Julien Antomarchi found himself under pressure in the first part of the penultimate stage of the Tour of Hainan when a group including his nearest rivals escaped on the first climb. However, things came back together and the Frenchman is now confident that he will win the race overall.

Julien Antomarchi came under attack from the start of the penultimate stage of the Tour of Hainan. Third-placed Niccolo Bonifazio went up the road with his teammate Manuele Mori, Antomarchi's teammates José Gonçalves and Julien El Farès, Victor Nino (RTS), Alexandr Dyachenko and second-placed Andriy Zeits (Astana) as well as Branislau Samoilau (CCC Polsat). 

Having understood the short-term motivation of the breakaway riders - bonus second at the first intermediate sprint - Antomarchi didn’t panic.

“It’s always difficult to start a stage with a climb but we had two riders in the breakaway, so we knew that we’d pull them back”, Antomarchi said. “Four team-mates of mine were still with me to bridge the gap.”

Bonifazio took the first intermediate sprint (3 seconds) after 22km of racing and 10 seconds on the finishing line.

“But he had to take all intermediate sprints and stage wins of the last two days for beating me”, Antomarchi calculated. “So if nothing wrong happens to me tomorrow, I now have a good chance of winning the overall classification.”