Andrey Zeits dropped from second to third in today's stage of the Tour of Hainan when Niccolo Bonifazio scored enough bonus seconds to pass him in the overall standings. With just one sprint stage to go, Astana admit that it will be very hard to turn things around.

“Tomorrow will be difficult to change anything, because two teams are ahead of us and both are willing to work to defend their advantage," Alexandr Dyachenko said after stage eight at the Tour of Hainan.

Dyachenko took KOM points at the beginning of Monday’s penultimate stage in this year’s Tour of Hainan, but a mostly flat road to the finish brought the peloton together for another field sprint.

Andrey Zeits, 25 seconds back, dropped from second overall to third as stagewinner Niccolo Bonifazio of Italy’s Lampre sprinted to take time bonuses and is now 22 seconds behind race leader Julien Antomarchi from France’s La Pomme Marseille.

“We were racing for the time bonus as this is how the second place on GC is going to be decided”, Zeits explained afterwards. “But now it’ll be hard for me to get back into the runner up position as the last stage suits the sprinters.”

Modern hotels and luxurious tourist comforts have greeted the peloton every day at the Tour of Hainan, with new roads and a new race schedule from years past.

Tuesday’s final stage into Chengmai is hilly at the start and finish, but it will be difficult to overcome a 25-second gap.