South Africa’s Jeremy Maartens rode to a fantastic stage win in the fifth stage of the Tour of Qinhai Lake in China on Wednesday after outsprinting his three escape companions.
Maartens, who rides for Microsoft in South Africa, was part of a six-man group that got away after 40km of racing. This fizzled down to four after two riders from the Kazakhstan national team were ridden off.
Maartens was left with two riders from Navigators and two from Italian squad Di Nardi.
They attained a lead of more than two minutes and Maartens came by the escapees in the final 100m to take the stage in a sprint.
”It was perfect for us today [Wednesday]. The two Navigators riders in the move were high up on general classification, but they aren’t climbers,” said team manager Tony Harding.
”All the climbers lost out today, but we were in the fortunate position that we didn’t have to do any work.
”We were represented in the break and the onus was on some of the other teams to bring it back. As a result our GC contenders had an easy ride on the day before the major climbs start,” said a happy Harding.
The GC contenders were all in the main group behind with the likes of Michael Carter and Gader Mizbani finishing in the bunch with Cox. — Sapa