The 33rd Tour de Guyane took place in the French overseas department of Guyane from August 17 to 25. Hermann Keller (Rad-Union Wangen), who competed as a guest rider for an English team, came fourth.

Third participation for Keller

The tour covered almost 1230 kilometers, divided into eleven stages. A short time trial and a road race were held over two days. 20 teams took part, including teams from the Netherlands, Great Britain, Guyana, mainland France and several French overseas departments.

For Keller, it was the third time he took part in the Tour de Guyane. During his last participation (2019), he was able to record a stage win as well as victory in the sprint and combination classification.

Keller takes over yellow jersey

Keller started this year’s tour motivated and fought his way to second place on the first stage. Thanks to time bonuses in the intermediate sprint, he also took the first yellow jersey of the tour. However, he had to give this up the following day in the time trial – he competed on a borrowed time trial bike. Instead, he secured the orange jersey of the leader in the combination ranking, in which the overall, sprint and intermediate sprint rankings are added together.

In the following stages, Keller repeatedly managed to place himself well in the final sprints. At the halfway point of the race, he took over the green jersey of the best sprinter and remained consistently in the top ten in the overall ranking.

On the eighth stage, which ended in Kourou, he took second place, moved up to fourth place in the overall standings thanks to the lead he had gained, and further extended his lead in the points and combination standings.

Fourth in time trial on borrowed bike

In the following time trial, Keller started again on a borrowed bike, took fourth place and reduced the gap to the third-placed rider to just eleven seconds. Since several riders were close together after the time trial, the last two stages were characterized by tactical games, numerous attacks and recovery actions. Keller placed in the top ten on both days, but due to his own leadership work and numerous attacks, he lacked the strength to reach the podium in the final sprint.

He still defended his fourth place in the overall rankings and won both the sprint and the combination rankings of the tour. After a rather cautious start to the season due to work-related pressures, his form is now on the rise again. On the third Sunday in September, when the Golden Wheel of the City of Wangen is up for grabs for the 90th time, Keller and his Wangen teammates want to be at the front again.