Cameroon: Despite financing constraints, Chantal Biya International Cycling Tour to go ahead

By Boris Esono Nwenfor [caption id="attachment_100554" align="alignnone" width="780"] Cameroon's first lady Chantal Biya poses with a winner of the Chantal Biya International Cycling Tour[/caption] Since its launch in 2003, the Chantal Biya International Cycling Tour will be marking its 22^nd edition when the race finally gets underway on October 2, 2022, in Garoua. The cyclists will have as their arrival point Yaounde, for a distance of 122.8km. Cameroon has won the tour just four times out of the twenty-one editions of the competition with SNH’s Yves Ngue Ngock being the only Cameroonian to have won it twice; in 2011 and 2013. SNH Vello Club’s Flaubert Douanla was the first Cameroonian to win the race in its second edition back in 2006. Due to financial issues, the race this year has been streamlined to just three regions as opposed to previous editions. For the first time, it will kick off in the city of Garoua in the North Cameroon region. It will be next October 2 and the cyclists will for this first day cover a distance of 99.2km. The tour will resume on October 5 with a route leaving Yaounde passing through Ngoumou to end in Ngomedzap. Then, the third lapse will consist of Yaoundé-Ebolowa Nkolandomonr on October 6. As for October 7 devoted to the fourth lapse, the athletes will pedal on the route Ebolowa-Mengong-Sangmélima. For the next day, the cities of Sangmelima-Mkwang-Zoetele-Meyomessala will constitute the fifth lapse. And the final stage scheduled for October 8, 2022, will be on the side of the Meyomessala ceremonial ground to end a competition. The race will cover a distance of 601 km covering three cities including Yaoundé, Ebolow, and Sangmelima. [caption id="attachment_100555" align="alignnone" width="780"] The race will cover a distance of 601 km covering three cities including Yaoundé, Ebolowa, and Sangmelima[/caption] Previous winners Cameroon’s celebrated Clovis Kamzong Abessolo of SNH Vello Club won the Chantal Biya Grand Prix yellow jersey in 2017 and will be having the ambition of finishing the race this year with the coveted yellow jersey. China’s Jianshi Luo won the first edition in 2003 while Netherlands’ Peter Van Agtmaal won the 2007 and 2009 editions. France’s Thomas Rostollan of team Allier won the 2008 cycling tour. Alexandre Mercier of Switzerland won the 2012 edition. Eritrea’s Meksep Debesey of the Bike Aid-Ride for Help was the winner in 2014, Morocco's Mouhssine Lahsaini in 2015 and France’s Martial Romain in 2016. Slovakia’s Juraj Bellan won in 2018, Azzedine Lagad of Algeria's VIB Sports club was a winner in 2019, in 2020, Rwanda's Moise Mogisha won and Lukas Kubis of Slovakia won the last edition of the Chantal Biya Grand Prix in 2021.