Wet opening prologue at Tour du Rwanda

Umberto Poli (ITA):

“I started really-well, probably too well because the last kilometer I started to suffer and started to pay the price for starting too fast. But I’m happy because I haven’t done a prologue in a long time and sometimes the short effort can suit me.”

“The conditions didn’t help today, but they were the same for everyone and we are happy that we came through without any problems. I’m looking forward to tomorrow, it’s going to be hard, but I love racing here and the last couple of days training on the Rwandan roads have been fantastic.”

Sports Director Gennady Mikhaylov (RUS):

“In theory it was a good way to start the race today. A short and fast prologue to open the lungs and get the legs pumping and help the guys acclimatize for the next week of racing, which is going to be very tough. But the rain made things a little more interesting.”

“Our only goal today was to come through without any problems due to the weather conditions and the extremely wet course. Thankfully we managed that and now we can look ahead to tomorrow and the real start of the race.”