Qinghai Lake: Manzana goes one-two on Stage 4 to secure yellow jersey

Unlike the Tour de France, where Team Sky teammates Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome are surrounded with questions concerning the yellow jersey with Thomas currently in the overall lead at 1 minute 39 seconds ahead of his team captain and the reigning four-time race winner, Tour of Qinghai Lake’s Stage 4 winner and current race leader claims there is no drama.

“For me and the team, the most important thing is to hold the jersey,” said Colombian leader Hernan Ricardo Aguirre, who finished ahead of Manzana Postobón teammate and countryman Hernando Bohórquez and 2015 race winner Radoslav Rogina (Adria Mobil) of Croatia. “Doesn’t matter for me or my teammate, just to win at the end of the race.”

The 22-year-old Aguirre looked strong on the two-week race’s KOM a day before, however it was on the first climb of two categorised climbs on the 100-kilometre stage from Guide to Longyangxia where Aguirre and Bohórquez showed stellar form by dropping all of the serious pre-race contenders, including ‘king of the mountain’ Ilia Koshevoy, who was visibly showing the scars of a downhill crash from the previous day.

“First time to be here and very happy to hold this jersey in the beautiful country and beautiful race,” said Aguirre, who becomes the fourth stage winner and race leader in as many days. “The second ‘king of the mountain’ was the hardest part of the race.

“Thanks to my teammate to help me get the jersey.”

A visibly exhausted Koshevoy spoke to Eurosport after the stage about his performance and any ambitions to contend in a race he so heavily prepared for in the lead up.

“I wasn’t able to follow the top guys on the first climb, maybe because of yesterday’s crash,” said Koshevoy, who surrendered the polka-dot mountain jersey to Aguirre after finishing 10th at 2:19 off the winning time. “Really tough stage. Short, but really intense. It is pretty hot and hard and I suffered a little bit from the start.

“You never know,” he continued referring to a possible podium still to come. “But the winner of today’s stage is really impressive.”

While a small group of chasers tried to follow the Manzana duo, only Rogina was able to bridge the gap and challenge for the victory and keep himself within race contention with two climbing stages remaining in the predominantly sprint-heavy 13-stage UCI 2.HC Asia Tour road race.

“I have some luck today,” the 39-year-old Rogina told Eurosport. “I was close to the first two on the first mountain and then downhill I caught them. Then we got to the second climb, but first rider was stronger. In the end, I couldn’t give more than third place.

“For now, I’m satisfied. It’s the fourth stage and it’s a long race.”

With Manzana’s Ricardo Vilela of Portugal in fourth place at 2 minutes 29 seconds adrift, along with Italian Antonio Santoro (Monkey Town Continental Team), Ukrainian Oleksandr Polivoda (Ningxia Sports Lottery-Livall), Venezuelan and last year’s race winner Yonathan Monsalve (Qinghai Tianyoude) and Koshevoy, Rogina sits in third at nine seconds off the leader and two off Aguirre’s teammate in second.

“The winner today is very strong on the climb. I don’t think I can beat him,” admitted Rogina. “But there are flat stages and there might be surprises.

“We are fighting until the end,” he concluded. “The race is long and we hope for the best.”

The race continues on Thursday with the third of four straight mountain stages — and second longest (235km) of the race.

For full stage and race results, click here.
Photo: Adrian Hoe