After 7 consecutive bunch sprints, Jonathan Breyne (Crelan-Euphony) denied the sprinter on the 8th and penultimate stage of the Tour of Taihu Lake when he narrowly held off the bunch in an exciting finish. Boris Shpilevsky beat Ahmet Orken in the sprint for 2nd but was given the same time as the stage winner whiler Yuriy Metlushenko defended his overall lead with just one largely flat stage to go. 

Like in the previous days, the winner of stage 8 of the Tour of Taihu Lake is classified with the same time as the rest of the peloton, but Belgium’s Jonathan Breyne of Pro Continental team Crelan-Euphony hasn’t won a bunch sprint. For a few centimeters only, he stayed away from the bunch sprint won for second place on the stage by Boris Shpilevskiy of RTS-Santic ahead of Torku’s Ahmet Örken whose efforts greatly helped his road captain Yuriy Metlushenko to keep his fourteen seconds lead over Alois Kankovsky with only one stage remaining.

“I could see the peloton coming back on me but I decided to do the last kilometer flat out, it was all or nothing”, Breyne described. “When I realized that [last breakaway companion] Vitaly Buts was cracking, I had no doubt that I had to go. Fortunately, there was a three-quarter favorable wind to help me. I was the strongest of the riders away. I pulled for eight kilometers out of sixteen in the final loop.”

Breyne jumped out of the bunch with Buts and his team-mate Klas Sys after the first intermediate sprint won at km 30 by Örken who rode in defense of Metlushenko’s overall lead. The trio got a maximum advantage of 2.13 at km 58 of the race reduced to an eighty kilometers format for a full live telecast on CCTV. Kankovsky’s Dukla Praha was the most active team at the front of the peloton but the Czech double stage winner was right to repeat that bunch gallops weren’t ineluctable.

“It’s really like competing in a points race on the track”, said Buts who keeps chasing time bonus on the road and is only one second down on fourth placed Jesse Kerrison who remains the best young rider but feels the fatigue after eight days of racing, which is logical for a teenager.

But at the age of 37, veteran Metlushenko is also tired. “Today it’s a real honor for me to see Ahmet [Örken] doing so well to protect my leader’s jersey”, the Ukrainian said. “He’s my student! Seven days to defend this jersey have taken their toll. I came to the Tour of Taihu Lake with the aim of winning a stage and I’ve won four. To be the overall winner would mean a lot. We’re not there yet but I’m not racing for finishing second.”

For the second year in a row, Örken made a top 3 in a stage of the Tour of Taihu Lake. “But I’ve had much more work this time with Yuriy’s lead”, said the 20 year old Turkish sprinter. “I was told to stick on Kankovsky’s wheel and that’s how I managed to get the top three. I’m happy with it but as soon as I crossed the line, I thought I had won the race. I didn’t see what was happening on my left side.”

That was Breyne who refused to be reeled in. “Pulling the bunch at the Tour of Hainan improved my condition”, the Belgian winner said. “It gave me the capacity to accelerate at the end today. This is my first UCI victory. I hope it’ll open me doors for a contract for next year as I don’t have signed any yet. I’ve been unlucky since I turned pro with a bad crash against a car to start with, tendonitis in my second year, two broken ribs this season. I was feeling a bit down morally this morning because of being away from home since twenty four days but having waffles at breakfast made me happy again. It’s great to come out of Crelan-Euphony’s last race with a victory and get this team to finish on a high note.”

He’ll have one more chance to do so on the occasion of the ninth and last stage “G-Yes” of the 2013 Tour of Taihu Lake that will consist in eight laps of 11.8 kilometres for a total of 94.4km in Wujiang Taihu New City.

Result:

1. Jonathan Breyne 1.37.33

2. Boris Shplievskiy

3. Ahmet Orken

4. Yuriy Metlushenko

5. Alois Kankovsky

6. Christophe Premont

7. Alex Wohler

8. Yannick Martinez

9. Mark Sehested Pedersen

10. Simon Buttner

General classification:
1. Yury Metlushenko 18.26.55
2. Alois Kankovsky +0.14
3. Boris Shpilevsky +0.28
4. Jesse Kerrison +0.40
5. Vitaliy Buts +0.41
6. Jiri Hochmann +0.47
7. Yannick Martinez +0.49
8. Robert Sweeting +0.52

9. Jonathan Breyne
10. Christophe Premont +0.54

Points classification:
1. Yury Metlushenko 103
2. Alois Kankovsky 86
3. Boris Shpilevskiy 68
4. Jesse Kerrison 63
5. Yannick Martinez 39

Youth classification:
1. Jesse Kerrison 18.27.35

2. Jonathan Breyne +0.12
3. Mark Sehested Pedersen +0.15
4. Juan Carlos Riutort Martinez +0.17
5. Ahmet Orken

Teams classication:
1. ASC Dukla Praha 55.23.42
2. Team Budget Forklifts
3. Ukraine

4. Crelan-Euphony +0.05
5. Torku Sekerspor