La Tropicale Amissa Bongo 2012

La Tropicale Amissa Bongo 2012
Host country	Gabon
Competition period	April 24-29, 2012
Stages	6 stages
overall length	700 km
Starting field	90 drivers from 19 nations in 15 teams (74 of them arrived at the finish)
winner
Overall rating	1. Anthony Charteau 1:47:57 h 2. Meron Russom + 00:08 min 3. Adil Jelloul + 00:12 min
Team evaluation	00 Team Europcar 41:24:49 h
Scoring jerseys
total	Anthony Charteau
Points	Yohann Gène
mountain	Tarik Chaoufi
Intermediate sprints	Abdelbasset Hannachi
offspring	Nikita Umerbekov
Best African	Meron Russom
Best Gabonese	Ghislain Ndong
← 2011	2013 →

The seventh Tropicale Amissa Bongo was a Gabonese cycling - stage race , which took place from 24 to 29 April 2012 found. It was held in six stages over a total distance of approximately 700 kilometers. The race was part of the UCI Africa Tour 2012 and classified there in category 2.1. After the Tropicale had been held in January in previous years, it moved forward to a new date in April for the first time in 2012.

The French Anthony Charteau from Team Europcar won the race for the third time in a row and prevailed with just eight seconds ahead of the Eritrean Meron Russom ( MTN Qhubeka ). The Moroccan Adil Jelloul (National) finished third final ranking as last year.

Attendees

As in previous years, the French UCI Professional Continental Team Europcar was at the start in 2012, led by last year's winner Anthony Charteau and Thomas Voeckler . The second European team at the most important African bike race was the German Team Specialized Concept Store with the German U-23 champion Fabian Schnaidt . In addition to nine African national selections, the African teams MTN Qhubeka and Groupement Sportif Pétrolier Algérie were invited.

UCI Professional Continental Teams Team Europcar
UCI Continental Teams Astana Continental Team Specialized Concept Store	MTN Qhubeka Groupement Sportif Pétrolier Algérie
National teams  Burkina Faso  Rwanda  Tunisia	Cameroon  Gabon  Morocco	Eritrea  Ethiopia  Ivory Coast
Others Les Ntsas des Plateaux

Stages and course of the race

After the four-man breakaway group had been caught up on the first, short stage in western Gabon, Yohann Gène from Team Europcar pulled away on a hill one kilometer from the finish and made it to the finish as the winner. The German U-23 champion Fabian Schnaidt sprinted to third place. On the second day with a hilly final, Kazakhs Nikita Umerbekov ( Astana Continental ), Thomas Voeckler (Team Europcar) and Eritrean Meron Russom ( MTN Qhubeka ) crossed the finish line in this order in front of a first group of pursuers. Russom also took over the yellow jersey from Voeckler's team-mate Gène.

The stage success, which he had previously missed, was achieved by Thomas Voeckler a day later in a mass sprint ahead of his teammate Gène. Voeckler was also one of the protagonists on the fourth stage, where he was defeated by a group of three Tarik Chaoufi from Morocco in the sprint , while Anthony Charteau took the overall lead as third of the day.

Europcar continued to dominate the race and also won the next stage through Yohann Gène in a mass sprint. And while Charteau was finally able to be honored again as the overall winner, Fabian Schnaidt secured the German Team Specialized Concept Store its first ever victory in a mass sprint in the capital Libreville .

stage	Day	Start finish	km	Type	Stage winner	Overall rating
1.	April 24th	Fougamou > Lambaréné	91		Yohann Gène	Yohann Gène
2.	April 25	Lambaréné> Ndjolé	130		Nikita Umerbekov	Meron Russom
3.	26th of April	Franceville > Akieni	88		Thomas Voeckler
4th	April 27	Mounana > Bongoville	120		Tarik Chaoufi	Anthony Charteau
5.	April 28	Leconi > Franceville	100		Yohann Gène
6th	April 29	Owendo > Libreville	130		Fabian Schnaidt

See also

• Gabon

Web links

• Official website of the Tropicale Amissa Bongo

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Race report on the first stage on radsport-news.com
2. ↑ Race report on the second stage on radsport-news.com
3. ↑ Race report on the third stage on radsport-news.com
4. ↑ Race report on the fourth stage on radsport-news.com
5. ↑ Race report on the fifth stage on radsport-news.com
6. ↑ Race report on the sixth stage on radsport-news.com