Irish rider Jesse Ewart has finished in 3rd place in the final general classification at the Tour du Rwanda. The 27-year-old Bike Aid rider went into the final two stages at the weekend in 5th place, with two consistent performances on Saturday and Sunday lifting him to 3rd overall.
That was a very strong result in a UCI 2.1-ranked eight-stage race which included Israel Premier Tech, a Great Britain national team and some very strong ProContinental teams, namely B&B Hotels-KTM, TotalEnergies, Drone Hopper-Androni Giocattoli, Burgos-BH and Novo Nordisk.
On Saturday the 152.6km stage 7 from Kigali to Mont Kigali saw the front of the race split to pieces on what was a very hard final climb, with Ewart placing 9th at 1:12.
While 1st and 2nd overall - Natnael Tesfatsion (Drone Hopper-Androni Giocattoli) and Anatoliy Budyak (Terengganu Polygon) - both gained time on him, the Australian-born Irish rider distanced the others in the fight for the GC. And that meant he moved up two places to 3rd. The stage was won by Alan Boileau (B&B Hotels-KTM).
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Yesterday's final stage - a very hilly 75.3km around Kigali, including three passages of Mur de Kigali - saw Moise Mugisha (ProTouch) take the win. The Rwandan rider arrived at the summit finish with Sandy Dujardin and Alexandre Geniez, both of TotalEnergies.
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Having already claimed three stage wins between them, the two TotalEnergies riders stayed behind Mugisha, who crossed the line celebrating his win while Geniez and Dujardin applauded him from behind.
Ewart was a little further back the road, placing 8th at 1:52 and finishing on the same time as 2019 Vuelta stage winner Ángel Madrazo (Burgos-BH). As race leader Tesfatsion, from Eritrea, and 2nd placed overall Budyak, from Ukraine, finished just one and two seconds behind Ewart, there was no change in the overall.
Tesfatsion, a 22-year-old won also won the race outright in 2020, ran out the overall victor by 26 seconds from Budyak, who served at 18-month doping ban from 2015 to 2017. Ewart was 3rd at 48 seconds.
