| Jure takes his second as Mizurov shows his strength |
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| By Paul Verkuylen, in Menyuan, China |
Last year Kocjan Jure won the second to final stage in Huzhu under controversial circumstances after the two riders who had a small advantage over the leading group took a wrong turn with less that two kilometres to go. This year Jure has shown his class as a sprinter capable of staying with the leaders over the big mountains by winning his second stage of the race in similar circumstances to his first on stage two.
After cresting the final climb within range of the leaders, the Slovenian easily bridged the gap on the descent. From then on all he had to do was stay in the wheels and bide his time, before switching on the after burners with just a few hundred meters to the finish.
It worked on stage two, and it worked again today. His win on stage two may have been seen to be a one off, given that the relatively short stage of just 95 kilometres may not have been long enough or mountainous enough for the true climbers to sap the energy from the rest of the field. By winning today's queen stage, the longest of the tour at 178 kilometres and also the toughest with its two haute category climbs, Jure certainly dispelled that notion.
Behind Jure, Dmitriy Fofonov (Kazachstan) took his second runner up position of the race, while the green jersey of Rogina Radoslav (Loborika) was third and is proving to be a solid all rounder, but in reality Jure was never threatened for the win.
“I am very happy with the win today, it was a very tough stage so to win is great,” Jure explained in between high five-ing his team-mates as they finished the stage to find that he had won.
“The last three kilometres of the climb I was on my maximum, I was almost on the back of the first group, and I said this morning that if I was in the first group over the climb I could win for sure.
“My team-mate Andrej Omulec worked very hard for me in the sprint, while Mitja Mahoric
defended his second place on general classification. I knew that if we came to the finish as a group that I would be the fastest.”
A shuffle but no real change on GC
With today being the toughest stage of the tour so far, it was expected that the fight for general classification would blow apart the peloton. Although this was the case, there was no real change in the overall classification at the pointy end of the field, with Mizurov still holding onto his overall lead from Mahoric and Rogina.
“For me today was no problem. I am a climber so the mountains are not a problem,” a confident Mizurov said after receiving his eight yellow jersey of the race, he has lead now since day one.
“That there is such a long distance from the top of the mountain to the finish is a shame. Normally if there is a race with a Houres Category climb then we finish on the mountain. That there is such a distance to the finish, is a problem.”
After the first climb of the day at just 34 kilometres, a small group rolled off the front on the descent, gradually building up over a four minute lead. Contained in this group were two real threats to the yellow jersey of Andrey Mizurov (Tabriz Petrochemicals) – Yevgeniv Sladkov (Kazakhstan) and Lucas Persson (Capinordic) who, apart from an off day on stage one where he lost four minutes, has been riding a solid race. Mizurov's team-mate and mountains classification leader Ahad Sarai Kazemi policing the break for his captain.
At one stage these two riders had amassed enough time to move into the virtual first and second position, respectively. But as the main peloton began the major climb to 3800 meters, the lead of the six riders out front was first brought back to a more manageable range before Mizurov set off in pursuit of the leaders with third placed overall, Rogina.
Just a few kilometres later Mizurov was on his own, taking huge chucks of time out of the leaders with every kilometre. By the time they had reached half way the climb, Mizurov had assumed the head of the race with Sarai Kazemi.
Working together, these two rode strongly to claim first and second as they crossed the summit of the highest pass of the tour.
But with over 15 kilometres of descent followed by 25 kilometres of flat roads leading to the finish in Menyuan, the pair decided it was better to wait for the chase group and conserve energy for tomorrows brutal stage to Huzhu.
As the lead group hit the flat roads to the finish, a small but dangerous move went off the front. Mitja Mahoric and Fofonov, policed by Ghader Mizbani Iranagh held a lead of around a half a minute for 10 kilometres, but when Mizurov realised that his overall lead may be in jeopardy, he jumped on the front and chased the break down himself.
“It was a dangerous move, so I had to work,” he explained.
At five kilometres to go Mizurov even tried to escape himself, but the Slovenian team quickly shut him down.
“Mizurov was definitely the strongest guy in the race,” Jure explained. “Mitja tried in the last 20 kilometres, and had a half a minute advantage before the Iranian team worked hard to catch him, with about 10 kilometres to go.”
“On the climb it will be hard [to get away from Mizurov], but maybe on the descents and the flat he can get away. We will see tomorrow, but I think that we will be happy with second in the general classification.”
“Tomorrow's stage was the one that I won last year, so I will try again to be in the first group on the climb, and I will try to sprint again,” Jure concluded.
Jure may be faced with a tough task as Mizurov hinted that unlike today there is no flat run in to the finish, which may work in his favour, as he may try to capture another stage to go with his prologue win.
“Tomorrow there are more mountains so the race is not over. It is only downhill to the finish, there is no flat,” he said.
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| Stage
Map&Profile |
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Prologue(ITT) |
| 1st |
Xining-Ping'an-Zhaba-Tongren |
| 2nd |
Tongren-Bao'an-Xunhua |
| 3rd |
Xunhua-Zhaba-Ping'an-Xining |
| 4th |
Xining(DuobaBase)-Qinghai Lake |
| 5th |
Qinghai Lake-Bird Island |
| 6th |
Bird Island-Xihaizhen |
| 7th |
Xihaizhen-Menyuan |
| 8th |
Menyuan-Huzhu |
| 9th |
XN Circuit Race |
| Route
Map |
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