Ralf Matzka takes 4th place again in Tour of Qinghai Lake
The penultimate stage of the Tour of Qinghai Lake first led riders some 22 kilometers onto a 12 kilometer circuit to be completed eight times. The winner of today's stage was decided in a mass sprint on the flat city course in Zhongwei. Like yesterday, NetApp-Endura's Ralf Matzka sprinted his way to fourth place. Italy's Sacha Modolo (Bardiani) secured a sixth stage victory, ahead of Ariel Richeze (Lampre) and Marco Benfatto (Astana Continental).
Iranian Mirsamad Poorseyedi Golakhour (Tabriz Petrochemical) remained the leader in the general classification in the penultimate stage. Second and third place were taken by Yevgeniy Nepomnyachshiy and Daniil Fominykh, both of Kazakhstan, from the Astana Continental Team.
The race began with a seven-man breakaway group which moved 20 kilometers away from the bunch. This group dominated the race until the final lap before the finish line, when the peloton caught up. Another brief attack was parried as well by the field, so that the stage was decided in a mass sprint.
“Things unfortunately didn’t go quite the way we thought again. To beat a sprinter like our Italian competitor, everything has to go perfectly. We were short one man in setting up the sprint, leaving Ralf in the wind too long, which drained too much of his energy for him to finish in the lead. Tomorrow's final stage gives fast-finishing riders one last chance at a sprint, and we will be doing everything we can for a good outcome," commented Enrico Poitschke after the penultimate stage of the Tour of Qinghai Lake.
The final stage is a short, 96-kilometer circuit course in the city of Lanzhou, involving five 19-kilometer rounds.
1 Stage, Sunday, 7 July – Xining – Xining, 138km
2 Stage, Monday, 8 July – Huzhu – GuiDe, 151km
3 Stage, Tuesday, 9 July – GuiDe – Qinghai Lake, 148km
4 Stage, Wednesday, 10 July – Qinghai Lake – Tianjun, 227km
5 Stage, Thursday, 11 July – Tianjun – Xihaizhen, 203km
6 Stage, Friday, 12 July – Xihaizhen – Qilian, 205km
7 Stage, Saturday, 13 July – Qilian – Qilian, 82km
8 Stage, Sunday, 14 July – Qilian – Zhangye, 201km
Monday, 15 July – Restday
9 Stage, Tuesday, 16 July – Zhangye – Zhangye, 117km
10 Stage, Wednesday, 17 July – Wuwei – Jingtai, 191km
11 Stage, Thursday, 18 July – Yinchuan – Yinchuan, 123km
12 Stage, Friday, 19 July – Zhongwei – Zhongwei, 120km
13 Stage, Saturday, 20 July – Lanzhou – Lanzhou, 77km
