The last race of the Tour of China was run today through the streets of Wuhan and it was an exhilarating day. The race covered may have only covered ninety kilometers of winding roads but there was no lack of action. The stage was run through the most scenic areas the tour has seen so far and featured one last KOM and intermediate sprint. The spectators at the finish line witnessed another thrilling sprint for victory.
The race set off on time, under cloudy skies but without the drizzle the riders have had to face for much of the tour. The conditions were slightly windy but this hasn't slowed the riders on other days and today was no exception. After less than four kilometers a group of five riders broke away from the field and formed a group. At first the break looked doomed because they couldn't get more than thirty seconds away from the peleton. Eventually, the peleton gave up chasing hard and allowed the group to gain an advantage of nearly two minutes.
The high pace of the break caused one rider to get shot out of the front pack, leaving Valery Valynin (RusVelo), Anatoliy Pakhtusov (ISD-Lampre Continental Team), Johnathan Fumeaux (TeamAtlas-Personal Jakroo) and Ilya Davidenok (Continental Team Astana) to try to keep the pack at bay. They all took turns pulling so they took the KOM and intermediate sprint whilst denying other riders the valuable points. The leaders were cheered on by people who lined almost the entire race route. The group managed to stay away until about ten kilometers before the line, at which point the group swallowed them up and prepared for a sprint finish.
The finishing straight was wide open so it should have been one for the teams with the strong lead out trains. However, there was a tricky corner about 1.5 kilometers from the finish which made a mess of the lead out men's plans. Tyler Magner from BMC-Hincapie Sportswear Development Team jumped out of the corner and opened up a gap of several meters on the field. The lead out men quickly regrouped and chased hard to catch Magner. It looked like they were going to catch him but at the line it was Magner who edged out Jack Bekinsdale (Australia National Team) and Maksym Vasilyev (ISD-Lampre Continental Team) for the win.
This being the final day, the jerseys were given out for the final time. Martin Pedersen (Team Christina Watches-Onfone) kept the yellow jersey, which he held from the second stage. Alexander Serebryakov (Team Type 1-Sanofi) won the blue jersey as the sprint competition winner and Matija Kvasina won the polka dot jersey as the tour's best climber. Pengda Jiao from Champion System Pro Cycling Team took the white jersey for the best Chinese rider from his teammate Xu Gang. This stage concluded the Tour of China 1, but the Tour of China 2 will start on September 18th so there is more great racing to come from China.
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Today saw the running of the fifth stage of the 2012 Tour of China. The skies were cloudy but it was an improvement on the rain that marred yesterday's stage. The riders had to circle the flat course ten times for a total of 115 kilometers. There were three intermediate sprints which were important because we have seen daily changes in the Points Jersey.
For the first few laps saw the riders stay together but the huge crowds that were assembled didn't seem to mind as they cheered loudly every time they saw the riders fly past. At the first sprint point Leonid Krasnov from the RusVelo team nipped the peleton at the line. They group stayed together until after the second sprint point which was again won by Krasnov. After that the riders began to get a little more combative.
A group of fifteen riders escaped and it included the Yellow Jersey holder Martin Pedersen (CWO) but nobody that was a threat to Taiji Nishitani (AIS) who held the sprinter jersey. They initially had a break of about fifteen seconds. The group was making an attempt to hold the gap and Team Christina Watches-Onfone did a good job of disrupting the chase. The group did a reasonable job of working together but they were never able to get more than twenty seconds clear of the bunch. They did, however, hold the lead through the third intermediate sprint, denying the riders who were vying for the lead of the sprinters' contest. Unfortunately for Nishitani, he would not wear the blue jersey for a second day because he was involved in a crash just after the final intermediate sprint.
With the riders heading into the final lap, there was still a group of about fifteen riders in a breakaway which held onto a small gap but it was clear that most of the riders in the lead group were happy to sit in and let others work for them. By the time they approached the finishing straight the break had been absorbed back into the group which lead to a group sprint. The final sprint was slightly downhill and there was a tailwind which pushed up the speeds. The RusVelo team, along with Aisan Racing Team and Team Type 1-Sanofi all had sprint trains and were neck and neck, drag racing to the line. RusVelo was ahead early but they jumped too early so Alexander Serebryakov (TT1) was able to claim his second stage win of the tour.
The Tour of China concludes tomorrow with stage six which will be run through the streets of Wuhan. This will see the second mountain sprint of the tour. Matija Kvasina (TCT) will be looking to keep his Polka Dot Jersey as the tour's best climber so he will be trying to take home as many points as he can so he can wear the jersey on the final podium. The last stage looks to favor Team Type 1-Sanofi but teams with nothing to show for so far in this tour will be challenging them for the win.
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Riders Battle the Elements and Each Other in the Fourth Stage of the Tour of China
After a transfer day the riders started the fourth stage of the Tour of China in Xiangyang. Rain clouds loomed before the start but that didn't dampen the enthusiasm of the crowd that gathered to watch the start of the race. The crowd witnesses the most exciting racing that we've seen so far in this tour.
Although prior stages saw riders attacking literally from the gun, today was a little more relaxed, but this feeling didn't last. A couple of riders got away from the peleton before the first intermediate sprint but they were unable to stay away and they were swallowed up. We saw a group sprint for the first intermediate stage. The post lull sprint lull in speed tempted riders to make escapes, most ending in failure. One group did, however, get away. Six riders took off up and they worked hard together and managed to stay away from the group. This marked the first time in the tour that a break has managed to stay away more than a few minutes.
With a group away, and not containing anyone who was a threat to the overall lead in the rankings, the peleton was happy to sit up a little and let the breakaway group slowly build up a lead. The lead group got up to a nearly two minute lead before it started to fall. The group worked well together until the second sprint point. After the sprint point two of the riders sat up, leaving a group of four including Andi Bajc (SLC), Roman Semyonov (AS2), Hamid Bagher Shiri Sisan (UST) and Chun Kai Feng (ACT) to try to hold off the peleton. It looked as though the riders might be able to hang on for the win because of how well they were cooperating and their distance to the field. In their favor were the conditions which began to deteriorate because rain began to fall.
The rain was light at first and becoming heavier as the race wore on. The race saw rain earlier in the week but it failed to slow the speeds and the group of four was caught after within the last ten kilometers. With the pack back together and finish line not far off, the pace increased. Riders reported that the peleton was nervous which was perhaps well-founded as there was a crash within the last three kilometers of the race sent Thomas Friel (CWO) to hospital with possible broken bones.
The increasingly heavy rain and the crash did not slow the riders down for the finishing sprint. The crash caused chaos in the peleton so Team Type 1-Sanofi was unable to organize a lead out and were not able to claim another stage win. The sprint was an every-man-for-himself affair in which Japanese rider Taiji Nishitani from the Aisan Racing Team nipped Angelo Furlan (CWO) for the stage win. The best that Team Type 1 could do was a third place with Alexander Serebryakov.
With the win, Nishitani took over the in the points classification, which marks yet another change in the leadership of the points classification. The other jerseys remained unchanged with Martin Pedersen (CWO) holding onto yellow, Matija Kvasina (TCT) in polka dots and Xu Gang (CSS) retaining the white jersey. Tomorrow the riders will compete in another circuit race in the city of Zaoyang 117 kilometers south of Xiangyang. Expect to see more fast racing and an another exciting sprint finish.