Reijnen doubles up on victories in split stage at the Tour of Rwanda

KIGALI, Nov 21 - Team Type 1 - SANOFI rider Kiel Reijnen held on to the leader´s jersey at the Tour of Rwanda in the strongest fashion possible on Monday, winning both races in a split stage with strong legs and even stronger teamwork.

Reijnen, from Colorado, took the morning´s 45km stage going away from Kigali after a slight incline at the finish, and then capped off the day chasing late breakaways back into Rwanda´s capital to win the 85km stage 2. He will go into Tuesday´s stage 3 with a 23 second lead ahead of two strong riders from South Africa´s MTN Qhubeka squad.

"We took control of the first stage with 1km to go. Will Dugan took it up the climb, and then Alexey Shmidt led me out from about 800 meters to go. Both stages were fast and very aggressive, with no real breaks at the start. But we wanted it that way," Reijnen said.

"In stage 2 we took control with about 10km to go, first with Alex Bowden, then with Alexey and Will. Joey Rosskopf took it on the climb and thenn an Ethiopian rider attacked hard. The guy in 2nd place on GC followed, so I followed too¨" Reijnen said.

The Ethiopian rider was passed with half a kilometer to the finish line, and Reijnen said he countered that move and rode away to the finish.

"It has been great teamwork so far. We have showed we are the strongest team here, but tomorrow is a big, long day of attrition, and lots can change," Reijnen said.

Team Type 1 - SANOFI rider Alex Bowden, who has type 1 diabetes and must monitor his blood glucose continuously and periodically take insulin to manage the disease, said teamwork was very strong on Monday.

"Alexey and I did a large amount of work for the final 25km of stage 2 in an effort to prevent any moves from getting up the road and ultimately it allowed for everyone else to set Kiel up for victory," Bowden said.

"My blood sugars were perfect on this stage varying between 110 and 160 the whole day and I even started feeling a bit better. Hopefully meaning that the slight illnessI have been dealing with may be coming to an end," Bowden said.

Based in Atlanta, Team Type 1 - SANOFI is the men´s professional cycling squad of Team Type 1, an organization of more than 140 athletes living, racing and winning with type 1 diabetes. Five of the 22 riders on the men´s professional squad have type 1 diabetes.

At the Tour of Rwanda, Team Type 1 has a full complement of riders in the race, and an even larger squad of amateur cyclists, educators and diabetes specialists spreading the diabetes message in Africa. In their second year in Rwanda, Team Type 1 has distributed more than 300,000 donated diabetes test strips, 600 blood glucose meters and countless other donated medical supplies.

You can follow Team Type 1 at the Tour of Rwanda on Facebook, and from our website www.teamtype1.org

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