The best development system in Africa?
Lagab on Tour of Algeria, Uzbek investment in cycling and races in Turkey, Croatia, Sri Lanka and more
Welcome to Global Peloton!
It’s an exciting week of racing in Europe, with Paris-Nice and Tirreno Adriatico kicking off.
Lot’s of exciting racing and news from around the world as well. This week we travel as far as Uzbekistan, Sri Lanka and Algeria. Thanks to Azzedine Lagab for his contribution. A special story this week as well for Under the Radar.
Keep your eyes on Cycling News this week. I’ve written an article about the 16 African women racing on UCI teams this season - an all-time high. It’s my first time writing for Cycling News, so any support you can give to the article would be appreciated!
Look out as well for another post later this week previewing the Tour de Taiwan.
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Dan
Tour of Algeria
This week begins the ten-day Tour of Algeria - a UCI 2.2 race. The first edition of this race was held in 1949, but this year’s may be the strongest yet.
In 2023, six continental teams line up in Algeria including a powerful Terengganu squad, a first UCI outing for Q36.5 Continental Team and also Beykoz from Turkey. In addition their will be a number of national squads - including Eritrea - and a few local teams to bolster the start-list.
The race kicked off today with a 4.1km prologue, won by German Adrian Callies from Embrace the World Cycling.
I asked Algerian veteran rider, Azzedine Lagab, about both the race and Algerian cycling.
Algeria is really progressing at the moment with lots of young talents coming through. Why do you think that is?
“Algeria have always been focussing on development and investing a lot in the youth category, we have had lot of continental champions in the junior category, but the work has not been kept going when turning elite. A lot of training camps have been done for the youngsters and some national races and racing in the same race as elite category - that’s what gave them some experience and a good level.”
How significant is this race for Algerian cycling?
“Tour of Algeria is the biggest cycling event in Algeria, it’s all the media talk about. They talk about Tour of Algeria more than a victory in continental champs, or a win or good result in a 2.1 race outside Algeria. It’s a good opportunity for the riders to get some exposure.”
There's going to be a strong international start-list, how do you see the race going? Will it be controlled by the big teams or lots of attacks?
“This year the Tour of Algeria will be ten stages, or nine and the prologue. The organisation wanted to create some great racing spirit by inviting some big continental teams. In my opinion it’s a balanced start-list.
“The race will be open, the route is for all-round riders, there will be lot of flat stages on open fields, so an occasion for echelons, and also some climbing in the last stages. It will be open for everyone to win, but need to have a strong team to be able to control.”
Which young Algerian riders should we be looking out for?
“I think that Amari Hamza will be the young rider to watch, he is having a good season and here he will be racing with his new team for the first time, so I’m expecting him to be highly motivated and supported as well.”
Lagab won’t be competing in this year’s edition due to a family commitment.
Algeria have a very impressive development programme for their young riders, which Lagab is very involved in. As he says, the programme has resulted in a glut of junior African champions - men and women. The youth development system rivals Eritrea as the best in Africa.
What they haven’t yet mastered is how to get the good youth to step up to be just-as-good or better senior riders. Hamza Amari signed for Q36.5 Continental Team over the winter. He has the chance now to break that barrier - he has the talent too.
Besides Amari, other young Algerians to look out for are Slimane Badlis, twins Abdelkrim and Ayoub Ferkous, Ousma Khellaf and Salah Eddine Ayoubi Cherki.
The race will end in the mountains. That means that the big GC favourites are likely to be three Eritreans: Natnael Berhane, Metkel Eyob and Dawit Yemane.
Make sure you read next week’s edition to keep up to date with the race.
China Glory Take First UCI Win
Over in Turkey, South African Willie Smit took China Glory Pro Cycling’s first ever UCI win. Smit won the hilltop finish in the Alanya Cup in a small group sprint.
Perhaps even more significant for the Chinese team is that two of their Chinese riders also finished in the top ten. Xianjing Lyu sprinted to sixth and Geng Teng finished eighth. These are marked improvements from last season, but must be put into context as the level at this race was quite weak.
These are encouraging signs for China Glory after a winter of troubles. Their star of the 2022 season, Sean Bennett, departed the team after promises were left unfulfilled. It’s thought that the management of the team had said that in 2023, the team would become a ProTeam. Sports Director Martijn Tjallingi also left as he felt uncomfortable with the way the team was being run and didn’t want to be the mouth-piece for the higher-ups.
Uzbeks in the Med
I’ve been keenly following the progress of Uzbek cycling over the past couple of years. There seems to be a growing level of investment in the Central Asian nation, which now has two men’s continental teams and an active women’s national team.
Last week, the women raced the Umag Trophy in Croatia. Olga Zabelinskiya (who has been a pro cyclist for many years including in the World Tour last year with the Roland Cogeas Edelweiss squad) came in 5th place. Two others landed in the top-15, Nafosat Kozieva and Sofiya Karimova. Four of the six racers are 21 or under, so they have lots of room for development.
This was followed up by an excellent win for 21-year-old Yanina Kuskova at the Porec Trophy. It was Kuskova’s second win of the year. She seems to be the best Uzbek prospect out there, also scoring a number of solid results last season.
There was an impressive result for the Uzbek men on Saturday as Danil Evdokimov finished in third place at the Alanya Cup behind Willie Smit and Burak Abay.
The Tashkent City Pro team also raced the Visit South Aegean Islands race in Greece, however none of the five riders managed to finish the two stages.
Air Force Cycle Tour
There was a race in Sri Lanka over the last week. Three stages of the Air Force Cycle Tour have taken place - it’s not clear if there will be any more as there’s not a lot of information out there about this race.
There were some hair-raising images posted on Twitter of a close pass with a bus coming towards the leading riders. It seems the race was only operating closures on one side of the road.
Here’s some more information on the race.
Under the Radar
For Eyeru Tesfoam, just getting to the start-line of GP Cantabria Deporte - Trofeo Villa de Noja calls for celebration.
The Ethiopian is re-igniting her career this season having gained refugee status after fleeing the war in her home region of Tigray.
Tesfoam was a top prospect in the first phase of her career, achieving good results during her time the the UCI World Cycling Center.
She now begins again with French UCI outfit Team Grand-Est Komugi La Fabrique. She’s 26, so still has time to develop.
This week, Tesfoam will be racing the Trofeo Ponente in Rosa.
Have a look at her First Cycling profile.
Other News
Diane Ingabire made her racing debut for CANYON//SRAM Generation at GP Cantabria Deporte - Trofeo Villa de Noja. The Rwandan went on the attack in the final 20 km and eventually finished in the main group in 32nd.
Doble Bragado in Argentina was won by Sergio Fredes ahead of Agustin Marcelo Martinez and Agustin Del Negro.
A real pioneer in the sport, Safia Al Sayegh won the women’s UAE Championships. She will ride for the UAE development team in 2023.
The Tour of Hainan has been cancelled for 2023. The race has not been held since 2018.
The Tour du Cap in South Africa was won by Kent Main ahead of Brandon Downes and Jaco Venter.
Argentinian Tomas Contte won his first race of the season at the Clássica de Santo Thyrso in an uphill sprint
Thanks for reading! I’ll be back later this week with some riders to watch out for at the Tour of Taiwan.
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Dan
You can find out more about Eyru and follow his progress on the team's website https://grandest-komugi-lafabrique.fr