Aaron Kemps wins final stage as Muradjan Halmuratov seals overall victory in Tour of China 2011
The Australian racing cyclists Aaron Kemps put in a tremendous effort in the mass sprint of the ninth and final stage of Tour of China 2011 on Tuesday, September 20. Muradjan Halmuratov retained his overall leader’s yellow jersey.
The 27-year-old Kemps easily beat Jonathan Cantwell in the final kilometres and covered the distance of 85 kilometres in 1 hour, 46 minutes and 5 seconds. Ivan Kovalev of Russian Federation finished third with the same timing as the Australian.
The 94 cyclists crossed the final line with the same timing of the Australian while Darren Rolfe tried his best to take a lead but failed to hold his pace and took the 95th spot with a difference of 21 seconds. The race leader, Halmuratov managed
67th place ahead of Baoxin Wei.
Grischa Janorschke said, "Adjacent to it was followed by two 90 degree turns before it went 200 yards straight into the goal. Steffen Radochla and Sebastian Körber came in first and second by, unfortunately, is Sebastian Körber fallen down the chain, so
that our train broke apart."
The three cyclists were able to gain an advantage of a few seconds over the peloton after few kilometres. The group consisted of Alexander Serov (Russian Federation), Ivan Kovalev (Russian Federation) and Daniel Holm Foder (Glud & Marstrand-LRO). Serov launched
an attacked to gain maximum points in the first intermediate sprint.
Kovalev and Janorschke again tried to take a lead but Serov held his pace and took the second sprint of the stage. However, the trio was caught by the peloton and a new group formed as Holm Foder showed some decent skills to take the third sprint ahead of
Girdlestone.
However, in the final kilometres, Kemps and Cantwell worked well together but Kemps crossed the finish line ahead of the other cyclists.
Recently, Kemps took first place in the first stage of Tour of Qinghai Lake. He also took the national criterium Championships in 2010.
Giant Kenda Cycling team’s Halmuratov took the overall lead with a time of 26 hours, 21 minutes and 28 seconds while Kovalev was runner-up with 3 minutes and 8 seconds behind Muradjan. Drik Muller was in eighth place with a difference of 3 minutes and 31
seconds.
Muller said, "The time period forward to the second place were incredibly tight, it was a shame that the prologue is not some influence with the standings, it would certainly have been a podium finish. However, I have given everything and can therefore be
satisfied with my performance.”
Alexander Serov (Russian Federation) grabbed third spot with the difference of 3 minutes and 12 seconds ahead of Matej Mugerli and Daniel Holm Foder.
Ghader Mizbani Iranagh took the overall mountain standing with 27 points ahead of Deon Locke as Peng Da Jiao took the title of Regional rider classification.
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