Burgos-BH celebrate victory for the second day in a row, as three categorised climbs prove not enough to deny bunch sprint
Race leader Aaron Gate tightened his grip on the yellow jersey on stage 4 of the XDS Cup Tour of Hainan, with the Burgos-BH sprinter beating second-placed Enrico Zanoncello (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizané) and third-placed Timothy Dupont (Tarteletto-Isorex) to the line in Changjiang.
The Kiwi came from behind in the bunch sprint to round Dupont in the final 50m and claim his second victory in as many days. In doing so, the 33-year-old claimed 13 bonus seconds and extended his lead of the race to 31 seconds over Wilmar Paredes (Team Medellín-EPM) with just one stage left to race. There are, however, 20 riders sitting within a minute of Gate in the general classification, so stage 5 to Sanya will be anything but straightforward on Saturday.
Earlier in stage 4, multiple breakaways tried their luck off the front of the peloton, all hoping to take advantage of the three categorised climbs from Wuzhishan to Changjiang. None of these moves were able to last though, with the presence of Cristian Raileanu (Li Ning Star), in particular, catching the eye of the peloton. The Romanian national champion was only a handful of seconds behind the yellow jersey at the start of the stage and Burgos-BH were determined not to let their lead slip.
With Raileanu’s move squashed, the final rider to be caught was Lucas De Rossi of China Glory-Mentech Continental Cycling Team. The Frenchman had battled bravely but was ultimately swept aside some 5km from the line, leaving the stage honours to be decided in a bunch sprint.
“The team was absolutely amazing today, we still had all seven guys coming into the home straight after riding all day on the front controlling the race, to keep the yellow jersey. It was a huge team effort so it was pretty special to be able to pay it off in the sprint,” Gate told 7Cycling at the end of the stage.
“We saw him go but it was a small group and we still had our team all there, so we made the tactical decision to let it go, control the race and we had confidence that we would bring him back in the final to set it up for a sprint,” the Kiwi said of Raileanu’s presence up front.
“There’s always an element of luck involved in sprinting and I definitely had it on my side today because I was pretty far back, even as close as 600m to the line. But I managed to move across to the other side of the bunch, get a good wheel and use the acceleration of the downhill. I had the luxury of George Jackson, my teammate, talking me through last year. He said he went too early and got swamped, so I managed to get a good wheel and come past at just the right moment.”
Elsewhere, Alex Vandenbulcke of Tartelleto-Isorex has taken the lead in the King of the Mountains Classification, Kuicheng Wang of Bodywrap is the Best-placed Asian rider and Gate still leads the sprint classification. Thanks to his efforts off the front, De Rossi was handed the Most Aggressive Rider of the Day award.
Trio of Cat-1 climbs bring aggressive racing to start the day
As the sun-kissed gaggle of riders made their way to the sign-on area, there was a palpable sense of relief on Friday morning. Starting in yesterday’s finish city of Wuzhishan, the temperature had dropped to below 30 degrees for the first time in this year’s race. It was not cold, by any means, but for the first hour of racing, the peloton could enjoy a moment’s rest bite before the temperature soared again.
Well aware that time is quickly running out to leave their mark on the XDS Cup Tour of Hainan, several riders attacked straight from KM0 on the outskirts of the city, with the race quickly heading to the first categorised climb of the day. Manuele Tarozzi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizané), Ze Yu (Hainan Wuzhishan) and Alex Vandenbulcke (Tartelleto-Isorex) were the first to go on the offensive, the latter making good on his pre-race promise to attack.
This would not be a move that stuck, with the peloton keen to bring things back together at the foot of the Atuoling climb. Classified as a Category 1 ascent, the 9.2km-long climb averaged 4.8% and it was on these slopes that Vadim Pronskiy (Astana Qazaqstan), Jon Agirre (Equipo Kern Pharma), Théo Delacroix and Morné Van Niekerk (both St Michel-Mavic-Auber93) made their move. The four riders enjoyed an advantage for much of the climb, as the peloton dwindled to just 40 riders under the pressure of VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizané.
Thanks to their pace-setting, the four-man group was brought to heel towards the top of the climb, with only Agirre able to hold on and take maximum points over the KOM. Behind the Spaniard, Wilmar Paredes (Team Medellín-EPM), Joris Delbove (St Michel-Mavic-Auber93), Jórdi Lopez (Equipo Kern Pharma), Alessandro Tonelli (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizané) and Alessandro Romele (Astana Qazaqstan) would take second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively.
As the descent began, birthday boy Andreas Miltiadis (Terengganu Cycling Team) wasted no time in chancing his arm, the Cypriot champion quickly gaining a 48-second gap over the pack. Diego Uriarte of Equipo Kern Pharma took chase and after 40km of racing, the pair were alone at the front, soon to be joined by the ever-aggressive Vandenbulcke. Their gap would hover at around a minute until the second categorised climb began to bite, its 2.6km length proving a step too far for Uriarte, who would be passed by teammate Agirre in the closing metres to the summit. Ahead of Agirre, Miltiadis placed first, with Vandenbulcke taking second over the Category 1 ascent.
The lead of the race was to change hands at this point, with Vandenbulcke up to his usual antics on the descent and quickly joined by Adne van Engelen (Roojai Insurance). Their attack would last but for a moment, with Tarozzi of VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizané pioneering a sequence of moves that ultimately forced clear the next breakaway of the day. The likes of Delacroix and Victor Ocampo (Team Medellín-EPM ) tried their hand, but Tarozzi eventually settled in a group containing Kuicheng Wang (Bodywrap), Lucas De Rossi (China Glory-Mentech Continental Cycling Team) and Cristian Raileanu (Li Ning Star).
Despite Uriarte’s best efforts to follow, the Spaniard came up short and onto the final climb of the day, the four-man lead group had a one-minute advantage over the peloton. Standing at 7.3% for 2.8km, the final climb would top out with 50km still to ride and it was not long before Wang was dropped on these steep slopes. Pressing on over the top, De Rossi claimed the maximum KOM points, followed by Tarozzi and Raileanu.
This move was particularly important for Raileanu, who, having started the day 24 seconds behind the race lead of Aaron Gate (Burgos-BH), was sitting in the virtual yellow jersey. However, the Romanian national champion was to see his hopes dashed through the final intermediate sprint.
Gate goes back-to-back as De Rossi comes up short
In Qifang Town, Tarozzi produced an extraordinarily long acceleration to take the second intermediate sprint of the day, pipping Raileanu and De Rossi to the line. The accelerations of both Tarozzi and Raileanu would soon be punished, with De Rossi attacking over the top of the pair and going it alone. With their legs out of gas, Tarozzi and Raileanu dropped back to the peloton, and De Rossi faced 30km between himself and the finish in Changjiang.
No longer worried by Raileanu’s assault on the yellow jersey, Burgos-BH continued to chase the breakaway regardless. The Spanish team counts both Gate and George Jackson in their number, two riders with an impressive turn of speed. Under Burgos-BH’s pressure, De Rossi began to cede time to the peloton. What was once a time gap of over a minute dropped to 32 seconds with 14km to ride and just 20 seconds some 4km later.
Although the fate of De Rossi appeared inevitable for much of the final 20km, the French rider put up a truly spirited effort to fend off the peloton for as long as possible. Visibly hurting, De Rossi would climb out of the saddle on occasion, such was his discomfort. But after he had given everything left in the tank, the 29-year-old finally waved the white flag with 5km to go until the finish in Changjiang. His day was done and all that was left to uncover was the winner of this year’s penultimate stage.
Under the flamme rouge, it was Astana Qazaqstan who looked to have the strongest lead-out and as the road veered downhill into the final 500m, the speed of the peloton became electric. Timothy Dupont (Tarteletto-Isorex) went long, but it was Gate who timed his move to perfection. The Kiwi came off Dupont’s back wheel and rounded the Belgian’s left-hand shoulder, hitting the front of the race with only 45m to ride.
It was a canny move from Gate, with his rivals left only to quarrel over the final two spots on the day’s podium. VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizané’s Enrico Zanoncello came in hot to claim second, with Dupont settling for third.
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