2016 Amissa Tropical Bongo Tour already set

Faithful to its philosophy, the 2016 Amissa Tropical Bongo cyclists’ tour is set to kick off today in Gabon.

The 11th edition of the competition will be conducted between 18-24, January 2016.

After being in existence for 10 years, the tropical tour will tussle across the major routes of Gabon. On the first day, the athletes will first commence at Kango to Lambaréné which extends for 146 km. The tour will take seven day with each day slotted for different destinations as follows: Monday 18, Kango > Lambaréné (146 km), Tuesday-Fougamou > Mouila (105 km), Wednesday-Lambaréné > Ndjole (130 km), Thursday-Oyem > Ambam (Cameroon) (141 km) Friday-Meyo Kie (3 borders) > Oyem (119 km), Saturday-Amanda > Stade de l’Amitié (ITT) (4 km), Sunday-Cap Esterias > Libreville (132 km). In total, the adventurous all terrain routes sum up to 777 km.

At least 15 teams will participate including teams from other continent. Last year, Team Europcar won the tour and were followed by Skydive Dubai Pro Cycling in the second place. Team Rwanda emerged the third and were also the best African team.

Individually, Chtioui Rafaâ (Tunisia) had emerged the winner and was followed by Bernaudeau Giovanni (France) and Belmokhtar Abdelkader (Algeria) respectively last year.

Thomas Voeckler is also expected to participate in the Amissa Tropical Bongo. He is expected to put pressure to other cyclists during the whole competition. This will be his third time to participate in these competitions since 2010.

For this 11th edition, the Africa King of cycling must show his mightiness to reveal his maturity and audacity to overcome the hectic routes.