Irish rider Jesse Ewart has moved into contention in the general classification at the Tour du Rwanda after making the breakaway on stage 2 today, Tuesday, that put significant time into the rest of the field.
Ewart, who was born in Australia and declared for Ireland three years ago through his Northern Irish routes, is this season riding for German Continental team Bike Aid. He made the breakaway today with Eritrean team mate Henok Mulubrhan. Though they had to be content with 5th and 6th on the stage, they stormed up the general standings.
Today's 155.9km stage took the riders on a bruising route from Kigali to Rubavu, taking in five climbs, including four cat 1 ascents. The first of those challenges was a 6km climb immediately from the start while the final ascent - some 25km average 2.2 per cent - was crested just over 30km from the finish.
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The breakaway was down to seven riders at the finish, though Ewart made a bid for glory with about 30km to go that was cancelled out by his rivals. In the sprint to the line from the breakaway group Colombian Jhonatan Restrepo Valencia (Drone Hopper-Androni Giocattoli) was too fast for the others and took the victory.
Axel Laurance (B&B Hotels-Ktm) was 2nd with 2019 Vuelta stage winner Angel Madrazo Ruiz (Burgos-Bh) in 3rd, GC winner in 2020 Natnael Tesfazion (Drone Hopper-Androni Giocattoli) in 4th and Ewart in 5th; all seven riders in the breakaway finishing on the same time.
The next riders to finish were more than a minute back, with the remains of the main field at 1:31. Yellow jersey Alexandre Geniez (TotalEnergies) lost 3:52.
Today's result put stage winner Restrepo - a six time stage winner in Rwanda and a former U23 PanAmerican champion - into the race lead. After the prologue and the first two road stages Ewart (27) is now in 7th overall at 26 seconds.
While Ewart has declared to ride for Ireland, he still holds dual Irish and Australian citizenship, which enabled him to ride the Australian nationals last year, when he finished 5th. His grandfather, Jim Ewart, was an Irish international bike rider back in the 1950s.
Ewart has won several UCI-ranked races in recent years including the final yellow jersey, twice, at the Tour de Singkarak, a 2.2-ranked race in Indonesia. He rode for Asian Continental outfit Team Sapura Cycling for four years before joining Bike Aid for this season. He previously rode for the 7 Eleven-Roadbike team in the Philippines.
