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Oleksandr Golovash won the inaugural stage of the Tour of Taihu Lake. It was the first time trial ever held since the inception of the event in 2010. On a 5.9km flat course deprived of any technical difficulty in Wuxi, the Ukrainian specialist rode four seconds faster than Iran’s Karim Khorrami while Australia’s Cameron Bayly settled for third place, also four seconds down.
“This is one of the biggest wins of my career”, Golovash said before getting on stage for the impressive awards ceremony. “I never performed in this category of racing [UCI 2.1] before. I’m a time trial specialist [third in the u23 European championship in 2012 and second in 2013]. I’ve been four times Ukrainian champion in the u23 category. I’ve had a good preparation for the Tour of Taihu Lake with the Abu Dhabi Tour along with top professionals like Alberto Contador, Vincenzo Nibali and Mark Cavendish and the Tour of Sharjah where we won three stages as a team [Minsk Cycling Club].”
Won last year by Italian up and coming sprinter Jakub Mareczko who finished this prologue with a deficit of twenty seconds, while the time bonus is ten seconds to the winner each day, the Tour of Taihu Lake might be a different race this year with a 10-km uphill finish at the altitude of 860 metres on stage 3 in Anji.
“Because of this hilly stage, I hope to do better than usual on GC”, said best Chinese rider Zhao Joingbiao of Wisdom-Hengxiang who clocked the twelfth best time. “I did my best but I’m a bit upset. I wanted to be the best young rider as well [Ukraine’s Timur Maleev rode one tenth of a second faster than him]. I want to follow the path of my team-mate Wang Meiyin who will join the WorldTour with Bahrain-Merida next year. If I get a chance, I’ll go as well. He’s a good example to follow.”
The gaps on stage 1 will set the tempo for the coming stages. “I was a little bit surprised by my result”, commented Bayly who races for Taiwanese-based Attaque Gusto team. “I thought I didn’t do very good. I’m happy I got third. I’m grateful this time trial was on road bikes because I never ride time trial bikes. I’m hoping for a good result overall since there’s a climb on the course this year. I’ll give it a crack.”
Stage 1 will be the traditional Wuxi Binhu Circuit on the banks of the lake Taihu.
