It was won by Kamzong Abessolo during the lap yesterday run between Kribi and Douala.

After two unsuccessful attempts, Cameroon finally won a lap victory in the ongoing international cycling tour of Cameroon. The salvation victory came from Cameroon’s cycling flag bearer and winner of the last edition of the race, Kamzong Abessolo who covered the 173km distance between Kribi and Douala in 4 hours, 21 minutes and 16 seconds.

It was a hard earned victory for Cameroon given the fact that the arrival was on sprint with Kamzong Abessolo distancing the others by the edge of the front wheel of his bicycle. It is for this reason that the first to the sixth cyclist had the same time record for the lap. Kovac Maros of Slovakia emerged second, followed by a Moroccan, Mraouni Salaheddine in the third position.

Though victory eluded the Moroccans who were bent on winning every lap, in the third lap of the race, the yellow jersey of the leader of the race remains the property of the Moroccans. Er Rafai Mohamed Essaid conserves the top seat on the general classification table followed by another Moroccan, Mraouni Salaheddine with two minutes behind the race leader. The first Cameroonian on the general classification table appears in the third position in the person of Mbah Herve Raoul.

Kamzong Abessolo despite winning the third lap occupies a distant 21^st position on the general classification with seven minutes and 45 seconds behind the bearer of the yellow jersey. So therefore Cameroon’s best hope of winning the competition still lie on Mbah Hervé Raoul who incidentally was knocked down by a commercial motorbike rider leaving him with some minute bruises which cannot taint his present good form. There is also Yemeli Herman in the 4^th position with two minutes and fifteen seconds behind Rafai Mohamed Essaid Amine.

The race enters the fourth lap today with a closed circuit around the city of Douala known as a criterium. It is going to be favourable to sprinters since the lap will be run on a fairly level topography over a distance of merely 103.2km. Meanwhile interest in the race was more than the first two laps as people lined up the streets to cheers the cyclists as they rode past despite the intermittent rainfall along the race course. In what seems like a race within the race, the first cyclists from the Littoral Region to cross the finishing line in every lap receives a special cash prize of FCFA 50.000 offered by the regional league in collaboration with Mayor.