Tour Of China Stage 5
Oscar Clark wins the day, Stefan Schumacher takes ToC2 overall
The final stage of Tour of China 2 was a true criterium, covering just nine laps of a 10km circuit around the city of Tianjing, employing the finish line of yesterday’s individual time trial. The hardest climb was the camber of the road, but the route offered plenty of twists and turns, and more than one team felt that, this time, a breakaway might just make it to the finish.
On Lap 1, there were numerous early attacks: Jordi Simón of the Andalucia team (dossard 6) – 9th in the Tour de l’Avenir last year, and 2nd in a stage there to Michael Hepburn – Maartin Tusveld (Rabobank 2, 45) and Marek Canecky (Salcano-Arnavutkoy, 93) made a spirited attack that soon fizzled out, before three riders did manage to open a small gap: Anton Samohlavov (RusVelo, 12), Anatoliy Pakhtusov (ISD-Lampre) and Joe Lewis (BMC-Hincapie Sportswear, 116) led for about two laps in all, with a maximum advantage of 22 seconds.
But on the approach to the first intermediate sprint of the day, Champion System chased them down to set up Anuar Manan for the sprint points. Serebryakov started the day with a ten-point lead over Anuar in the blue jersey competition, and the Malaysian was determined to make a race of it.
Anuar won the sprint, closely followed by the plucky Joe Lewis, with Harrif Saleh, Anuar’s lead-out man when he still rode of Terengganu, picking up third. With one sprint down, Anuar lay five points behind Serebryakov, with 26 possible points left in the race. Game on.
The peloton stayed together for the next twenty kilometres, until Intermediate Sprint 2. Again, Champion System provided the perfect assistance, and again, Anuar darted across the line first, ahead of Tyler Magner (BMC-Hincapie Sportswear, 112) and Ruslan Tleubayev (Astana 2, 153). Suddenly, Serebryakov’s safe lead in the points competition had dissolved, and Anuar Manan was on fire.
Beyond the sprint line, as the peloton slowed to catch its breath, four riders took advantage to form the final break away of the day. Two of them were Andalucia riders - Jordi Simón once more, accompanied by Román Osuna (dossard 40), with Marc Goos of Rabobank 2 (7th in yesterday’s time trial, and 6th overall, 55 seconds from the yellow jersey) and another BMC rider, Oscar Clark, a real criterium specialist sitting second overall in the US national criterium series – not that the others will have known this.
Those four built a maximum lead of 60 seconds, assisted from the rear by sandbagging by Andalucia and Rabobank. The Spanish team placed riders at the front of the peloton over the penultimate lap, effectively killing the chase and ensuring the quartet of leaders had an advantage of 50 seconds going int ot he last lap. Rabobank applied the same tactic over the crucial kilometres between 10km and 5km out.
By the time RusVelo and TeamType 1-Sanofi finally broke the inertia and launched the chase in earnest, it was too late.
Goos, a 21-year-old from the countryside outside Breda, proved he may be a fine time triallist and an effective climber, but no sprinter, by being at the front far too early. Over the final metres, Oscar Clarke and Román Osuna came passed him. The American, 23 years old from Atlanta, Georgia, took what he called, post-stage, ‘the best result I’ve had all year by far. To be at the end like this and finish it off is awesome.
‘I’m not a big sprinter: normally I’m working for someone else in the sprints. Today we thought a breakaway could stay away. It’s the last day, everyone’s tired, and there were plenty of corners. It felt more like a US criterium.’
Goos capped a good Tour of China with third place in the stage. ‘I’m a bit disappointed – I was too early at the front, but I’m not a big sprinter, it’s OK.’ Yet to have a firm ride for 2013, Goos will be hoping his results here attract some offers.
So, clever, very slightly underhand teamwork from Andalucia and Rabobank 2 helped demonstrate the truth of Chapatte’s theorem – the general rule that a breakaway with a lead of one minute per ten kilometres has a chance of making it – but all they achieved was victory for the wrong rider all together! BMC-Hincapie Sportswear celebrated victory in the final stage of Tour of China 1 with Tyler Magner. Oscar Clark’s canny ride allowed them to do the same in ToC2.
Behind the leading quartet, Alexandr Serebryakov (Team Type 1-Sanofi) led the peloton home, securing the sprint jersey by virtue of a better finish than Anuar Manan. Anuar was nowhere in attendance: perhaps tired, perhaps badly positioned, he didn’t dispute the final sprint at all. Perhaps he was just lucky: a nasty fall 50m from the line say Tyler Magner, Ben Hill (Australia, 124), Hsiao Shih Hsin (Action, 182) and one of the Salcano riders (perhaps Gabor Kasa, 96) go down. Plenty of skin stayed on the asphalt, but there were, as we go to press, no reports of anything more serious.
Those four riders face an uncomfortable journey home. Not so Tour of China 2 winner, Stefan Schumacher: he slid virtually sideways to avoid the fall, and made it home in one piece.
“The last race I won was Tour of Serbia,” he said after the stage. “I went down at the end of the final stage and ended up with a valve impaled in my arm, all the way through to the bone. I had to walk across the finish line to finish the race.
“This is the first time I’ve won my final race of the season. Whatever the rest of the year brings, it’s nice to see out 2012 this way.”
Stage 5 Results – Tour of China II
1. CLARK Oscar (BHD) 1:46:01
2. SUNA MONTES Roman (ACG)
3. GOOS Marc (RB3)
4. SIMON CASULLERAS Jordi (ACG)
5. SEREBRYAKOV Alexander (TT1) 1:46:04
6. TLEUBAYEV Ruslan (AS2)
7. FURLAN Angelo (CWO)
8. ILESIC Aldo Ino (TT1)
9. VAN DER LIJKE Nick (RB3)
10. KRASNOV Leonid (RVL)
General classification – Tour of China II
1. SCHUMACHER Stefan (CWO) 10:28:33
2. HUIZENGA Jenning (RB3) 0:00:27
3. POPKOV Vitaliy (ISD) 0:00:33
4. WURF Cameron (CSS) 0:00:39
5. GOOS Marc (RB3) 0:00:45
6. LOVELOCK-FAY Mitchell (AUS) 0:00:48
7. VERMEER Tom (TSP) 0:00:56
8. MÜLLER Dirk (TSP) 0:00:59
9. CLARK Oscar (BHD) 0:01:03
10. KERBY Jordan (AUS) 0:01:06
Stage 4 Stage report
"Schumacher supreme in the time trial."
Stage 4 of Tour of China 2 took place 75 miles south-east of Beijing in northern China’s largest coastal city, Tianjing, (population: 12 and a half million). It was the decisive race day, the one real chance to make a impact on the overall standings – but only for the time-trial specialists.
The 18.2 kilometre route led outwards along the Hanbei Road and back again the same way. No tactics, nowhere to hide. Rider, clock, pain. The usual.
BMC-Hincapie Sportswear’s outstanding Tanner Putt (dossard 111), 20 years old, 2nd in the US U23 road race in June and bound for Bontrager-Livestrong in 2013, set the early time to beat with 24.01.388. His lead lasted 45 minutes before José Luis Cano of Andalucia, level on mountains points with the World Cycling Centre alumnus Sergiu Cioban (Tusnad, 62) but trailing Cioban in GC, became the first rider to break the 24 minute barrier. Cano’s time of 23.22.728 subsequently stood for another 38 minutes.
Astana 2’s Alexandr Shushumoin rode into provisional second place with 23.50.618. He was displaced by the Russian pursuit team member Ivan Kovalev, fresh from 4th place at the London Games, who rode 23.46.116.
It was Tom Vermeer (Nutrixxion-Abus, 102), swashbuckling all week – he instigated the early attacks on stages 2 and 3 – who finally smashed Cano’s mark. Vermeer’s time of 23.05.912 would stand for 24 minutes, until the last four riders were riding.
Sergiu Cioban was the next name to finish. He led Cano by 16 seconds in GC, and had the clearest of targets: 23.38.728 to retain his mountains jersey. But his efforts were hampered by mechanical problems: a loose saddle led to a bike change, and despite a determined sprint for the finish line, his time of 24.17.192 was 29 seconds too slow. Cano would stand on the podium in polka dots and, barring alien abduction, will win that category tomorrow.
42 seconds after Cioban finished, the former Discovery Channel and Radioshack rider Li Fuyu, riding here for China Hope Star (dossard 203), made his challenge for the Best Chinese Rider’s jersey with a time of 23.59.520. Prior to the stage, Li trailed Kwok Ho Ting (China-Hong Kong, 172) by five seconds in that competition. Kwok was already on the road when Li set his mark; whether or not Kwok knew what he had to do is immaterial. The Cantanese rider rode 24.10.817, to end the day the way Li Fuyu started it: five seconds away from the jersey. But for him, there is no clear way back: Li Fuyu must be odds on favourite to win that competition – officially known as the Great China Riders General Classification – tomorrow afternoon. Still, with 19 seconds of time bonuses available in tomorrow’s stage, there could still be life in the white jersey competition.
The occasional impressive time came in: Angelo Furlan (Christina Watches-Onfone, 75), the multi-lingual bike acrobat who keeps his colleagues entertained most mornings with start-line equilibrism, rode 23.41.507. Cano’s Andalucia colleague Jordi Simón (6) – on paper, the better tester of the two – rode 23.40.052. BMC-Hincapie Sportswear’s Tyler Magner, who has been singularly impressive in China, winning the final stage of China 1 and animating yesterday’s big breakaway, proved he’s more than just a sprinter with 23.57.593.
Matija Kvasina of Tusnad (race number 65) rode an excellent 23.38.716, and RusVelo’s Valery Valynin achieved a sub-24 minute mark. Then, the final ten riders started.
21-year-old Marc Goos (Rabobank 2, 43) made the turn at 12 minutes 47 seconds. On the finish line Goos moved into provisional second place with 23.14.177. Mitch Lovelock-Fay of the Australian National Team (dossard 126), a year Goos’s junior, was eight seconds faster than Goos at the halfway point, and six seconds faster at the finish line, replaced him in provisional second place with a final time of 23.08.526.
Dirk Müller (Nutrixxion-Abus, 101) complained of respiratory illness before the stage, rode a slow first half (his split time was only 12 minutes 56) but still managed a respectable 23.21.504. Six more riders to finish. Lovelock-Fay’s team-mate Jordan Kerby rode inside Goos’s time for the first half of the race – his split time was 12 minutes 45 seconds – but he disappointed slightly in the second half and stopped the clock at 23.32.927. Five to finish.
Jenning Huizenga (Rabobank 2, 41) was a little slower than Lovelock-Fay at the split – 12.44 for the Dutchman, compared with 12.39 for the Australian – but he was already within eleven seconds of his minute man, the sprinter Alexander Serebryakov (Team Type 1-Sanofi, 26). Huizenga rode the second part like a champion and crossed the finish line with the first sub-22 minute time. His 22.56.368 performance looked like a possible winning one. Three more to finish.
ISD-Lampre’s excellent Vitaliy Popkov, 29 now and a veteran of two Olympic Games with the Ukranian national pursuit team (sixth in Beijing), crossed the halfway point in 12.36, who had already been overtaken by Huizenga, ahead of him. On the finish line, Popkov’s time of 23.03.071 was nearly seven seconds slower than Huizenga’s, so the he slotted temporarily into second place. Two riders left on the course.
Cameron Wurf (Champion System, 35) reached the halfway point in 12:24. A minute later, his rival Stefan Schumacher (Christina Watches-Onfone, 74) reached the same point in the same time. Wurf had 9.1 kilometres in which to gain five seconds on a rider who could see his every pedal stroke along these long, straight, broad roads.
He powered towards the finish and crossed the line in 23.10.463: fifth overall in the stage, with Schumacher the only rider still on the course. But Popkov and
Huizenga were now ahead of him in GC – and how was the German riding the second half of the course?
Schumacher sped purposefully on in his unmistakably muscular style. He crossed the line, the clock stopped, and one thing was immediately clear: Wurf had not done enough. 22.36.452. It was a masterful performance: as in the Prologue, Schumacher was simply too good for the rest of this field. And his time trial had not been easy.
‘My chain came off at the turn. Luckily I had good hands and controlled the bike OK, then I replaced the chain by hand and didn’t lose too much time. But after the turn I expected a tailwind. I looked down at the computer and saw 47 kph, and I thought to myself, “You don’t win a time trial at 47 kph!”
‘I expected Cameron Wurf to be my closest rival, but thankfully I could see him ahead of me all the time.’
Instead, it was Rabobank 2’s Jenning Huizenga who came closest to Schumacher’s time, and replaced Cameron Wurf in second spot overall, 27 seconds slower than the race leader. Huizenga, as we’ve noted before in these reports, was the silver medallist in the 2008 World IP final to Bradley Wiggins.
‘I’ve followed Brad’s career ever since. Too bad he has made more progress than me. I didn’t ride for two years after that final because of illness, and this is my second year back on the bike. I rode at the London Olympics – we were 7th in the Team Pursuit – maybe I can step up now on the road.’
Huizenga was not disappointed with second place. ‘I know with a guy like Stefan in the race it was going to be hard. He’s been a time trial winner at the Tour de France. I probably maxxed out with second place. I haven’t been super at this race, so second place is OK.’
Popkov moves into third place overall, 33 seconds slower than Schumacher and 6 seconds slower than Huizenga. Wurf slips from second to fourth, another six seconds back, with Mitch Lovelock-Fay 5th at 48 seconds and Marc Goos completing the top six, at 55 seconds.
One stage, three intermediate sprints and 19 bonus seconds to go.
Stage times with unofficial split times:
1. 74 Stefan Schumacher (Unofficial split 12.34) 22:36.452
2. 41 Jenning Huizenga (Unofficial split 12.44) 22:56.368
3. 51 Vitaliy Popkov (Unofficial split 12.36) 23:03.071
4. 102 Tom Vermeer 23:05.912
5. 126 Mitch Lovelock-Fay (Unofficial split 12.39) 23:08.526
6. 35 Cameron Wurf (Unofficial split 12.34) 23:10.463
7. 43 Marc Goos (Unofficial split 12.47) 23:14.177
8. 101 Dirk Müller (Unofficial split 12.56) 23:21.504
9. 125 Jordan Kerby (Unofficial split 12.45) 23:32.927
10. 115 Oscar Clark 23:29.228
Also:
24. 95 Ivan Stevic (Unofficial split 13.15) 24:10.468
52. 26 A. Serebryakov (Unofficial split 13.33) 25:02.662
Overall standings:
1 74 SCHUMACHER Stefan CWO 8:42:29
2 41 HUIZENGA Jenning RB3 8:42:56 +27
3 51 POPKOV Vitaliy ISD 8:43:02 +33
4 35 WURF Cameron CSS 8:43:08 +39
5 126 LOVELOCK-FAY Mitchell AUS 8:43:17 +4
6 43 GOOS Marc RB3 8:43:24 +55
7 102 VERMEER Tom TSP 8:43:25 +56
8 101 MÜLLER Dirk TSP 8:43:28 +59
9 125 KERBY Jordan AUS 8:43:35 +1:06
10 115 CLARK Oscar BHD 8:43:45 +1:16
FINAL LEADERBOARD
Individual General Classification (Yellow jersey): Stefan SCHUMACHER (Christina Watches – Onfone)
Points Classification (Blue jersey): Alexander Serebryakov (Team Type 1 – Sanofi)
King of the Mountains Classification (Polka Dot jersey): José Luis Cano (Andalucia)
Best Great China Rider Classification (White jersey): Li Fuyu (China Hope Star)
Teams General Classification: Christina Watches – Onfone