Algerian cyclist is winner of Cameroon int'l cycling tour.

The lap was staged from Ngoulemakong in the South Region to Yaounde in the Centre, featuring a distance of 108.1km. 

Mansouri Islam finished the final lap ranking. But the 27-year-old secured the overall winner’s jersey after the rest of the chasing contenders failed to close up the 42 second lead that the Algerian had created when he took over the leadership position at the end of the nineth lap of the competition earlier on Saturday June 14. 

The Algerian covered the entire competition in 23 hours, 24 minutes and 39 seconds.  

Burkina Faso’s Rawence Moucalia did the race in 23 hours, 25 minutes and 21 seconds to rank second on the general classification while Germany’s Team Storck Metropol Cycling star, Schmitz Campo placed third after covering the entire tour in 23 hours, 25 minutes and 55 seconds. 

Cameroon’s top-performing cyclist, Clovis Kamzong Abossolo placed fifth. 

Kamzong Abossolo who has won the event a record three times and also entered the 2025 race as the defending champion, posted a timing of 23 hours, 27 minutes and 33 seconds, sitting two minutes and 54 seconds behind the overall winner.

Team Cameroon’s second and third finest performers in the competition, Kuere Rodrigue Nounawe of SNH Velo Club and Boris Michel Tientcheu of the National Cycling Team of Cameroon, ranked seventh and eighth respectively.

Boris Tientcheu led the competition from the first to the eighth lap before losing the leadership spot at the close of the eighth stage which took place from Pouma in the Littoral Region to Yaounde in the Centre Region. 

Mansouri Islam is the first Algerian to win the race. He becomes the third North African to win the competition in the last nine years. He follows on the footsteps of the Moroccan pair of Mohammed Errafai and Mohcine El Kouraji who won in 2016 and 2023 respectively. 

Some 60 cyclists drawn from eight countries competed in the 2025 race. 

Cameroon was represented by 18 cyclists grouped under the SNH Velo Club of National Hydrocarbons Corporations, the Cameroon National Cycling Team and newcomer, Espoir of Mboa.

Burkina Faso, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire and Algeria sent a team each while Germany, Poland and the Netherlands were also represented by a contingent of six cyclists each.

The competition which took place from June 3 to June 15, was staged across 10 laps.

The event flagged off with the opening lap which took place from Maroua to Mora and back to Maroua both in the Far North Region.

Controversy over cancellation of seventh lap

The seventh lap of the competition which was set to take place in a close circuit format in Douala was cancelled.

The Cameroon Cycling Federation, FECACYCLING announced following the cancellation that the decision was arrived at after cyclists refused to compete in the lap due to the poor state of the stretch of road that was expected to be used for the series.

The City Council of Douala however came out a day after the Wednesday June 12 cancellation to state that the obstacle was faced due to the lack of collaboration from the cycling federation’s end and not just because of the poor state of the road as earlier announced by FECACYCLING. 

The city council said the stretch of road that the federation selected for the lap were undergoing reconstruction works, insisting that FECACYCLING settled for the zone without reaching out to the council to get due approval to go ahead with the lap on the path.  

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3475 of Monday June 16, 2025