Gavazzi claims third stage after second straight win at Qinghai Lake

Pingliang, CHINA—Italian Mattia Gavazzi (Amore & Vita-Selle SMP) survived the longest stage to claim his second straight stage win at the 14th ‘Qinghai Rural Credit Cup’ Tour of Qinghai Lake (UCI 2.HC) on Thursday, July 16.

The 32-year-old Gavazzi outsprinted four-time stage winner Marko Kump (Adria Mobil) and fellow Italian Marco Zanotti (Parkhotel-Valkenburg) to claim his third win of the week and his fifth in two years at the race.

However, there were plenty of fireworks at the finish as the Slovenian Kump openly displayed his frustration on the line followed by a heated exchanged between the two after the race. This was not the first time the pair has quarrelled this week. A war of words, which started on stage 7, eventually escalated to blows on stage 9. Kump would ride on to win the stage with Gavazzi be relegated after finishing second.

While sparks flew on stage 11, Kump admitted afterward that he was the one in the wrong on this occasion.

“I was behind Gavazzi, and when he started with the sprint I tried to pass him on the right side,” said the 26-year-old Slovenian. “When he saw me he turned a little right, but that’s normal.

“At first I was angry, but I would probably do the same as him,” Kump continued. “It was my fault as I had speed but I was on the wrong side.”

As for the 240km stage 11, the remaining 111 riders that started the race held together until a 13-rider break launched creating a 1 minute 40 second gap after 64km – which extended to 2:20 after 108km.

The riders included Chun Kai Feng (Lampre-Merida), Wesley Sulzberger (Navitas-Satalyst), Blazej Janiaczyk (Kolss-BDC), Norberto Wilches (Qinghai-Tianyoude Cycling Team), Enea Cambianica (Meridiana-Kamen), Giorgio Cecchinel (Southeast), Victor Nino Corredor (RTS-Santic), Matthieu Jeannes (Lupus Racing Team), Samir Jabrayilov (Synergy-Baku), Mattia Pozzo (Nippo-Vini Fantini), Volodymyr Kogut (Amore & Vita-Selle SMP), and both Kevin Gottlieb and Gerardo Medina of AirGas-Safeway.

The break was caught at 25km. American Justin Mauch (AirGas-Safeway) celebrated his 21st birthday by bravely launching a solo attack with 8km to go. However, the peloton reeled him in shortly after.

“The yellow jersey controlled the race,” said Amore & Vita-Selle SMP co-director Vladimir Starchyk. “But once we realised it was going to come down to a bunch sprint we knew we needed to shut it down, and that’s when our guys were out on the front working for Mattia.

“Mattia has a very big engine that does better the more he races,” he continued. “Day by day he is consistently getting stronger, and now he feels very good.”

The last event Gavazzi raced prior to Qinghai Lake was the two-day Tour of Estonia (2.1) where he won the second and final stage. However, Gavazzi believes he is just coming back into form and perhaps his best days in China lie ahead over the remaining two stages.

“My team is very good and I know they ride very hard for me,” said Gavazzi. “I have advantage over Kump on shorter sprint stages, but Kump was a favourite today as he is better on longer stages with climbs.

“So I am looking forward to the two remaining circuit races to try to pick up a fourth – and maybe fifth – win.”

The 13-stage, 2,027-kilometre Asia Tour race resumes on Friday with the first of two final circuit races. The first is the 120km ‘Peak’ city circuit in Zhongwei. Currently Radoslav Rogina (Adria Mobil) sits atop general classification with a 3-second lead on former race leader and 2012 winner Hossein Alizadeh (RTS-Santic) after the 36-year-old Croatian picked up bonus time over the 27-year-old Iranian on the first intermediate sprint behind Andriy Kulyk (Kolss-BDC) and winner Zanotti.

“This race is always open,” said Rogina. “So I must be very careful.

“My team works very hard today and I hope that they continue to work and we can hang on the yellow jersey until we cross the finish on Saturday.”

Colombian Francesco Colorado (Ningxia Sports Lottery-Focus) has already secured the polka dot mountains classification, while Kump remains in the green points jersey and Alizadeh in the blue best Asian rider jersey.

Aaron S. Lee | Follow on Twitter

Photos courtesy Daebong Kim | 7Cycling