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Asian TT Champion Mehdi Sohrabi (Tabriz Petrochemical), who is built like a body-builder and cranks the 54-11 all day, won in stunning fashion averaging 49km/h for the entire stage. Sohrabi won the sprint ahead of 18 year old Nikola Kozomara (Partizan SRBIJA) with Hossein Askari in third place. This victory has left many teams scratching their heads in bewilderment: how did they do it?!
Askari now has claimed the overall lead at the Qinghai Lake Tour and is now resplendent in the Yellow jersey with 44 seconds over Croation Radoslav Rogina (Loborika). Jelly Belly presented by Kenda’s Kiel Reijnen now sits third overall 1min 25 seconds behind the leader.
How it unfolded - Sohrabi powers to unbelievable win - Croatia loses Yellow Jersey to Hossein Askari
Stage six was underway with 120 starters – since there was no neutral section, attacks immediately were launched by various teams in the hope to form an early breakaway. In particular the Tabriz Petrochemical Iranian Team were sending riders one by one following attacks that caused some raised eyebrows within the peloton. It was just before the first intermediate sprint at the 37.8km mark that a breakaway trio containing two Tabriz Petrochemical Iranian riders and one young 18 year old Serbian in his first major tour got established. The time gap quickly ballooned out to six minutes while the peloton had a longish Yellow jersey natural break and the initial assumption that three riders could not stay away for so long. The chase was organized within 5kms, with all the big teams putting their riders on the front to help – Amore & Vita, Russian National Team, the Yellow jersey Croatian team plus help from Jelly Belly presented by Kenda and Giant Asia. With all this fire power in the chase group – you would think the breakaway would be quickly reeled back in . . .
Riders splintered across the road was a common site in todays stage - changes in tempo were common and many suffered
The chase group was disrupted by the other Tabriz Petrochemical riders on numerous occasions. At about mid-point, going up a small rise of about 1km, the Iranians all attacked hard and the peloton was splintered sensationally into four groups going over the top. The first three groups eventually merged together with the forth group becoming the “laughing bunch”. The pace was savage at times, riders lined up in the gutter single file causing more and more strong riders to drop off like flies. When the race hit the 4km category three KOM climb, it further broke up and a lead group of 34 crested the climb together, however the breakaway was still a good three minutes away.
The two Iranians displayed such raw power that they were cranking their 54-11’s for the entire stage – sometimes up to 70kmh on the flats! The young Serbian was hanging on for dear life, even crying from the pain in inflicted in his legs. His team manager Dusan Banovic told cyclingnewsasia about when he first drove up to his rider “First time I got there, I said “hey whats up – hows it going?” His reply was, “these guys are crazy.” He further commented “my rider was working with them for the first 50kms but after that he was struggling for his life. He was crying from the pain in his legs.” Comments like this leave us wondering what the new revolutionary training methods have been developed by the team (ed.) . . .
Riders suffering as they head towards the Cat. 4 rise
18 year old Nikola Kozomara from Serbia is definitely a rider to watch for in the future after his fantastic 2nd placing. Kozomara was 2nd in last years Balkan Championships and it is his first year as a U23 rider. “This result will definitely be big for his professional career” said Banovic.
This is a fantastic result for the Serbian team who are now reduced to three riders due to sickness and their star sprinter Ivan Stevic being disqualified from the race. However, Dusan Banovic was hassled by many suspicious teams today, especially the Croatian Loborika Team who were stunned and disbelieving. Banovic was asked by the Loborika Team . . .
Cyclingnewsasia speaks to the Peloton about todays herculean effort
Dusan Banovic, Serbian National Team: “This is definitely the best race I have ever watched in my life and it is a very clear victory for the three riders – the TPT team has yellow jersey completely and I think they deserve it 110%,” Said Banovic. “I was all day with them, there was Martin the UCI commissaire, couple of times there was another commissaire in a car and there was the official on the motorbike too, two neutral service Shimano and VIP guests, and a lot of cameras at least 3-4 cameras! It is impossible that they could have motorpaced” explained Banovic.
18 year old Nikola Kozomara from Serbia tells an Iranian rider how he felt they rode today . . . .
Khatoun Abadi Azar Kazem, Iranian Team Manager: "Today I have very good team riding on front together – we attack hard. We ride very hard to get yellow jersey. I am very happy for today. Today was a very hard race . . . . Prior to the stage he mentioned: “Today is not really our day, its too flat and it will be a bunch finish and we are looking to stage seven to be our day.”
Stage winner Mehdi Sohrabi: “Today was a very hard race and we show our ability to all the teams” he said. “I am so pleased that we pulled this off together and it is important to us to keep the yellow jersey. We obtained everything we wanted from this stage.”
The tall German rider, Tobias Erler (Tabriz Petrochemical) offered his perspective on the stage: “Today we wanted to make Croatia tired… so we attack and attack… maybe they thought we were stupid, with attacks going one of the other another Tabriz rider would follow. The Croatians were asking what are you doing, why?! We told them- we are riding hard today!” He continued, "Another thing we did occured on the short rise in the middle of the race. We attacked hard – just to make every one more tired and then we slowed down again over the top – and this helped disrupt the chase. This was a perfect ride today for us.”
Kiel Reijnen (Jelly Belly presented by Kenda) who won the Tour of Thailand earlier this year (now third overall: "It was a tough situation, the whole day, and breakaway was only three guys, it was a normal day like any non-GC day. They got over five mins very quickly – we got organized, yellow jersey put some guys in, amore & vita put some guys in along with Russia to go for the bunch kick.
We only played around for about 5km there when we all had the yellow jersey pee break, ate some food, then we started riding – we soon hit that 1km riser, it was not a climb. TPT attacked through there – REAL HARD, I mean real hard and it was just a few of us over the top there. They sat up over the top and it was like – why did you do that?!
The Serbian rider with the two TPT riders just sat on for the entire race – they were so strong that they rolled him to death. I know that there were commissares watching them. They were faster than anything I have seen. . . that break averaged 49km/h – that does not even happen at the Tour de France”
Giant Asia David McCann is sitting fourth on GC now and talks with cyclingnewsasia about his perspective: "I know those guys can go like motorbikes as I have raced them before… the tail wind made a big difference. We needed to do 70km/h to catch them…" he said. "Sohrabi is the Asian TT champion – built like a body-builder and can crank the 54-11 all day – he is not a guy you give a six minute gap to and you will never see him. It was a mistake and Croatia paid for it"
More Champagne was wasted!
America’s Team Type 1 put together a good day with Thomas Rabou. Team manager, Mike Carter, was very pleased with the boys performance during stage six: “Today was one of those crazy days – two Iranians got up the road and we know them for years and what they are capable of doing some amazing things – they are extremely motivated.” He continued “What they did was very surprising – smooth roads with tail wind for 90kms – two guys super motivated, and the Serbian guy was hanging on for dear life.”
The Qinghai Lake Tour features an epic 123km route to Qilian that consists of two major KOM climbs, one of the climbs rising up to 3,900 metres above sea-level and its only a 15km downhill stretch to the finish.
Final Stage Results
名次 号码 编码 姓名 队名 成绩 奖/罚 差距 赛段个人成绩/
Bib Num. Rank Bib UCI UCICode Name Team Time B/P Diff. Individual Result For Stage
- IRI19811012 SOHRABI,MEHDI TPT 3:07:01 -16/-- --
- 134 SRB19911216 KOZOMARA NIKOLA ZAN -- -9/-- --
- 5 IRI19750323 ASKARI,HOSSEIN TPT 3:07:04 -13/-- +3
- 184 NED19831212 RABOU,THOMAS TT1 3:09:21 -- +2:20
- 117 RUS19820820 SHPILEVSKIY BORIS RUS -- -- --
- 7 IRI19880124 ALIEADEH,HOSSEIN TPT -- -- --
- 166 UKR19861024 BUTS VITALIY UKR -- -- --
- 64 UKR19820313 KOSTYUK DENYS ISD -- -- --
- 87 ITA19780806 FRATTINI,DAVIDE TT1 -- -- --
- 153 UKR19800413 STARCHYK VOLODYMYR AMO -- -- --
- 156 UKR19790206 BILEKA VOLODYMYR AMO -- -- --
- 75 KAZ19870307 TLEUBAYEV RUSLAN KAZ -- -- --
- 127 SLO19780220 STARE MATEJ SLO -- -- --
- 124 SLO19840301 KERKEZ VLADIMIR SLO -- -- --
- 175 USA19860601 REIJNEN KIEL JBC -- -- --
- 111 RUS19821023 PUZANOV DMITRY RUS -- -- --
- 84 NED19850309 DE JONGE,MAARTEN CJP -- -- --
- 141 IRL19730317 MCCANN DAVID GNT -- -- --
- 193 CHN19860213 JIAO PENGDA CHN -- -- --
- 85 NED19870704 DE BEER,PIM CJP -- -- --
- 185 USA19870202 STEWART,SCOTT TT1 -- -- --
- 1 KAZ19730316 MIZOROV,ANDREY TPT -- -- --
- 125 SLO19760512 MAHORIC MITJA SLO -- -- --
- 146 IRI19820517 EMAMI RAHIM GNT -- -- --
- 52 SLO19811015 GAZVODA GREGOR KTM -- -- --
- 114 RUS19851031 KOMKOV DANIL RUS -- -- --
- 94 FRA19841110 HUPOND,THIERRY SKS -- -- --
- 131 SRB19830325 DER ZSOLT ZAN -- -- --
- 21 CRO19790303 ROGINA RADOSLAV LOB -- -- --
- 186 UKR19770205 KOBZARENKO,VALERIY TT1 -- -- --
- 6 IRI19760402 JAHANBANIAN KAMNABI,HOSSEIN TPT -- -- --
- 72 KAZ19870226 SHUSHEMOIN ALEXANDR KAZ -- -- --
- 3 IRI19751206 MIZBANI IRANAGH,GHADER TPT -- -- --
- 142 KGZ19740418 WACKER EUGEN GNT -- -- --
- 91 NOR19850717 WILMANN,FREDERIK SKS -- -- --
- 65 AUS19860718 CLARKE SIMON ISD -- -- --
- 61 UKR19830723 KVACHUK OLEKSANDR ISD -- -- --
- 123 SLO19771207 GOLCER JURE SLO -- -- --
- 24 CRO19840803 KISERLOVSKI EMANUEL LOB 3:09:39 -- +2:38
- 22 CRO19800615 DANCULOVIC TOMISLAV LOB -- -- --
- 112 RUS19850225 LIKHACHEV VLADIMIR RUS 3:12:40 -- +5:39
- 164 UKR19850103 GOMENUK VOLODYMYR UKR -- -- --
- 162 UKR19870829 VASYLYUK ANDRIY UKR 3:12:42 -- +5:41
- 54 CZE19880826 KRATOCHVILA JAKUB KTM -- -- --
- 161 UKR19871030 KONONENKO MYKHAYLO UKR -- -- --
- 152 POL19830720 DABROWSKI JAROSLAW AMO -- -- --
- 144 IRI19850919 BARATI RASOUL GNT -- -- --
- 121 SLO19820507 FAJT KRISTJAN SLO 3:12:55 -- +5:54
- 122 SLO19820120 ZRIMSEK JURE SLO 3:12:56 -- +5:55
- 196 CHN19831027 TU YUE CHN 3:14:05 -- +7:04
- 192 CHN19891213 JIANG KUN CHN -- -- --
- 154 MEX19830703 COLEX TEPOX BERNARDO AMO -- -- --
- 2 GER19790517 TOBIAS,ERLER TPT -- -- --
- 202 CHN19870618 WU SHENGJUN TYD -- -- --
- 155 UKR19790609 GRECHYN SERGIY AMO 3:14:26 -- +7:25
- 76 KAZ19900701 KUZMIN SERGEY KAZ 3:16:32 -- +9:31
- 96 CHN19831024 JIN,LONG SKS 3:20:59 -- +13:58
- 32 DEN19840823 JORGENSEN KASPER LINDE GLU -- -- --
- 201 CHN19850101 MA HAIJUN TYD -- -- --
- 205 CHN19900716 WU PEILUN TYD -- -- --
- 103 NZL19741228 SMALLMAN IAN SWA -- -- --
- 62 UKR19850403 KRIVTSOV DMYTRIY ISD -- -- --
- 97 CHN19851214 HAN,FENG SKS -- -- --
- 83 NED19890616 LINDEMAN,BERT-JAN CJP -- -- --
- 195 CHN19850729 LIU BO CHN -- -- --
- 204 CHN19881026 DONG XIAOYONG TYD -- -- --
- 87 NED19900420 POSTHUMA,JELLE CJP -- -- --
- 132 SRB19850124 HASANOVIC ESAD ZAN -- -- --
- 182 NED19850504 VERSCHOOR MARTIJN TT1 -- -- --
- 181 USA19870115 DUGAN,WILLIAM TT1 -- -- --
- 63 UKR19840215 KONDRUT VITALIY ISD -- -- --
- 197 CHN19870613 YU SHIJIE CHN -- -- --
- 92 FRA19880416 GENIEZ,ALEXANDRE SKS -- -- --
- 45 HKG19850903 CHEUNG,KING WAI HKG -- -- --
- 95 CHN19870115 JI,CHENG SKS -- -- --
- 101 NZL19821027 DROWER ERIC SWA -- -- --
- 172 USA19790217 COLBY ANTHONY JBC -- -- --
- 86 NED19810620 DE HAAN,SIERK JAN CJP -- -- --
- 145 THA19811119 MAHAWONG PRAJAK GNT -- -- --
- 207 CHN19890117 DANG TING TYD -- -- --
- 82 NED19891012 VAN WINDEN,STEFAN CJP -- -- --
- 107 NZL19870420 HORGAN SAMUEL SWA -- -- --
- 67 ITA19860205 MANCUSO SALVATORE ISD -- -- --
- 66 ITA19860605 DE NEGRI PIER PAOLO ISD -- -- --
- 115 RUS19820410 AREKEEV ALEXANDER RUS -- -- --
- 173 USA19790911 VAN ULDEN BERNARD JBC -- -- --
- 16 NED19911020 BOUNIDA,KHALID MPC -- -- --
- 71 KAZ19840512 IGLINSKIY VALENTIN KAZ -- -- --
- 113 RUS19850407 RESHETKO EVGENY RUS -- -- --
- 116 RUS19840905 FILIPPOV ALEXANDER RUS -- -- --
- 37 DEN19880121 OSTERGAARD NIKI GLU -- -- --
- 31 DEN19780112 NIELSEN JACOB GLU -- -- --
- 151 UKR19760104 METLUSHENKO YURIY AMO -- -- --
- 26 CRO19790608 MIHOLJEVIC HRVOJE LOB -- -- --
- 41 HKG19730313 WONG,KAM PO HKG -- -- --
- 27 CRO19790825 DEMARIN MASSIMO LOB -- -- --
- 74 KAZ19860330 ZHIYENTAYEV ROMAN KAZ -- -- --
- 25 CRO19841208 BLAŽEVIC DARKO LOB -- -- --
- 157 RUS19780905 BORISOV VLADISLAV AMO -- -- --
- 194 CHN19831213 LIU PENG CHN -- -- --
- 43 HKG19810424 CHAN,CHUN HING HKG -- -- --
- 23 CRO19870726 DURASEK KRISTIJAN LOB -- -- --
- 191 CHN19840128 XU GANG CHN -- -- --
- 126 SLO19821119 OMULEC ANDREJ SLO -- -- --
- 11 AUS19780617 HALL,BRADELEY MPC -- -- --
- 143 GBR19830925 COUTTS ALEX GNT -- -- --
- 163 UKR19900904 SOSNITSKYY ANATOLIY UKR -- -- --
- 165 UKR19900628 PREVAR OLEKSANDR UKR -- -- --
- 106 NZL19890327 WILLIAMSON JAMES SWA -- -- --
- 73 KAZ19870301 JUMABEKOV NAZAR KAZ -- -- --
- 77 KAZ19831215 SLADKOV YEVGENIY KAZ -- -- --
- 102 NZL19851227 COOPER JOSEPH SWA -- -- --
- 14 AUS19891023 LOVELOCK JONATHAN MPC -- -- --
- 47 HKG19910505 CHOI,KI HO HKG -- -- --
- 34 DEN19890706 JUUL-JENSEN CHRISTOPHER GLU -- -- --
- 42 HKG19880226 KWOK,HO TING HKG -- -- --
- 44 HKG19880730 YEUNG,YING HON HKG -- -- --
- 176 USA19861104 MAZICH SEAN JBC -- -- --
- 206 CHN19890318 CHEN WU TYD 3:26:28 -- +19:27
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