Blaz Jarc sprints into 13th place during the ninth stage of the Tour of Qinghai Lake
After yesterday’s day off, the Tour of Qinghai Lake resumed today with its ninth stage. The stage measured 117 kilometers and included five laps around a circuit course in the city of Zhangye. Italian rider Sacha Modolo (Bardiani) won his fourth stage, beating out Jacobe Keough (United Healthcare) and Ariel Richeze (Lampre), who placed second and third, respectively. Team NetApp-Endura’s Blaz Jarc sprinted into 13th place. The overall ranking remains unchanged.
The race was marked by many attacks, but the field was always able to close the gap thanks to its fast tempo. A quartet managed to break away for a short time, but they too were caught during the next-to-last lap in time for the final sprint classification. After that, the sprinter teams began making preparations for the mass sprint.
“In spite of the rest day, Ralf and Michael still didn’t feel in top form today to keep pace with the sprinters out front. As a result, we changed our strategy during the race and started riding for Blaz. The guys worked hard and were able to bring him into a promising position. However, on the last curve he had to let up a bit, which meant that Blaz wasn’t able to convert the position into a top spot,” reported Enrico Poitschke following today’s stage.
The 10th of a total of 13 stages in China will cover a distance of 191 kilometers, including a 2,700-meter climb over a long and difficult mountain. The teams that are still in contention in the general classification will again try to challenge the yellow jersey during this stage.
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, 121km
12 Stage, Friday, 19 July – Zhongwei – Zhongwei, 119km
13 Stage, Saturday, 20 July – Lanzhou – Lanzhou, 77km
