LONGYANGXIA, Qinghai, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Colombians Hernan Ricardo Aguirre and Hernando Bohorquez finished in first and second place on the critical mountain stage to take a stranglehold on the general classification at the Tour of Qinghai Lake on Wednesday.
Unlike the Tour de France, where Team Sky teammates Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome are surrounded with questions concerning the yellow jersey with Thomas currently in the overall lead ahead of his team captain, the Tour of Qinghai Lake's Stage 4 winner and current race leader claimed there was no drama.
"For me and the team, the most important thing is to hold the jersey," said Colombian leader Aguirre, who finished ahead of Bohorquez and 2015 race winner Radoslav Rogina of Croatia. "It doesn't matter for me or my teammate, [we] just [want] to win at the end of the race," he said.
It was on the first of two categorised climbs on the 100-kilometre stage from Guide to Longyangxia where the 22-year-old Aguirre and Bohorquez showed stellar form by dropping all of the serious pre-race contenders, including 'king of the mountain' Ilia Koshevoy, who was showing the scars from a downhill crash on the previous day.
"First time to be here and very happy to hold this jersey in the beautiful country and beautiful race," said Aguirre, who becomes the fourth stage winner and race leader in as many days. "The second 'king of the mountain' was the hardest part of the race. Thanks to my teammate for helping me get the jersey."
A visibly exhausted Koshevoy spoke to the media after the stage. "I wasn't able to follow the top guys on the first climb, maybe because of yesterday's crash," said Koshevoy, who surrendered the polka-dot mountain jersey to Aguirre after finishing 10th and more than two minutes off the leader's final time. "[It's a] really tough stage. Short, but really intense. It is pretty hot and hard and I suffered a little bit from the start," he added.
While a small group of chasers tried to follow the Manzana duo, only Rogina was able to bridge the gap and challenge for the victory and keep himself within race contention with two climbing stages remaining in the predominantly sprint-heavy 13-stage UCI 2.HC Asia Tour road race.
"I have some luck today," said the 39-year-old Rogina. "I was close to the first two on the first mountain and then downhill I caught them. Then we got to the second climb, but the first rider was stronger. In the end, I couldn't give more than third place," he said. He also said that he's satisfied, and that it's still relatively early in the tour.
The race continues on Thursday with the third of four straight mountain stages - a 235-km ride - the second longest of the race.
