Tengchong: repeat wins for Chen Hao and Li Si

The second stage of this year's Granfondo Yunnan had the same winners in Chen Hao and Li Si, both wearing the event's yellow leader jerseys. The Tengchong stage was 113km long and largely based on last year’s new course introduced during the separate GF Tengchong event. The race took riders to Simola, a famous tourist site but also a very technical part of this stage with lots of stones - even when these were in good shape. After Simola, riders headed back to the city, but just before entering it turned right towards Dong Shan, a novelty in our granfondo history. Dong Shan is the name of a beautiful mountain, ideal for cycling.

While Li Si was again a class on her own, Chen Hao had to sprint against Yang Qian Bin for victory. Wu Bao Chao, the Chinese "Arnaud De Lie" came third 1'47" later in what was a beautiful day of cycling. Obviously, Chen Hao and Li Si also kept their lead in the General Classification. USA's Joel Bruner today scored a great 7th place, 4'09" behind the winner. He is the first non-Chinese so far this year. So-called "foreigners" have more success in the age groups, with Singapore-based Briton Dan Smith winning his second stage in the 50+ male category, and Belgium's former judo champion Heidi Goossens, who took part in the 1992 and 1996 Olympics, doing the same in the female 50+ category. Malaysia's Cheam Dow Wei also took another third place in the 40+ AG, and so did Britain's Konstantina Koulama in the women's 50+. Italy's Vittorio Tentori took second in the AG 40+ today, which proves his podium in last year's Tengchong race was no coincidence.

1038 starters for the long distance category today, 905 finishers within the cut-off time. This was unthinkable ten years ago here in China. The level has gone up big time!