Opinion
CyclingKoshevoy solos to first pro win at Qinghai Lake
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Published 11/12/2015 at 16:19 GMT
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Koshevoy solos to first pro win at Qinghai Lake
Image credit: Eurosport
Belarusian Ilia Koshevoy launches solo attack in final 15km to claim stage 7 win at Tour of Qinghai Lake...
Xunhua, CHINA—It’s been a tough week for Lampre-Merida at the 14th ‘Qinghai Rural Credit Cup’ Tour of Qinghai Lake (UCI 2.HC), but Belarusian Ilia Koshevoy put an end to a string of bad luck with a brilliant – and brave – 170km effort in the 190km ‘Qinghai Rural Credit’ stage 7 on Saturday, July 11.
The Italian WorldTour team arrived at the race with only six riders after Portugal’s Mário Costa, older brother to Rui, failed to obtain his travel visa prior to the start.
Two days later on ‘Jingdu Natural Water’ stage 2, the team lost two more riders when Italian general classification hopeful Mattia Cattaneo and China's Xu Gang both fell victim to separate crashes which forced them to withdraw from the race leaving Lampre-Merida with just four riders.
“We had a lot of misfortune at the start of the race because we lost two riders in the second stage due to a crash,” said 24-year-old Koshevoy after the race. “So it’s been a very hard race for us, plus we have young team with no big stars.”
The race was animated quickly with several attacks within the first 20km. A group of nine riders, including Juan Wilches Rodriguez (Qinghai Tianyoude), Griffin Easter (AirGas-Safeway), Erdenesuren Munkhtulga (Ningxia Sports Lottery-Focus), Enea Cambianica (Meridiana-Kamen), Luka Pibernik (Lampre-Merida), Domen Novak (Adria Mobil) Blazej Janiaczyk (Kolss-BDC), Elchin Asadov (Synergy-Baku) and Marco Zamparella (Amore & Vita-Selle SMP) opened up a slight gap before a chase group containing Kyle Murphy (Lupus Racing Team, Alessandro Malaguti (Nippo-Vini Fantini) Norberto Wilches (Qinghai-Tianyoude) and Koshevoy joined them to open a 1 minute 25 second lead at the 32m mark.
Following the first king of the mountain (KOM) atop the category 1 climb at 46.9km taken by Wilches Rodriguez, Radoslav Rogina (Adria Mobil), who started the race 5 seconds down on yellow jersey leader Hossein Alizadeh (RTS-Santic), caught the lead group which had reformed with five riders including Koshevoy in tow just second behind them.
For the next 100km the five riders jockeyed for position with Rogina picking up the second KOM and the first and second sprint points. However it was Koshevoy who launched a solo attack in the final 15km to cruise to victory – his first pro win of his short three-year career with the team. Ukrainian Mykhaylo Kononenko (Kolss-BDC) and Slovenian Matej Mugerli (Synergy-Baku) finished second and third respectively.
“I did 170km in the breakaway with the other guys and it was really hard with lots of elevation and heat,” said Koshevoy. “I tried to go in the break three times, but in the final 15km there is a tailwind so I go and this was the moment when I won the race.
“I’m very happy.”
Koshevoy was not alone in his exuberance after the race. Lampre-Merida sports director Bruno Vicino shared in his young rider’s jubilation.
“We showed that we are competitive,” said Vicino. “It’s not easy here as we did not bring a sprinter with us, and we lost two of our top riders for the race, so we had to invent something in order to gain a victory.
“We are satisfied with this win, but now we have to think about what to do next, which may include [Luka Pibernik] or somebody else.”
As far as the team’s two injured riders, Vicino said both were on the mend and should be back on the bike soon.
“Cattaneo is not yet ready, but from the beginning of next week he should be back to training,” said Vicino. “Xu Gang has to keep his arm in a sling due to his separated shoulder, but is already riding on a wind trainer.”
As for the 15-time race leader Alizadeh, his lead closed from five to three seconds over Rogina due to the 36-year-old Croatian’s bonus time awarded for claiming the two intermediate sprints. The Iranian is very aware of the narrowing time gap.
“Today was the hardest race in my life,” said the 27-year-old Alizadeh, who won a stage and the race in 2012. “After KOM, Rogina attacked on the descent. He created a 30-second gap and I had to work a lot to catch him because he was very strong today.
“I was lucky today to keep the jersey.”
The 13-stage, 2,027-kilometre Asia Tour race continues on Sunday with the 126km ‘China Sports Lottery stage 8 from Guide to Xunhua.
Aaron S. Lee | Follow on Twitter
Photos: Daebong Kim | 7Cycling
Xunhua, CHINA—It’s been a tough week for Lampre-Merida at the 14th ‘Qinghai Rural Credit Cup’ Tour of Qinghai Lake (UCI 2.HC), but Belarusian Ilia Koshevoy put an end to a string of bad luck with a brilliant – and brave – 170km effort in the 190km ‘Qinghai Rural Credit’ stage 7 on Saturday, July 11.
The Italian WorldTour team arrived at the race with only six riders after Portugal’s Mário Costa, older brother to Rui, failed to obtain his travel visa prior to the start.
Two days later on ‘Jingdu Natural Water’ stage 2, the team lost two more riders when Italian general classification hopeful Mattia Cattaneo and China's Xu Gang both fell victim to separate crashes which forced them to withdraw from the race leaving Lampre-Merida with just four riders.
“We had a lot of misfortune at the start of the race because we lost two riders in the second stage due to a crash,” said 24-year-old Koshevoy after the race. “So it’s been a very hard race for us, plus we have young team with no big stars.”
The race was animated quickly with several attacks within the first 20km. A group of nine riders, including Juan Wilches Rodriguez (Qinghai Tianyoude), Griffin Easter (AirGas-Safeway), Erdenesuren Munkhtulga (Ningxia Sports Lottery-Focus), Enea Cambianica (Meridiana-Kamen), Luka Pibernik (Lampre-Merida), Domen Novak (Adria Mobil) Blazej Janiaczyk (Kolss-BDC), Elchin Asadov (Synergy-Baku) and Marco Zamparella (Amore & Vita-Selle SMP) opened up a slight gap before a chase group containing Kyle Murphy (Lupus Racing Team, Alessandro Malaguti (Nippo-Vini Fantini) Norberto Wilches (Qinghai-Tianyoude) and Koshevoy joined them to open a 1 minute 25 second lead at the 32m mark.
Following the first king of the mountain (KOM) atop the category 1 climb at 46.9km taken by Wilches Rodriguez, Radoslav Rogina (Adria Mobil), who started the race 5 seconds down on yellow jersey leader Hossein Alizadeh (RTS-Santic), caught the lead group which had reformed with five riders including Koshevoy in tow just second behind them.
For the next 100km the five riders jockeyed for position with Rogina picking up the second KOM and the first and second sprint points. However it was Koshevoy who launched a solo attack in the final 15km to cruise to victory – his first pro win of his short three-year career with the team. Ukrainian Mykhaylo Kononenko (Kolss-BDC) and Slovenian Matej Mugerli (Synergy-Baku) finished second and third respectively.
“I did 170km in the breakaway with the other guys and it was really hard with lots of elevation and heat,” said Koshevoy. “I tried to go in the break three times, but in the final 15km there is a tailwind so I go and this was the moment when I won the race.
“I’m very happy.”
Koshevoy was not alone in his exuberance after the race. Lampre-Merida sports director Bruno Vicino shared in his young rider’s jubilation.
“We showed that we are competitive,” said Vicino. “It’s not easy here as we did not bring a sprinter with us, and we lost two of our top riders for the race, so we had to invent something in order to gain a victory.
“We are satisfied with this win, but now we have to think about what to do next, which may include [Luka Pibernik] or somebody else.”
As far as the team’s two injured riders, Vicino said both were on the mend and should be back on the bike soon.
“Cattaneo is not yet ready, but from the beginning of next week he should be back to training,” said Vicino. “Xu Gang has to keep his arm in a sling due to his separated shoulder, but is already riding on a wind trainer.”
As for the 15-time race leader Alizadeh, his lead closed from five to three seconds over Rogina due to the 36-year-old Croatian’s bonus time awarded for claiming the two intermediate sprints. The Iranian is very aware of the narrowing time gap.
“Today was the hardest race in my life,” said the 27-year-old Alizadeh, who won a stage and the race in 2012. “After KOM, Rogina attacked on the descent. He created a 30-second gap and I had to work a lot to catch him because he was very strong today.
“I was lucky today to keep the jersey.”
The 13-stage, 2,027-kilometre Asia Tour race continues on Sunday with the 126km ‘China Sports Lottery stage 8 from Guide to Xunhua.
Aaron S. Lee | Follow on Twitter
Photos: Daebong Kim | 7Cycling
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Image credit: Eurosport
Belarusian Ilia Koshevoy celebrates his first pro win after racing to a solo victory on stage 7 of the Tour of Qinghai in Xunhua on Saturday, July 11.
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Image credit: Eurosport
Lampre-Merida directeur sportif Bruno Vicino is pleased with his team's performance on stage 7, especially after losing two riders on stage 2 and arriving without Mário Costa due to visa issues.
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