Radoslav Rogina (Loborika) powered to a convincing solo win, 45 seconds clear over second placed Kiel Reijnen (Jelly Belly USA). Chinese rider Jiang Kun of the China National Team takes the final podium spot in third. All the favorites for the overall classification finished in the top 20 and it looks like tomorrow’s shorter stage will not see any major shake up in the general classification.

**More photos to follow this afternoon - stay tuned!

Riders were in for some spectacular views today

After Rogina’s display today, he looks like a solid candidate to claim the overall honors. But he will be a watched man by the strong teams in Tabriz Petrochemical, Kazakhstan National, and the Giant Asia Racing Team.

Croatian National Champion wins solo - How it unfolded

A number of teams seem to be hard hit by a mystery stomach virus that has caused at least five riders to throw-up out the bus window on the way to the start of stage one. It is mainly the Western teams that are falling victim, especially Team Type 1, Jelly Belly and Marco Polo Cycling. Riders were already being struck down before the real racing has even begun - there were even reports that some riders had their bibs down so they could conveniently . . . . well . . . . you know . . . while riding!

Riders from Team Jelly Belly looking ready before the start - many riders have been suffering from food poisoning

Today’s weather was a complete turnaround to yesterday’s mud sludge affair. 140 Riders were greeted with brilliant blue skies and large crowds of Xining residents lining every street corner to witness the start of the 170km stage sponsored by Air China that traversed from Xining to Tongren, the home of the largest Tibetan community outside of Tibet. The scenery enroute to Tongren was absolutely stunning with interesting mountain shapes and craggy rock formations jutting out on the sky-line. There was a lot of interesting Uyghur people out lining the twisting roads, cheering the cyclists on in what was a long hot day for many.

Beautiful weather brought out many members of the highly diverse local community

The peloton got to the base of the major climb of the day largely intact, but the 30km climb over 1000m saw riders dropping off the back. In the lead up to the King of Mountain points on offer, Iranian teammates, Alieadeh Hossein and Askari Hossein (TPT) along with Eami Rahim (Giant Asia) and Kvachuk Oleksanor (ISD) powered clear of the peloton. Giant Asia’s Rahim took the maximum points on offer and the quartet formed a tight powerful group on the descent. In the attempt to chase, the peloton splintered into several groups however the groups came back together again with 40kms remaining. The well-oiled quartet was still out in front by over a minute and going through the picturesque gorge was when the peloton finally fractured into many small groups, leaving 18 riders in the front group to chase down the threatening breakaway. The breakaway was finally caught and this was the point when Rogina (Loborika) made his winning move.

Stage three is comparatively short at 95kms with nearly half the course flat and slight downhill. At mid-stage, there is an 800m 15km climb and a long downhill run to the finish. It is not likely there will be a major change on general classification.

Radoslav Rogina (Loborika) powered to a convincing solo win - he got to continue the Champagne festivities

cyclingnewsasia talks to some of the riders and team managers for their reactions:

Piet Hoekstra (Skil Shimano’s Team Manager): reflected on today’s stage “I thought the racing was not aggressive enough, especially when the splits came back together after the feedzone. We had three riders in the initial front group which was good, but after the groups came back together I felt that our riders were not aggressive enough to go with the fresh attacks that followed. In the end, it was only Geniez Alexandre who made the front group.”

On who are the main contenders: “Tabriz Iranian Team and Giant Asia with David McCann. Anything is possible in a race like Qinghai Lake. I believe at least 10 riders in the top 20 can win this race. The winner today also looks very strong”

Skil Shimano provides Chinese riders with the opportunity to gain international race experience. At this Qinghai Lake Tour, they have three Chinese riders.

On Chinese riders: “We like to give Chinese riders opportunity to move up in the cycling ranks by racing in Europe. Chinese riders only have three major races a year and five smaller races – which does not give them adequate race experience to do well on the world stage.”

Aussie Jono Lovelock from the Marco Polo Cycling Team

“Beautiful! Amazing weather and scenery; but my race probably was not so good due to some food poisoning last night along with a few others. I had to go the toilet four times! This was not a good lead up stage one.”

The sights in Qinghai keep riders and fans coming back - this marching band was classic . . .

“Felt really bad and flat. It affected me mentally as well: expect yourself to feel bad so you feel bad. I just made it over the climb, got dropped just before the top of the climb but got back on during the downhill. I had my teammate, Brad Hall, helping me survive, helping with drinks but there were attacks going thick and fast with 40km to go – Brad Hall had to leave me and do his own race. I rolled in nice and easy for the last 20km and enjoyed some of the amazing scenery that I would not have noticed if I was racing full-on!”

“I was amazed at some of the scenery in the last hour of racing. Looked around, massive mountains, wow it was so cool.”

“It was quite weird racing up a highway like that; we are used to climbing up small roads . . . feels like an uphill speedway with most of the peloton all there fanned across the road.”

Riders and our readers alike have been amazed with some of the photography coming from Western China

“I used my power-meter and obviously when you are climbing at 3000m your power will be a lot less. On this hill at 3000m, I was doing under 300 watts and it was clear that it was due to the affects of altitude and food poisoning. Also arriving on Wednesday, and racing on Friday was a big shock to the system! We did not do any altitude training and came straight from Belgium.”

Dutch rider, Maarten De Jonge (Cycling Team Jo Piels) is quietly confident in getting a good result for the overall classification. His goal is to finish in the top 20 on GC.

He struggled with the altitude, like many riders when the race reached 3100m. “Coming from Holland, I am just not used to altitude at all and was finding it difficult to breathe in the early stages of today’s race. But closer to the finish-line my body felt better and I was breathing easier” De Jonge said. “Although I am 3-4 minutes down on the winner, the tour is not over yet – still have eight more stages to go and I am looking forward to when the climbs get steeper as that is when I will do the best and hopefully get a stage win”.

Mike Carter, Team Type 1’s Manager; This is his 8th time at the Qinghai Lake Tour and this year he is leading USA’s Team Type 1. “It was a disappointing day for TT1 as we had some riders down with food poisoning and only one of our riders, Will Dougan, made the front split and finished 22nd. This was the positive that we can take from today’s stage.” Mike continued “Our focus now is to look after Will and hope to move him into the top 10.”

“I thought it was impressive seeing the two Hossein’s escaping together up the road with two other riders. It was a fine display of strength and they will be ones to watch during this tour. It was not that difficult a climb, but as expected, all the favorites are in the top 20.”

Are you bleating for more photos? Check back later today for more stunning pictures from Qnghai, China

“It was interesting seeing the Chinese riders attacking when out of contention. They would attack the group they were in to try and get away. I think maybe they are a bit too enthusiastic and perhaps want to show that they are doing well. Most riders in this situation would focus on conserving energy to ride well the next day – there is no point spending your energy when it is not necessary.”

名次 号码 编码 姓名 队名 成绩 累计个人成绩/ 组织者 差距
Rank Bib UCI UCICode Name Team Time General Individual Classification Rank +/- Diff.

1. 21 CRO19790303 ROGINA RADOSLAV LOB 6:07:52 -- --
2. 52 SLO19811015 GAZVODA GREGOR KTM 6:08:29 +37 -2
3. 175 USA19860601 REIJNEN KIEL JBC 6:08:36 +44 +1
4. 141 IRL19730317 MCCANN DAVID GNT 6:08:37 +45 -5
5. 1 KAZ19730316 MIZOROV,ANDREY TPT 6:08:42 +50 --
6. 125 SLO19760512 MAHORIC MITJA SLO -- -- --
7. 5 IRI19750323 ASKARI,HOSSEIN TPT 6:08:51 +59 -7
8. 92 FRA19880416 GENIEZ,ALEXANDRE SKS 6:08:55 +1:03 -3
9. 146 IRI19820517 EMAMI RAHIM GNT 6:09:01 +1:09 -6
10. 124 SLO19840301 KERKEZ VLADIMIR SLO 6:09:02 +1:10 -6
11. 7 IRI19880124 ALIEADEH,HOSSEIN TPT -- -- -6
12. 22 CRO19800615 DANCULOVIC TOMISLAV LOB -- -- -9
13. 3 IRI19751206 MIZBANI IRANAGH,GHADER TPT 6:09:18 +1:26 -10
14. 153 UKR19800413 STARCHYK VOLODYMYR AMO 6:10:28 +2:36 -11
15. 112 RUS19850225 LIKHACHEV VLADIMIR RUS 6:11:30 +3:38 +3
16. 61 UKR19830723 KVACHUK OLEKSANDR ISD 6:11:34 +3:42 +3
17. 47 HKG19910505 CHOI,KI HO HKG 6:11:47 +3:55 +9
18. 72 KAZ19870226 SHUSHEMOIN ALEXANDR KAZ 6:11:53 +4:01 -1
19. 116 RUS19840905 FILIPPOV ALEXANDER RUS 6:13:26 +5:34 -46
20. 192 CHN19891213 JIANG KUN CHN 6:13:30 +5:38 +17
21. 123 SLO19771207 GOLCER JURE SLO 6:13:36 +5:44 -48
22. 202 CHN19870618 WU SHENGJUN TYD 6:14:10 +6:18 -4
23. 166 UKR19861024 BUTS VITALIY UKR 6:14:34 +6:42 -4
24. 157 RUS19780905 BORISOV VLADISLAV AMO -- -- -5
25. 91 NOR19850717 WILMANN,FREDERIK SKS 6:14:50 +6:58 -3
26. 142 KGZ19740418 WACKER EUGEN GNT 6:15:12 +7:20 +6
27. 181 USA19870115 DUGAN,WILLIAM TT1 -- -- +5
28. 111 RUS19821023 PUZANOV DMITRY RUS 6:15:20 +7:28 -3
29. 152 POL19830720 DABROWSKI JAROSLAW AMO 6:15:32 +7:40 -3
30. 94 FRA19841110 HUPOND,THIERRY SKS 6:15:56 +8:04 -18
31. 127 SLO19780220 STARE MATEJ SLO 6:15:57 +8:05 -16
32. 193 CHN19860213 JIAO PENGDA CHN 6:16:13 +8:21 -18
33. 44 HKG19880730 YEUNG,YING HON HKG -- -- -24
34. 43 HKG19810424 CHAN,CHUN HING HKG 6:16:18 +8:26 --
35. 64 UKR19820313 KOSTYUK DENYS ISD 6:16:23 +8:31 +28
36. 131 SRB19830325 DER ZSOLT ZAN 6:16:25 +8:33 -9
37. 144 IRI19850919 BARATI RASOUL GNT 6:16:27 +8:35 -7
38. 172 USA19790217 COLBY ANTHONY JBC -- -- -11
39. 156 UKR19790206 BILEKA VOLODYMYR AMO -- -- -17
40. 187 ITA19780806 FRATTINI,DAVIDE TT1 -- -- -20
41. 133 SRB19800312 STEVIC IVAN ZAN -- -- -26
42. 2 GER19790517 TOBIAS,ERLER TPT 6:16:39 +8:47 +18
43. 74 KAZ19860330 ZHIYENTAYEV ROMAN KAZ 6:16:43 +8:51 +25
44. 84 NED19850309 DE JONGE,MAARTEN CJP 6:18:04 +10:12 +11
45. 85 NED19870704 DE BEER,PIM CJP 6:18:14 +10:22 -1
46. 203 CHN19880315 LIU BIAO TYD -- -- -12
47. 97 CHN19851214 HAN,FENG SKS 6:18:17 +10:25 +8
48. 24 CRO19840803 KISERLOVSKI EMANUEL LOB -- -- -6

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