Wu Bao Chao wins in Dali with a solo effort of over 80km!

Today's third stage of the 2023 Granfondo Yunnan saw an incredible winning performance by Wu Bao Chao. After negotiating the only major hilly difficulty of the day in the belly of the first group at km 30 of 120 in total, he went on the attack by himself and quickly developed a substantial gap. The only caveat, it was still more than 80km to go until the finish at that point!! Wu Bao Chao was 6th in the GC after the first two stages, but today laid a claim on the overall victory with his exploit in Dali around Erhai Lake. He steadily increased his advantage in splendid TT style and nobody would ever see him again. What a win for Wu Bao Chao in 2h47'55", AVS 43,1 km/h. Luke Chambers outsprinted Wu Pin Han for second place 3'36' later. Chambers explained afterwards that Wu Bao Chao chose the right moment to attack, just when he and three others got caught again after the descent of the only hill climb. Later, at km 80, Chambers did the same manoevre when a second group caught them and everyone started looking at each other. Wu Pin Han was the only one to follow Chambers. The Hong Kong-based South African nevertheless did a great job for his GC ambitions. He now trails new yellow jersey Wu Bao Chao by just over 1'30" and that keeps options open for the mountainous Lijiang stage on Friday. Defending race leader Li Pengcheng finished 10th today, more than six minutes down on the new leader. In his wheel was Yang Zidong, who was shadowing Li Pengcheng during the race. Those four riders are going to create a spectacular battle on the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain! A couple of others, such as Wang Wen and Chen Yusheng are not without chances neither to overturn the GC on the very long mountain climb on Friday.

Li Si, on the other hand, all but looks like in control of the women's race this year. She took her third consecutive race victory and further extended the gap to the next women. More importantly, Li Si was the only female to hang onto the first big group. In the next one, we found many others such as Chi Zhaoyuan, Li Xiongpan and Evelyne Lacroix from Canada.

Luke Chambers and Wu Ping Han sprinted for second place