The finale of the opening stage of the 2018 Tour of Qinghai Lake ended in a frenzied fight to the finish with Ningxia Sports Lottery-Livall Cycling Team rider Georgios Bouglas (GRE) taking the line a bike length ahead of a pair of Torku Şekerspor riders, Batuhan Özgür and Onur Balkan, in Xining, China on Sunday.

Prior to the finish, the majority of the 162-kilometre first stage was rather relaxed with the only real threat of a sustained break coming in the stage’s final 40 kilometres following two uncategorised climbs ascending approximately 500 metres in elevation from the already lofty start of 2100m in Ledu.

Belarusian Branislau Samoilau (Minsk Cycling Team) opened up a small gap on the field for 10km before being joined by Frenchmen Alexis Guerin (Delko-Marseille Provence KTM). Both riders were reeled back with 20km remaining.

The sprint favourites either looked confused or lost during the race to the line with both Italian Luca Pacioni (Wilier Triestina-Selle Italia) and Australian Brenton Jones (Delko-Marseille Provence KTM) not in the mix in the middle of the road, while the lead trio led by the 2014 Greek road race champion was rocketing toward the podium on the far right barricade inside the last 100 metres.

“My first victory for this level,” said the new race leader, who finished third on the opening day in Qinghai in 2017. “Last year I placed on Stage 1 and this year I am the winner. For me it’s very important and for my team I think, and now I hope for good results for my team in the next few days.

“With 5k to go I was a little bit behind and the guys on my team worked so hard for me, so thanks to my team because without strong team this is not possible.”

Stage 2 of the 13-stage UCI 2.HC Asia Tour road race includes eight laps of the 14.4km Xining City Circuit on Monday.