Stage 4: Strong Vitmanovskii wins elite sprint!

Russia’s powerhouse rider Evgenii Vitmanovskii has just been missing that little bit extra to be able to follow Miga and the other pure climbers uphill, but in Dali he proved just how good he is this week. Vitmanovskii was the man to beat in the Lake Ride, and nevertheless he took the bull by the horns. He was on cue after km 23, when the course for the first time took a right-hander up a new 2,5km long moderate climb, and set up the final breakaway around the km 55 mark. Six guys joined him: Elijus Civilis from Lithuania, Wei Kui from Shanghai, Chaleampon Klahan from Thailand, Li Jun Gang from Kunming, Josh Bauer from Minnesota USA and Erkes Davaasambu from Mongolia. Correct: no Miga. A flat stage can cause surprises!

The Dali stage is usually quite hectic in the beginning as over 1000 riders leave the city together on a high-speed flat course. Three riders broke away soon including two AG50 riders: Andrew Brearley from Australia and Slawomir Chrzanowski from Poland. The third rider was Davaasambu, one of the most attacking riders of this year’s event. They got swallowed up by an elite group in the switchback descent after km 28. Both Brearley and Chrzwanowski did an excellent job with this breakaway attempt as they got themselves in a premium position to score 1-2 in the AG result of the day. In fact, Chrzanowski even made it 8th overall in the finish!

When Vitmanovskii unleashed his devils, six man followed of whom the Mongolian rider Davaasambu refused to work together with the others. Protecting his compatriot in the yellow jersey, Miga. However, fate caught up with him and Davaasambu suffered a puncture at the most northern point of the Erhai Lake, which put him out of contention. From then on the six went flat out to the finish, all of them seemingly confident of winning a sprint. Except Josh Bauer, who was delighted to make up time for GC in this stage, the stage he likes the least.

The Russian outgunned Civilis and Klahan, which made for an unusual top 3. In fact, as Miga sprinted to 7th place in the second small group only, this year’s Dali stage marked the first time in five years that there was no Mongolian male in the top 6 podium rank of a stage!