Hellmann delivers ‘queen stage’ victory to Embrace the World at Tour du Rwanda

According to Rwanda National Team sports director Sterling Magnell, it was an “unexpected” breakaway win from pre-race favourite Samuel Mugisha (RWA) after the peloton was not willing to chase the previous day on Stage 2.

Magnell told Eurosport prior to the Stage 3 start in Huye the main objective was to keep calm and feel out their competitors, most notably fellow Rwandan Jean-Claude Uwizeye (POC Cote de Lumière), who along with fellow Stage 2 break-mate Mulu Hailemichael (Ethiopia) are 21 seconds back of Mugisha on general classification.

However, it was Mugisha, along with Uziweye and Hailemichael on the wrong side of an early stage split to eventually lose a bit more than a minute to Spaniard David Lozano (Team Novo Nordisk), runner-up for the second time in three stages, this time behind winner Julian Hellman (Embrace the World) of Germany at the end of the longest day of the eight-stage UCI 2.2 Africa Tour road race.

“They played it by ear, they responded when they needed to,” said Magnell. “They missed that big split in the beginning, which is a pretty big tactical mistake. That’s not something you do with unknown riders in a group that big.

“Our plan was to allow a group of two, three or possibly four to get some time and take control maybe later, but to let a group that big go was a mistake, so they paid for it, had to bring it back, they are very tired. We didn’t receive any big losses, but we didn’t gain anything either.”

For 27-year-old Hellmann, it was a difficult but rewarding result on a stage featuring four categorised climbs, including three Cat. 1s and a Cat. 2.

“I am so exhausted and so happy, incredible,” Hellmann told Eurosport immediately after soloing to the stage win from 2km out in Musanze. “It was like the queen stage, the longest one, 200km, 4,600 metres of climbing. It was so hard.

“Next to me there is Jonas [Döring] and I really have to say thank you a lot, he was so strong, did most of the work.” Hellmann continued referring to Swiss rider from Team Descartes Romandie, who was in the break the majority of the day and finished fourth on the stage — the same result he posted on the opening day in Rwamagana.

“At first it was mainly our team and Jonas. At the end, everybody didn’t want to do work and we two just continued on the last two kilometres and anybody else wanted to stay behind and it wasn’t right, you should race brave(ly).

“I had a little gap and he just screamed at me, ’Go! Go! Go!’ and I went and I won — incredible.”

Döring's fourth-place performance behind Calvin Beneke (South Africa) moves him up one sport to fifth on GC with 1-minute 7-seconds gained on Mugisha to sit 2:07 off the overall lead.

“The strategy we discussed together this morning is that we needed to put the Rwandans under pressure, so we went already after 10k,” Döring told Eurosport. “The gap increased, decreased, increased … it was up and down all the time.

“In the last downhill, we opened a gap and with 2k to go. I saw Julian had opened a little gap and I let him go and they didn’t respond. I am really happy for him and I am really happy to get another fourth place for me. It’s really a tough race.”

For 29-year-old Lozano, who was pipped in the final 25 metres of Stage 1 by winner Azzedine Lagab (Groupement Sportif Des Petroliers Algerie), it was another “close call” and an opportunity to gain 1-minute 9-seconds on Mugisha to remain fourth on GC at +1:55.

“We had this Swiss guy and the other one, they were playing a little bit together,” Lozano explained to Eurosport. “They showed they were really strong. I was second, between them, but I didn’t have my best day performance-wise, but I am happy to be second again. Another close call to win a stage, and still five stages more and I will try for sure.”

Hellmann’s teammate and a previous two-time stage winner Timothy Rugg kicked from the start despite suffering from a nasty cold throughout the night and early morning.

“I went from the gun, they dropped the flag and I attacked and then to see two teammates come across was perfect,” explained Rugg, one of three riders to launch before being joined by more than a dozen including Hellmann and fellow ETW teammate Dan Craven of Namibia.

“They did a lot of work for me,” the 32-year-old Africa Tour veteran continued. “The legs felt good, body did not. We took the first two mountain sprints, so I was happy to do that, but maybe it was too much for my legs because then I started cramping and it was all over for me.

“To see Julian work so hard for me and then take the win, it’s humbling, but it’s amazing.”

Stage 4 starts on Wednesday in Musanze and rolls over three Cat.1 climbs before finishing 135.8km later on the shores of Lake Kivu in Karongi.

“They need to be strategic, think about tomorrow the end of the race, be a little more calculated,” admitted Magnell regarding his team’s ability to maintain the yellow jersey to the end of the race in Kigali on Sunday. “I am 100 percent confident they have the strength and the ability to win yellow, whether they actually act that out is up to them.”