Tour du Faso

The Tour du Faso is an annual cycling tour through the West African country of Burkina Faso . It runs regularly over 10 days. The race has been part of the UCI Africa Tour since 2005 and is classified in UCI category 2.2.

The Tour du Faso is often seen as the most important cycling race in Africa and is referred to as the African Tour de France . The reason for this is in particular the enthusiasm of the spectators along the route.

history

The tour first started in 1987. From 2001 to 2008 the race was organized by the Amaury Sport Organization (ASO), which is also responsible for hosting the Tour de France.

The prize money of the tour in 2011 was 2500 euros for the team of the 27-year-old winner Zidweiba. The total cost of the tour was more than 500,000 euros for 15 participating teams with six riders each on 10 stages over a total of around 1280 km and were largely borne by government organizations.

The Tour du Faso 2011 started with the help of the advice of a German consultant for the first time after 1996 a German team, which was formed especially for this purpose, on the tour. About the Tour du Faso In 2011, filmmaker Wilm Huygen shot the Franco-German documentary Tour du Faso .

The 2012 race was overshadowed by a death: The Belgian Gunther Cuylits died of cardiac arrest in a restaurant in Ouagadougou a few hours after the award ceremony for the tour, in which he was eighth overall .

The 2014 race was canceled due to the Ebola epidemic .

In 2017 a film team from NDR accompanied a German cycling team led by Benjamin Stauder for the documentary Tour du Faso: The biggest cycling race in Africa . Stauder won five stages on the tour and the green jersey of the best in points and rode a total of three days in the yellow jersey of the overall leader.