author：qinghaihu publish time：2024-07-12
Bingoal-WB’s Davide Persico went one better in stage 6 of Tour of Qinghai Lake to win a reduced bunch kit and his claim his first victory as a professional.
It was a perfectly timed sprint by Persico, the Italian emerged late from a reduced bunch and navigated a technical finale that featured a slight uphill rise towards the finish line.
Persico edged out a visibly frustrated Enrico Zanoncello (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizane) whilst Guillermo Thomas (Caja Rural Seguros RGA) rounded out today’s podium.
The young Italian channelled yesterday’s frustrating second place to ensure he was in the front group over the final climb but was superb throughout the stage.
With only 40km remaining Persico survived a period of echelons as Caja Rural and Astana-Qazaqstan aimed to apply pressure on the peloton ahead of the final climb.
The Italian kept his cool on the fast descent into Qilian and carved out an important win for his team Bingoal-WB, arguably their biggest win of the season.
“In the last climb I stayed with the first group and on the downhill a small group came back to the front, but in the final two kilometres I stayed behind my teammates until the last 200 metres,” Persico said.
“Yesterday was second place but today I fought and take a great victory”.
But it wasn’t just crosswinds that caused havoc on the peloton, today’s 206km stage measured the longest of this year’s Tour of Qinghai Lake and took riders up to 3,894m high.
Despite the altitude and challenging conditions, the peloton was way ahead schedule, averaging 46kmph for the stage.
The race for the yellow jersey is looking increasingly likely to finish on the shoulders of Jefferson Cepeda, the Ecuadorian maintained his 1:44 lead and appeared confident with only two ‘flat’ stages remain.
It was status-quo for the king of the mountains and sprint competitions, tomorrow Mario Aparicio (Burgos-BH) will enjoy his fourth day in the polka jersey whilst Henok Mulueberhan (Astana-Qazaqstan) will don the green sprint jersey.
Tianyoude Hotel Cycling continued to impress, Saied Safarzadeh maintained his lead in the blue jersey but also crept into the top 10 overall.
Stage 7 of the Tour of Qinghai Lake begins in Qilian and is 176km long finishing at Menyuan.
