Victories for Liu Yaoguang and Zhang Hao in Epic Tengchong

Liu Yao Guang was the fastest sprinter of a four-man-breakaway in the first stage of the inaugural Granfondo Tengchong Cycling Challenge, a sister event of our Granfondo Yunnan in November. The first day featured a 85km race dubbed ‘Epic Tengchong’ and was held under blue skies with 650 riders taking the start in either the 85km or 52km short distance version. Tengchong is a mountainous area in the southwest of Yunnan, known for its Gaoligong range, and it is hard to find more than 1 km of flat roads, making the 2-day cycling festival a real, but ultimately very rewarding challenge for all participants.

Throughout the hilly stage of 85km Liu Yaoguang had already looked like the strongest and even set up a solo attack early on. He was reeled back in by Wu Bao Chao at the start of the Simola climb, the longest and steepest climb of the day - halfway into the race - which ends with a number of cobblestones sections. Not the Roubaix-style of cobblestone, more the “tourist square” variety of it. Simola is indeed a flower ‘paradise’ and major local tourism drawcard. Wu Bao Chao hit his limits, however, during the climb, perhaps paying the price for his efforts in the chase towards Liu Yaoguang. Three other riders hit the front, Chen Lipeng, Gong Baomao and Wang Wen. The lead quartet would be attacking each other relentlessly in the final 15 km mostly slightly downhill on bigger roads towards the centre of Tengchong city again. Nobody got away, and they sprinted for the victory. Liu Yaoguang underlined his strength of the day and won clearly ahead of Chen Lipeng and Wang Wen. The winning time of 2h21 does not reflect the difficulty and technicality of the race, they just rode very fast! Gong Bai Mo was the fourth of the lead quartet. Wu Bao Chao came fifth 1:27 later.

Female winner, in a solo effort, was Zhang Hao. She had a two-minute-gap on Zhang Tingting and Li Si.