Adrien Petit continued the dream start to his time as a Direct Energie rider as he took his second victory in just five days of racing for his new team on stage 5 of the Tropicale Amissa Bongo. After short climbs had whittled down the peloton to a small group, he emerged as the fastest in the sprint, holding off Armindo Fonseca (Fortuneo-Vital Concept) and Tesform Okubamariam (Eritrea) who takes the overall lead by virtue of bonus seconds.

Direct Energie have been keen to strengthen the lead-out for Bryan Coquard and the key signing in the process of building a train is former Cofidis rider Adrien Petit. However, the former U23 Worlds runner-up his currently proving that he is also ready to obtain personal results as he is flying in Africa’s biggest race, Tropicale Amissa Bongo.

Petit already showed his good form in the opening stage where he finished third, and two days later he took his first win for his new team in the uphill sprint on stage 3. Today he doubled his tally as he came out on top in another tricky stage that included a late climb perfectly suited to his punchy characteristics.

After yesterday’s trip Cameroun visit, the race was back on Gabonese soil for stage 5 which brought the riders over 118.6km from Meyo Kye to Oyem.It was a lumpy course with numerous small climbs of which three were categorized. There was an early KOM and then the riders faced two challenges inside the final 20km. The first came with 16.3km to go and then the riders tackled the final ascent just 2.4km from the finish from where it was downhill all the way to the line.

There was no room to recover from the brutal heat in Gabon when the riders took off and they got the stage off to the usual aggressive start. Jeremy Nzeke (Cameron), Isiaka Cisse (Ivory Coast), Murilo Affonso (Funvic), Yemeli (Cameroon) and Abdelbasat Hannachi (Algeria) were all active but they failed to get clear.

At the 10km mark, Brice Feillu (Fortuneo Vital Concept), Yannick Lontsi (Cameron) and Tony Hurel (Direct Energie) managed to escape and they built an advantage of 35 seconds. However, the failed refused to let them go, and at the 18km mark it was all back together.

Aron Debretsion (Eritrea) beat Patrick Byukusenge (Rwanda) and Joseph Areruya (Rwanda) in the first KOM sprint before French champion Steven Tronet (Fortuneo-Vital Concept) took off in a solo move after 24km of racing. He had an advantage of 26 seconds at the 26km mark but the aggressive peloton neutralized the move just 4km later.

Hannachi was very active and managed to escape after 37km of racing and this time the peloton didn’t react. At the 55km mark, he had extended his lead to 3 minutes.

Hanachi won the first intermediate sprint before Tesform Okubamariam (Eritrea) beat his teammate Elias Afewerki in the sprint for second, thus picking up important bonus seconds. The peloton was now riding a lot faster and at the 62km mark, they had reduced the gap to just 1.40.

After 65km of racing, Janvier Hadi (Rwanda) and Cissé tried to bridge the gap to the lone leader as the peloton again slowed down. Five kilometres later they had reduced their deficit to 44 seconds while the peloton was again 2.40 behind.

The junction was made at the 76km mark when the leading trio had an advantage of 3.20 and it even went out to four minutes after 82km of racing. That’s when the peloton reacted and they had brought the gap to 3.15 when Hannachi beat Hadi and Cissé in the second intermediate sprint t the 90km mark.

The gap was coming down fast and so Hadi took off in a solo move. He led the peloton by 1.50 after 95km of racing while his former companions were caught.

Hadi won the second KOM sprint while Patrick Byukusenge (Rwanda) and Francisco Mancebo (Skydive Dubai) were first from the peloton but he was unable to hold off the peloton. He still managed to win the final intermediate sprint though before Adil Jelloul (Morocco) protected his captain Andrea Palini by taking second place. However, he was unable to prevent Okubamariam from picking up a single second for third place.

Hadi was caught with 10km to go and all was set for a sprint finish. Affonso tried a late move with 4km to go but it was impossible to get away. However, the climbs had taken its toll and it was a reduced peloton that hit the final climb.

Riders lost contact as they tackled the ascent but it all came down to a reduced bunch sprint. Here Petit turned out to be the fastest as he beat Armindo Fonseca into second. Importantly, Okubamariam finished third and so picked up another four bonus seconds, increasing his daily tally to seven.

The Eritrean had started the day six seconds behind Palini who could only manage sixth and so moves into the overall lead with a 1-second advantage over the Italian. Petit is also one second adrift in third while TT specialist Anthony Delaplace (Fortuneo-Vital Concept) is 13 seconds behind in fourth.

Hence, all is set for a very exciting penultimate stage that sees the riders tackle a short 4km time trial in Akanda before the race will be decided on Sunday with a flat circuit race in the capital of Libreville.