author：qinghaihu publish time：2023-07-16
Henok Mulubrhan of Green Project-Bardianicsf-Faizane has won the 22nd edition of the Tour of Qinghai Lake on countback.
Race Commissaire’s declared Mulubrhan opened up a two second gap ahead Eric Fagundez (Burgos-BH) in the last 50metres of today’s stage, placing the pair on equal time with the Eritrean winning on countback.
Thimoty Dupont added another stage victory to Tarteletto-Isorex’s time in China, the Belgium jumped off Luke Mudgway’s wheel (Bolton Equities Black Spoke) in the final 100m catching Victor Campo (Team Medellin-EPM) to win his second stage.
Only 109 Riders departed a sunny but extremely windy Gonghe this morning, headed 200km towards Qinghai’s fabled salt lake whilst navigating an early category four climb followed by three intermediate sprints.
Time bonuses were on offer at each intermediate sprint and proved to be a deciding factor for the GC, three seconds separating race leader Fagundez and Mulubrhan before today’s final stage.
A strong tailwind provided the perfect springboard for an aggressive start, a flurry of attacks saw a group of 20 containing fourth placed Davide Baldaccini (Corratec Selle-Italia) gain a one-minute advantage.
Burgos-BH team were forced to chase but not alone, Mulubrhan also missed the move forcing Green Project-Bardianicsf-Faizane to join the chase.
The dangerous group were reeled in before the first intermediate sprint but was immediately countered by James Oram (Bolton Equities Black Spoke) and Marco Murgano (Corretec-Selle-Italia).
The Italian outsprinting Oram at the first intermediate sprint, but the last vital time bonus was snapped up by Mulubrhan, the Eritrean now only two seconds behind Fagundez.
Shortly after Oram and Murgano were joined by Oscar Sevilla (Team Medellin-EPM), Jelle Johannink (Ablot-CT) and Mario Aparicio (Burgos-BH) opening a one-minute advantage.
The leading five caught 27km to go but by a decimated bunch, racing averaging over 50kmph for today’s stage.
Another split at 20km to go, but it all came back together for a kick to the line, Dupont taking the stage victory but importantly Mulubrhan gapping Fagundez to claim the 22nd Tour Qinghai Lake.
Mulubrhan is having an impressive season adding Qinghai Lake overall victory and the points classification to a growing palmarès but acknowledged his team and the work they’ve done.
“As a team we deserve it all because every team followed us”…“We won team classification, polka jersey and green jersey”.
“It’s a really hard race eight stages with really fast racing at altitude but as a team we managed it day by day to get the yellow jersey and we give everything to get the yellow jersey and finally we get it in the last stage it’s really unbelievable,” he said.
Alessio Neiri added to Green Project-Bardianicsf-Faizane success winning the King of the Mountains classification and helped take home the Teams classification.
The Tianyoude Hotel Cycling team will go home happy, Saeid Safarzadeh the best placed Asian rider winning the blue jersey by 33-seconds, an exciting end to the 22nd edition of the Tour of Qinghai Lake.
