author：qinghaihu publish time：2024-07-13
pulled off the biggest upset at this year’s Tour Qinghai Lake winning stage 7 into Menyuan.
Orken proved to be fastest from the day’s break, the Turkish National Time Trial Champion put on a rapid turn of pace in the final 200m to show his breakaway companions a clean set of heels.
Today’s win marked Orken’s third stage victory at the Tour of Qinghai, but more importantly marked Spot Toto’s biggest win to date and is only the team’s second professional victory outside of Turkey.
It was a surprise to see a strong 13-rider group emerge from the peloton, as the sprint friendly 169km stage seemed destined to end in a bunch kick, especially after four hard stages that have all featured altitude.
A desperately chasing peloton leaned heavily on dual stage winner Jensen Plowright’s team Alpecin-Deceuninck to do the heavy lifting, but despite late addition from Tarteletto-Isorex and Bingoal-WB they were still unable to pull the break back in time.
IT was a mellow peloton that still sprinted across the line but in contrast it was sheer jubilation for Spor Toto and Orken was quickly engulfed by his teammates, the importance of today’s victory was not lost on the Turkish team.
Once again it was an ideal day for Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, the Spanish team successfully defended Jefferson Cepeda’s overall lead and will start the final stage tomorrow with handy 1:44 advantage.
The Blue jersey will remain with Saied Safarzadeh (Tianyoude Hotel Cycling Team), Henok Mulueberhan (Astana-Qazaqstan) retained the green jersey and Mario Aparicio (Burgos-BH) has kept he polka dot jersey.
The last stage of the Tour of Qinhai Lake will start and finish in Menyuan.
