Despite lining up a team mostly of climbers, Astana have already achieved a stage win in the Tour of Hainan before the race has even hit the climbs. Tomorrow the team will try to win the race overall in the queen stage but key rider Andrey Zeits is aware that he faces tough opposition from a number of key rivals.

“Antomarchi and Owsian – French and Polish riders who will be our main competitors to watch on Sunday in the mountains," Andrey Zeits said after stage 6 of the Tour of Hainan. "Dyachenko and Kamyshev and I have the strongest team here and we will work out some tactics at the finish."

Zeits and the rest of his teammates all finished together with stage winner Nicolo Bonifazio of Italy who moves into the leader’s jersey in General Classification ahead of tomorrow’s Queen Stage to Wuzishan.

A 5-man breakaway escaped on the mainly flat stage along Hainan’s southern coast on Saturday. After a chase the peloton caught the riders and finished all together under cloudy but dry skies after leaving the luxurious beach resort city of Sanya.

Sunday’s seventh stage is 199km long and features three first-category climbs before a fast 11-km descent to the finish in Wuzishan.

The 2014 Tour of Hainan races clockwise around the island, and this year began in the northern capital city Haikou, different than in years past with the grand depart and final stages in Sanya.

Monday’s finish in Chengmai is not flat, but Zeits and teammates agree that the greatest opportunity to win the overall classification comes Sunday in the mountains.