The Tour du Faso

The African cycling happening par excellence: the famous Tour du Faso. On Saturday, 28th October 2006, Heleen and Wim were loudly supporting the cycling glory of Burkina and of Belgium. The finish of the fourth ride was to take place in the centre of Ouahigouya, on the Place de la Nation.

From early in the morning, the crowd was waiting curiously and impatiently on the arrival of the peloton.

In the full sun, waiting takes long.

According to what we are used to here, the organisation of the Tour du Faso seemed very efficient and professional to us. The policemen controlled all too excited spectators.

Aren’t they arriving yet?

Finally, the peloton!

Here the wheelmen flash by for a first time. They’re making another tour in town, before coming back and heading straight to the finishing line.

Hard to imagine that the cyclers go faster than 40 km/h with these high temperatures.

Three cyclists, a Frenchman, a Belgian and a Burkinese, go together to the final bend.

Wahab Sawadogo, the Burkinese, drops out first while sprinting and finishes third. Finally, it is the Frenchman Bonsergent (at the left, only half on the picture) who wins before the Belgian hope David Verdonck (on the right).

The grandstand is waiting for the prize-giving ceremony.

And there you have the winner of the day: the Frenchman Bonsergent.

The winner of today’s ride gets a bottle of Champaign.

And the Belgians? Saturday, they had to satisfy themselves with a second place for David Verdonck and with the green jersey that his team mate Lionel Syne is putting on here. One week later, David Verdonck was celebrated as the final winner of the Tour du Faso, edition 2006.