Matej Mugerli wins stage as Muradjan Halmuratov retains overall lead in Tour of China
Perutnina Ptuj Team’s Matej Mugerli showed his tremendous ability and snatched a lead from the previous four stages winner Boris Shpilevsky in the eighth stage of Tour of China 2011 in Dujiangyan on Sunday, September 18. Muradjan Halmuratov maintained his
first place in the overall standing.
The rider was exhausted and said, “Today was really brutal. It has been raining and the twine increases has forced us all. I have, as well as on previous days, tried to drive away. However, the other team literally guarding my rear, so it's really hard to
tear a permanent gap."
In the first intermediate sprint of the stage, the three cyclists built a lead of few seconds clear over the peloton including, Ivan Kovalev (Russian Federation), Michael Freiberg (V Australia) and Yannick Janssen (Netherlands). Freiberg launched an attack
with Janssen but Kovalev took first place, but he was soon quashed by the Hong Kong Team.
After few kilometres, King Lok Cheung increased his pace and launched an attack in the second sprint ahead of Wei Li and Janorschke. Ghader Mizbani Iranagh (Tabriz Petrochemical Team) showed his powerful skills and took the first and second climb of the
stage and also the title of King of Mountain with 27 points ahead of Deon Locke with 19 points.
However, the two cyclists Mugerli and Kovalev were able to get away ahead of other cyclists in the final kilometres but Mugerli crossed the final line 2 seconds faster than Kovalev.
Daniel Holm Foder (Glud & Marstrand-LRO) finished third ahead of Hossein Alizadeh and Kenichi Suzuki. Jai Crawford (Giant Kenda Cycling Team) tried to take a lead but failed and took 21st place with a difference of 6 seconds ahead of race leader
Halmuratov.
Giant Kenda Cycling Team’s Muradjan Halmuratov took the overall lead with a timing of 24 hours, 35 minutes and 23 seconds while Kovalev was runner-up with 3 minutes and 16 seconds behind Muradjan.
The stage winner Mugerli was in third spot with a difference of 3 minutes and 17 seconds ahead of Lechuga Rodriguez and Alexander Serov.
After one day of rest the final stage will cover the distance of 85 kilometres and it will start and finish in Tianjin.
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