Bazhkou wins first Qinghai Lake mountain stage to claim yellow

After two opening sprint stages, the Tour of Qinghai Lake took a turn for the sky in China on Tuesday. The 16th edition of the UCI Asia Tour’s crowning jewel featured a 133-kilometre third stage with a leg-draining, gear-grinding hors catégorie climb at the 75-kilometre mark, which crested at more than 3,800 metres in elevation.

Belarusian Stanislau Bazhkou of the Minsk Cycling Team took the win in Guide over Venezuelan Yonathan Monsalve (Qinghai Tianyoude) and Italian Davide Mucelli (Meridiana Kamen).

The 25-year-old took the line over his six fellow break-mates, which launched shortly after the peloton covered the first 25km with a blistering pace of more than 50 km/h.

Fellow Belarusian Ilia Koshevoy (Wilier Triestina-Selle Italia), German Bjorn Thurau (Kuwait-Cartucho.es) and Colombians Mauricio Ortega (RTS-Monton) and Edwin Arnulfo Parra (Ningxia Sports Lottery-Livall Cycling Team) all joined the eventual podium in the near stage-long breakaway.

The win gives Bazhkou the overall lead, with previous stage winner and race leader Dušan Rajovic (Aria-Mobil) relegated to 81st on general classification (+15:19) but still in green with a two-point lead over Stage 1 winner Jon Aberasturi (Team UKYO) of Spain.

Last year’s stage 3 winner Yevgeniy Gidich (Vino-Astana Motors) of Kazakhstan finished eighth at 2 minutes 10 seconds back with a field of 37 other riders to claim the ‘Best Asian Rider’ jersey.

“It is my first time to race Qinghai Lake and I am very excited because the mountains are very big and very hard,” said the recent Tour of Mersin winner. “A journalist asked me about the mountain views along the stage, but I told them I just focused on the race and didn’t see anything.”

Prior to ascending the KOM, which hovered more than 1,400m over the start elevation at the national  sports training base in Duoba, Bazhkou took the sole intermediate sprint of the day.

From there Koshevoy was the first rider to crest the HC summit thus lifting the polka-dot mountains jersey off Turk Nazim Bakirci (Torku Şekerspor), who claimed it on the opening day of the 13-stage road race.

“The climb was good for me,” Koshevoy told Eurosport. “It wasn’t so steep and it was windy. I was lucky that Ortega was always attacking in the headwind, so I managed to stay on his wheel.”

The former Lampre-Merida rider and 2015 Qinghai Lake stage winner came into the race as a general classification favourite, but he did not expect to challenge for the KOM.

“Before the race I was thinking it’s impossible to take the KOM jersey because of the Colombian (Ortega) and other riders living at high altitude,” the 26-year-old explained. “But today I tried a move at 3km to the KOM and they were looking at each other, so I was able to take the KOM just going my own pace.”

The race resumes in Guide on Wednesday with the namesake stage to Qinghai Lake at nearly 4,000m. The 159km stage features two categorised climbs, including a Cat. 1 and a Cat. 2, as well as a single intermediate sprint.

When asked about his plans to defend the yellow jersey, Bazhkou was hopeful, but realistic.

“It will be a big challenge for me to defend the jersey, but I will do my best,” he said with a seven-second lead over Monsalve and nine over Mucelli. “The race is very long and lots of things can happen — we will see.”

Koshevoy, who is just 13 seconds down on GC, agreed with the new race leader’s assessment of the challenge ahead.

“This race is unpredictable,” said Koshevoy. “There are stages with echelons, where you can gain or lose a lot of minutes.

“I think we have a good advantage, but anything can happen.”

1. Stanislau Bazhkou, BLR, Minsk Cycling Team, 3:05:42

2. Yonathan Monsalve, VEN, Qinghai Tianyoude Cycling team, s.t.

3. Davide Mucelli, ITA, Meridiana Kamen Team, s.t.

1. Stanislau Bazhkou, BLR, Minsk Cycling Team, 9:05:34

2. Yonathan Monsalve, VEN, Qinghai Tianyoude Cycling team, +0:07

3. Davide Mucelli, ITA, Meridiana Kamen Team, +0:09

Race leader (yellow jersey): Stanislau Bazhkou, BLR, Minsk Cycling Team

Points leader (green jersey): Dušan Rajovic, SRB, Aria-Mobil

Mountains leader (polka dot jersey): Ilia Koshevoy, BLR, Wilier Triestina-Selle Italia

Best Asian rider (blue jersey): Yevgeniy Gidich, KAZ, Vino-Astana Motors

Teams classification: Ningxia Sports Lottery-Livall Cycling Team, 27:21:41

For full results click here.