CYCLING: Confiance wins road race |27 August 2013

Young Fadi Confiance just edged his teammates to win the 95.5km road race that ended at Roche Caiman on Saturday afternoon.

The Eco Riders junior cyclist came into the home straight with three of his teammates who had caught up with him in the last stretch of the 24th race organised by the Seychelles Cycling Association, but he triumphed to win his first race of the season.

Altogether eighteen riders from clubs such as Strong Riders, Eco Rider Journey Cycling Club, St Francis and Journey Espoir had registered for this race which started off at Roche Caiman.

At the midway stage at Barbarons, the 2012 cyclist of the year Edward Pothin was in the lead closely followed by Journey Club Rider Peter Alphonse as they were ahead of the peloton by 35 seconds.

However St Francis rider Pothin could not maintain his advantage as he faced mechanical problem, allowing the Eco Riders team to overtake him, with classification leader Dominique Arissol among the group.

The 16-year-old Confiance though finished first along with two of his Eco Riders teammates namely Francis Louis, Chris Germain, who completed the podium as Eco Rider once again finished as the top team.

Confiance completed the race in 2 hours 46 minutes and 9 seconds and he told Sports Nation that he is really enjoying his season.

“It is my first win but my team is doing well this season and my teammates helped me to win this race today and I am very happy,” Confiance said.

Confiance is looking forward to next week’s road race as he is eager to continue his good run this season where he has been finishing regularly in the top three positions.

As for cycling chairman Lucas Georges, he told Sports Nation that Confiance is one of the promising young riders alongside Peter Alphonse who is a first-year cadet.

Chairman Georges added that Confiance cannot compete internationally until next year because of his age and this means that Mario Joubert and Edward Pothin will be leaving to attend a training camp and competition from September 15 to December 3 at the UCI (Union Cyclisme Internationale) Centre in South Africa.
Confiance, Joubert and Pothin recently attended a training camp in Tanzania.

R-J.L