Lagkuti grabs yellow as Kolss-BDC dominate stage 12 at Qinghai Lake

Updated 29/07/2016 at 13:20 GMT

Sergiy Lagkuti took third in the stage 12 time trial behind teammate and winner Andriy Vasylyuk to grab the leader's jersey from fellow Kolss rider Vitaliy Buts.

Kolss-BDC wins stage 12 at Qinghai Lake, shifts yellow

Image credit: Eurosport

Kolss-BDC has been a step above at the 15th ‘Qinghai Rural Credit Cup’ Tour of Qinghai Lake (UCI 2.HC) for the past two weeks of the 13-stage, 1,916km Asia Tour road race.

Not only does the Ukrainian-registered UCI Contintental team enjoy a substantial lead in the teams classification heading into the final stage on Saturday, they have claimed three stages from three different riders and held a tight grip on the two leaders jerseys for both general- and points classifications.

On Friday, reigning three-time Ukrainian individual time trial (ITT) champion Andriy Vasylyuk (UKR) gave Kolss the hat trick with a 16-second ITT win over Slovenian Matej Mugerli (Synergy Baku Cycling Project). Teammate and stage 6 winner Sergiy Lagkuti (UKR) crossed the line 12 seconds later on a hot and windy 23km course in Zhongwei, China.

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Reigning three-time Ukrainian time trial champion Andriy Vasylyuk (Kolss-BDC) races against the clock for his stage 12 victory at the Tour of Qinghai Lake - Photo: Adrian Hoe

Image credit: Eurosport

The surprise of the day came from 2011 under-23 New Zealand time trial champion and reigning road race champion Jason Christie (Kenyan Riders Downunder), who was awarded ‘most aggressive rider’ honours following a failed 90km solo breakaway the day before.

The 25-year-old Christchurch native spent more than 30 minutes on the hot seat as the stage leader before finishing seventh overall (0:50).

“Perhaps I left too much out on the road yesterday,” admitted Christie. “I knew stage 11 was going to end in a bunch sprint, which it did, so I thought I better try and flip the table on them, but it didn’t pay off with a win as I had hoped.

“Today wasn’t the ideal day, but I left it all out on the road, gave it my all and had a good time in the process.”

New Zealand's Jason Christie (Kenyan Riders Downunder) backed up stage 11's 'most aggressive rider' honours with a top 10 finish in the stage 12 individual time trial - Photo: Adrian Hoe

Image credit: Eurosport

With the third-place finish, Lagkuti, who was sitting behind teammate and former race leader Vitaliy Buts (UKR) by five seconds prior to the start, replaces Buts for the overall lead with just a 95km Baiyin circuit race remaining.

“In the first 11 stages, the team helped Vitaliy gain the yellow jersey,” said Lagkuti of stage 4 winner Buts holding the yellow jersey since stage 3. “In this stage, my situation was better, so I took the yellow jersey and I hope I can keep the yellow it until the end of the race tomorrow.”

Buts, who trails current points leader Daniele Colli (Nippo-Vini Fantini) by just four points, now drops to third overall, 1:03 behind the new race leader and 26 seconds behind new runner up Mugerli (0:37).

BRIEF RESULTS

Stage 12 Classification

1. Andriy Vasylyuk, UKR, Kolss-BDC, 28:35

2. Matej Mugerli, SLO, Synergy Baku Cycling Project, 0:16

3. Sergiy Lagkuti, UKR, Kolss-BDC, 0:28

General Classification

1. Sergiy Lagkuti, UKR, Kolss-BDC, 51:44:18

2. Matej Mugerli, SLO, Synergy Baku Cycling Project, 0:37

3. Vitaliy Buts, UKR, Kolss-BDC 1:03

Classification Leaders

Race Leader (Yellow Jersey): Sergiy Lagkuti, UKR, Kolss-BDC, 0:28

Points Leader (Green Jersey): Daniele Colli, ITA, Nippo-Vini Fantini