author：qinghaihu publish time：2023-07-11
Davide Baldaccini (CORRATEC SELLE ITALIA) has won the third stage of this year’s Tour of Qinghai Lake, outsprinting Eric Fagundez (BURGOS-BH) after more than five hours in the saddle.
Stage three was a day that brought forward the climbers seeking to shape the general classification on a hard stage but the CORRATEC SELLE ITALIA rider managed his efforts early on and bridged to Fagundez(BURGOS-BH) with 12km to go from a group of 30 riders.
The duo worked well together until the last long straight final kilometre into Huzhu where the 25-year-old Italian’s gamble paid off, coming around Fagundez in the last hundred metres to claim his first professional victory.
Earlier today riders greeted fans at this morning’s sign in Guide and welcomed cooler conditions than the past two stages but it was the four sequential climbs featuring in the first half of today’s 201kilometre long road to Huzhu that had the pelotons focus.
It was an aggressive start from Guide as some riders were eager to get a head start on the early category one climb but it was Danny Osorio (TEAM MEDELLIN – EPM) jumped clear at the 27km mark and took the first KOM points on offer.
From here the peloton was decimated thanks to TEAM MEDELLIN – EPM driving the tempo and distancing the race leader Nils Sinschek (ABLOC-CT).
A selection of thirty riders was established, the next 100km the road only went up and down technical descents the left little room for error also disgruntled any chance for a cohesive chase back to the lead group.
GREEN PROJECT-BARDIANICSF-FAIZANE helped TEAM MEDELLIN – EPM to drive the pace, both thinking for the stage but mainly the leader’s jersey as Wilmar Paredes Zapata (TEAM MEDELLIN – EPM) was the virtual race leader with Sinschek dropped.
The Italian team took responsibly at the front, vying to set up a sprint for Henok Muluebrhan, but despite having numbers they didn’t have the legs to bring back Fagundez and Baldaccini in the last 10kilometres.
The two Europeans finished just 7-second ahead of Andre Drege (Team COOP-REPSOL) who lead home the bunch sprint with Muluebrhan 4th and Luke Mudgway 5th (Bolton Equities Black Spoke)
For Baldaccini he understood what today’s victory meant for himself and his team,
“I’m very happy my first victory in my career and for the team this year, It was a long stage today with a lot of climbs but making it to the sprint I moved up and I won,” he said.
“I trusted myself to win in the last kilometre when my Director told me the gap was 14-seconds”.
Tomorrow’s stage four will see riders will tackle 189km from Huzhu to Menyuan featuring the singular category one climb early in the stage and three intermediate sprints.
