let its riders fight it out mano a mano. Michael's reward for his fast sprint was a points bonus that propelled him into the overall race lead, ahead of his two team mates Michael Misghena and Muse Tekleab.

Dutchman Erik Ruesing 'hung on like a pit bull' on today's stage which he remarked was "easier but not easy." He is set to continue his 'adventure' through Eritrea's national race and is looking forward to Stage three, which takes the riders from 7700 feet to sea level in 175km.

Results

1 Michael Tuku (Telecom Eritrea)         
2 Malacai Kassai (Telecom Eritrea)       
3 Abraham Haile (Telecom Eritrea)        
4 Ephraim Abraham (Asbeco)               
5 Meron Russom (Asbeco)                  
 
General Classification after stage 2
 
1 Mchael Tuku (Telecom Eritrea)          
2 Michael Misghena (Telecom Eritrea)     
3 Muse Tekleab (Telecom Eritrea)         
4 Malacai Kassai (Telecom Eritrea)       
5 Meron Russom (Asbeco)