NetApp-Endura in the Top 10 for the ninth time in the Tour of Qinghai Lake
The two-week tour of Qinghai Lake in China came to an end today with a circuit course of more than 96 kilometres. The flat course in the town of Lanzhou challenged the sprinters to display their prowess for the final time. The American Jacob Keough (United Healthcare) was the fastest, forcing the Australian Rico Rogers (Synergy Baku) and the Italian Francesco Chicchi (Vini Fanini) to the next positions. Ralf Matzka sprinted into eighth place.
This means that the Iranian Pourseyedi Golakhour has won the circuit tour followed by the two Kazakhs, Yevgeniy Nepomnyachshiy and Daniil Fominykh, from the Astana Continental Team. The best placed rider of the NetApp-Endura team in the overall ranking is Iker Camano in place 32, who returned to the race after a long pause due to injury.
"Today, the team was able to bring Ralf into a good position, so that he could enter the sprint. Unfortunately, his strength failed him 100m before the finish and he only managed to make it into eighth place," reports Enrico Poitschke.
The NetApp-Endura team ends the Tour of Qinghai Lake with nine Top 10 places, two of which are podium places.
"On the whole we see this circuit tour as being very educational for our young riders. They stand to benefit from it as they have now gained an even better instinct for one another and can improve their coordination in the race. Iker, who was running his first race after his fall, is well on the way to the next circuit tours," concludes Enrico Poitschke who supported the team as Sport Director during the Tour of Qinghai Lake.
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, 96km
