The worrying thing for Sacha Modolo s rivals in this year s Tour of Qinghai Lake is not the fact he won his fourth stage today, it s the fact there are still four remaining. Does anyone else have a chance?
IMAGES: Mokhriz Aziz (UCI AsiaTour photographer) + Tour of Qinghai Lake 2013
In taking the first intermediate sprint (at 46.66km), Modolo (Bardiani Valvole CSF Inox) also consolidated his lead in the sprinter s Green Jersey classification. Bardiani-CSF s fast man now leads Lampre-Merida s Maximiliano Richeze by 23 points, increasing the possibility of the Italian-registered ProTeam leaving China devoid of jerseys and stage wins.
Race leader Mirsamad Pourseyedi Golakhour and his Tabriz Petrochemical teammates could enjoy a relatively comfortable two hours amongst the 124-rider peloton which, for only the second time since the opening stage last Sunday, finished together with no DNF s recorded with other teams focused on controlling the field for a bunch sprint. Aside from a correction of yesterday s unexplained 10? time penalty assigned to the Yellow Jersey [Note: Cycling iQ has not received any supplementary information penalties, fines, etc with the official results, nor have requests to receive this information been fulfilled] the General Classification s top 10 remains unchanged.
Stage 10, from Wuwei to Jingtai (191km), starts 10:00 local time (02:00 GMT), Wednesday, 17 July 2013. All stage maps and profiles, together with a full race backgrounder can be found on the Cycling iQ 2013 Tour of Qinghai Lake race preview page.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD3AmINCq14]
LEADERBOARD
Individual General Classification (Yellow jersey): Mirsamad Pourseyedi Golakhor (Tabriz Petrochemical Team) Points Classification (Green jersey): Sacha Modolo (Bardiani Valvole CSF Inox) Best Asian Rider Classification (Blue jersey): Mirsamad Pourseyedi Golakhor (Tabriz Petrochemical Team) King of the Mountains Classification (Polka Dot jersey): Mirsamad Pourseyedi Golakhor (Tabriz Petrochemical Team)
Teams General Classification: Tabriz Petrochemical Team
FULL RESULTS SHEET (PDF) HERE
STAGE 9 RESULTS
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE NINE