Astana have been biding their time in the Tour of Hainan, waiting for the race to become hillier. Today the race hit the first climb and the Kazakh team immediately blew the race to pieces.

“The second day of rain, that makes it harder, but Astana showed today in the first real climb of the race how strong we are," Andrey Zeits said after stage five at the Tour of Hainan.

Zeits finished in the lead group of 24 riders with teammates Aleksandr Dyachenko, Ruslan Tleubayev and Arman Kamyshev – in front of the rest of the peloton by more than two minutes.

Rain should continue through the weekend, but Zeits, now 26 seconds behind overall leader Andrea Palini of Italy, said Sunday’s finish in Wuzishan, with two first-category climbs, could see Astana Pro Team move into the lead.

Tleubayev finished third on Friday, and is now seventh overall, with Kamyshev in fifth, 16 seconds back.