author：qinghaihu publish time：2024-07-10
Today Mario Aparicio led a Burgos-BH resurgence to win the fourth stage and reacquired the polka dot jersey following yesterday’s disastrous stage which resulted in teammate Eric Fagundez loss of the yellow leaders jersey.
The Spaniard emerged as the fastest from a group four riders that contested the stage victory into Gonghe, claiming his first professional victory.
Aparicio got the better of Ande Van Engelen (Roojai Insurance), Guillermo Coussan whilst Jefferson Cepeda (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) was edged out to fourth.
Despite missing out on the stage victory it was a successful day for Caja Rural with Cepada taking a stranglehold on the race for yellow with a commanding 1:50 lead to second place.
The Spanish team made the most of the early categorised climbs and applied the pressure, dropping race leader Manuele Tarozzi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizane) and opening the race for yellow.
Cepeda, Coussan and Van Engelen rode across to Aparicio on the climb but the young Spaniard claimed the maximum king of the mountain points on offer for the day.
The lead group of four were not seen until after the stage, the quartet held off a disorganised and underpowered peloton, finishing with a 2:39 advantage.
With four challenging stages remaining in this year’s Tour of Qinghai Lake the battle is for yellow is far from finished but Cepeda believes his team can get the job done.
“We have brought a good climbing team to this year’s Tour of Qinghai Lake and I trust them to help maintain and secure the yellow jersey,” he said.
Saeid Safarzadeh (Tianyoude Hotel Cycling Team) successfully defended the blue jersey whilst Henok Mulueberhan (Astana Qazaqstan) reacquired the green jersey.
Stage 5 is 126km long which begin in Gonghe and finish in Xihaizhen but not before passing Qinghai Lake.
