CYCLING

Daily Diary: Jason Christie talks Tour of Qinghai Lake – Stage 3

By Aaron S Lee

Qinghai Lake heads for the mountains and the race’s first KOM, and NZ Bike talks to reigning New Zealand national road race champion Jason Christie to get the lowdown on stage 3 and find out just how tough a hors catégorie climb can be at 3,782 metres in altitude.



GUIDE, China—Tuesday marked the first day in the mountains for the 150 remaining riders (out of 157) to make the stage 3 start in the Tour of Qinghai Lake (UCI 2.HC) at China’s high performance altitude training base in Duoba.

Gidich recorded win No. 2 when he crossed the stage 3 finish first in a bunch sprint to close a tough 133km day in Guide. The 20-year-old overcame the first mountain stage of the 13-stage, 1,916km UCI Asia Tour road race, to take the victory over Ukrainian Mykhaylo Kononenko (Kolss-BDC) and Italian Alberto Cecchin (Team Roth), as well as slip into the blue jersey for the best Asian rider.



Overall, Vitaliy Buts (Kolss-BDC) remains in the yellow leaders jersey for the second straight stage since lifting it from Rubiano, who trails on general classification (GC) by only one second, while Gidich moves into third just four seconds back.

After the race, New Zealand road race champion Jason Christie (Kenyan Riders Downunder), who is making his China debut, shared his thoughts on stage 3 exclusively with NZ Bike.

Christie’s diary entry: Stage 3 – Duoba to Guide, 133km


Wow, that stage was hard.

Day 3 introduced us to the first mountain stage, as well as the first opportunity to claim mountains classification points. The KOM (king of the mountain) was a hors catégorie (HC) climb standing tall at 3,782m in elevation at the summit, and located at the 75.5km mark of the 133km race from Duoba to Guide.

It was literally just hard to breathe once we rode above 3,000m, and it didn’t take long for the altitude to take effect.

Personally speaking, I felt pretty good to start with I so tried to get in a couple of moves but nothing would go until around 50km into the stage. From there we were already climbing the main climb of the day, so the peloton split into pieces.

The scenery was epic with rolling green hills reaching higher into the sky until they became rocky grey mountains. To be honest, the climb was much bigger than I expected.

The descent was super quick and it made for a fast 60km to the finish.

Today’s finish was awesome, with big open road and massive crowds. You’ve got to see the size of the crowds to believe it.
I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s stage to Qinghai Lake, which features another HC climb.

Should be another epic day in the saddle.

Until then, stay tuned.
-Jason Christie

BRIEF RESULTS
Stage 3 Classification
1. Yevgeniy Gidich, KAZ, Vino 4ever SKO, 3:06:10
2. Mykhaylo Kononenko, UKR, Kolss-BDC, s.t.
3. Alberto Cecchin, ITA, Team Roth, s.t.

General Classification
1. Vitaliy Buts, UKR, Kolss-BDC, 9:08:16
2. Miguel Rubiano, COL, China Continental Team of Gansu Bank, 0:01”
3. Yevgeniy Gidich, KAZ, Vino 4ever SKO, 0:04”

Classification Leaders
Race Leader (Yellow Jersey): Vitaliy Buts, UKR, Kolss-BDC
Points Leader (Green Jersey): Miguel Rubiano, COL, China Continental Team of Gansu Bank
Mountains leader (Polka Dot Jersey): Mauricio Ortega, COL, RTS-Santic
Best Asian Rider (Blue Jersey): Yevgeniy Gidich, KAZ, Vino 4ever SKO
Most Aggressive: Mauricio Ortega, COL, RTS-Santic

Aaron S. Lee is a cycling and triathlon columnist for Eurosport and a guest contributor to NZ Bike Magazine. Image credit Adrian Hoe / Tour of Qinghai Lake.