Tour du Rwanda: Doubey wins but is fined by UCI as final stage controversially cancelled
'It suited him well that there was no stage today' - Mulubrhan second and disappointed as TotalEnergies rider fined for conduct
French rider Fabien Doubey has won the 2025 Tour du Rwanda, six seconds ahead of defending champion Henok Mulubrhan, as the final stage was cancelled under protest by his TotalEnergies team in the closing kilometres due to inclement weather.
Doubey had taken the lead on the first road stage, subsequently ceding it to a team-mate before re-gaining the yellow jersey on stage six.
Rain began 90 minutes before the start of the final stage and an early crash neutralised the race. The TotalEnergies team reportedly surrounded commissaires to ask for the stage to be cancelled, thereby awarding Doubey the win without challenge from the dangerous Mulubrhan and others. The race continued, but was shortened only to included the short lap around Kigali.
Reports say that with the Eritrean team on the attack through stage six winner Zeray, TotalEnergies stopped the peloton in the closing kilometres, leading to the cancellation of the race.
"I made myself the spokesperson for the peloton ," Doubey said to L’Equipe, "many riders came to see me so that I could take their demands to the organisers. We couldn't take any more risks."
Mulubrhan disagreed. "It suited him well that there was no stage today [Sunday]," he said. "We would never have stopped the race for these few drops of rain if it had taken place in Europe."
Lotto’s young Belgian Milan Donie, who also stood to challenge Doubey for the overall, said: "If we cancel this stage here, then there would not be a single race in Flanders. The wet and slippery cobblestones do not prevent a race from taking place."
Read more: The next Biniam Girmay - 6 Eritrean riders on the rise
Doubey won the race overall, but was fined by the UCI for his conduct and, according to L’Equipe, will be summoned to the disciplinary commission for further sanctions in due course.
The stage was raced around the circuit which will be used at the World Championships in September. The slippy surface when wet throws into question the safety of the roads for the event. "This is also why this test event exists, it allows us to correct any errors and find solutions by September," a UCI representative said.
Race continues to grow, with women’s event on the horizon
The Tour du Rwanda is a race that has grown steadily over the last several years. More European teams are taking the trip to the 2.1 level race as it becomes a more established set piece on the early season calendar; Picnic-PostNL are the latest big team at the race, making their debut with there development team in 2025.
With the safety concerns due to the conflict in neighbouring DRC present, which led the Soudal-QuickStep’s development team to cancel their plans to race, the good work done with the race was at risk of being undermined this year. Organisers were pleased to see the race go by without a hitch.
“So far the race is incident-free, which is very important for us,” Tour du Rwanda Director Freddy Kamuzinzi told Team Africa Rising towards the end of the race.
“I think from a security perspective, all is going well. I think there have been a lot of talks about security in Rwanda…but so far so good from the start there in Kigali.”
Read more: Tour du Rwanda: 'Dire humanitarian situation' with Goma conflict less than 15km from race route
Looking forward, Kamuzinzi says that the Tour du Rwanda is looking to develop further. Having grown from a 2.2 UCI rating to 2.1 in 2019, the organisers hope to continue progressing. The idea of running a women’s race is also being floated.
“I think that we are looking forward to elevate more, especially as well, including maybe also some additional day for women in the competition,” Kamuzinzi said.
“So we are still brainstorming around what would be the best future for Tour du Rwanda, but definitely I think women is also one of the very important options that we have on the table.”
There are very few opportunities for African women to race competitively on the continent. Races like the Tour de Lunsar and Tour of Burundi have led the way for several years and a new race is set to be launched in Namibia this year. The addition of a women’s race in Rwanda would be a big boost.
Read more: How Team Amani plan to develop African road cycling
Full race rundown
The 2025 Tour du Rwanda kicked off with a short 3.4km prologue in Kigali. It was won by first-year under-23 rider Aldo Taillieu of Lotto Development team. The stage gave an early advantage to several GC riders, with Pavel Sumpik and Adria Pericas both in the top-10 with Henok Mulubrhan not far behind. Young South African Joshua Dike was the best performing African on the stage - 13th at +12 seconds.
The first road stage was won in a tight photo-finish between Henok Mulubrhan and Rotem Tene, with the Eritrean reigning champion getting the better of the young Israeli rider. Taillieu faded and TotalEnergies rider Fabian Doubey took the lead.
It was a first trip in to the big hills on stage two, and the peloton felt it. In a reduced finish, with just 29 left in the front group, it was Australian Brady Gilmore of Israel-Premier Tech who took his first pro win ahead of team-mate Itamar Einhorn. Several GC hopefuls such as Rwandans Eric Muhoza and Samuel Niyonkuru, young Czech Pavel Sumpik and Kiya Rogora lost significant time.
Brady Gilmore doubled-up on stage three into Rubavu in a reduced group of 19, with small splits within that group. Gilmore was dominant in the sprint, putting bike-lengths into young Eritrean Yoel Habteab, the Bike Aid rider a solid second. Mulubrhan was third and moved up to 5th on GC - he would be higher if there were bonus seconds for podium placings in the Tour du Rwanda.
Stage four was front-loaded with climbing, making for a day of attrition and another reduced group at the finisg. TotalEnergies’ Joris Delbove escaped from a group of 17 in the final stages of the day to win, overtaking team-mate Doubey to take the overall lead of the race.
Another tough day in the mountains followed, with big time gaps on stage five. Belgian UAE Team Emirates-XRG Gen Z prospect Duarte Marivoet attacked on the final climb with just over 10km to go to take a solo victory. Eritrean Awet Aman, racing for the UCI World Cycling Centre team won the sprint for second. Heading into the two big climbing stages, the top eleven were split by just 50 seconds.
Stage six included the toughest finish of the whole race, climbing 5km at 6.8% up to Canal Olympia in Kigali. A promising breakaway with several Rwandans including Moise Mugisha got onto the climb first with an advantage. Eritrea’s Nahom Zeray, who’s already had a strong start to the year, attacked across to the remnants of the group before going on to win solo. Lotto’s Milan Donie finished second ahead of Mulubrhan, both ten seconds back.
Doubey went back into the lead ahead of the final stage, just six seconds in front of Mulubrhan. A blockbuster finale battle between the two strongest riders of the week should have ensued on the final day, but the weather and Doubey’s actions put a halt to that.
For a more detailed running report on the eight stages of the race, have a read of Team Africa Rising’s live blog on from on the ground in Rwanda
Young Africans show talent on the big stage
This race is the perfect platform for young Africans to present themselves to bigger teams, and several riders did just that over the last week.
The obvious stand-out is Nahom Zeray, winner of stage six. The Eritrean was not deemed good enough to be promoted to Q36.5’s professional team over the winter and signed for JCL Ukyo. After an excellent 12th at the Tour of Oman two weeks ago, he has backed-up by showing himself to be perhaps the very best climber in this race.
23-year-old Vainqueur Masengesho was the best of the Rwandans, finishing a very creditable 7th overall after a consistent week. He has improved on last year’s 18th place and now heads into the rest of the year as Rwanda’s best hope in the men’s elite race a the World Championships.
Others who deserve a mention include Awet Aman, 9th overall and second on stage five, Yoel Habteab, second on stage three, and the likes of Lawrence Lorot and Gereziher Geremedhin Hailemaryam were regularly in breakaways.
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That's a win nobody can be proud of. Neither the winner and his team nor the race organisers.