Yuriy Metlushenko (Torku Seker Spor) continued his domination of the Tour of Taihu Lake when he won today's third stage in a bunch sprint. By beating Alois Kankovsky (Dukla Praha) and Boris Shpilevsky (RTS-Santic) in the final dash to the line, he took his third consecutive victory and extended his overall lead.

Yuriy Metlushenko of Torku Seker Spor won a bunch sprint for the third day in a row at the Tour of Taihu Lake. He even preceded Dukla Praha’s Alois Kankovsky and Boris Shpilevsky of RTS-Santic by a bigger margin than the previous two days. Therefore, he increased his lead on GC over the Czech rider to sixteen seconds while the Russian was the main beneficiary of stage 3 as he added a total of seven seconds in time bonus to move up to third overall.

“I’m amazed once again that I won”, Metlushenko reacted. “With four riders in the lead, we agreed in the bunch that we were racing for fifth place but Crelan-Euphony and Budget Forklifts closed the gap.” The four riders were Frantisek Sisr of Dukla Praha, Metlushenko’s team-mate Sergey Grechyn and his compatriots from the Ukraine national team Andriy Vasulyuk and Mykhaylo Kononenko. Therefore, the three strongest teams ahead of a bunch sprint finish became passive at the back.

But the gap didn’t exceed thirty seconds and the wide roads were favorable to a regrouping that caused a crash with 2km to go. Red jersey wearer of best Greater China rider Jiang Zhi Hui from Max Success Sport went down heavily while best young rider Jesse Kerrison of Budget Forklifts got caught behind the crash. “Then I was too tired to sprint against Metlushenko”, said the Australian. “It’s a disappointing day because I also couldn’t shift my gear to the 11 cog so I missed out on the intermediate sprints as well.”

That’s where Shpilevski found himself again. “I’m getting better and better every day”, said the winner of the 2011 Tour of Taihu Lake. “I hope that I won’t have to wait for Sunday to win a stage but it all depends on my physical condition.”

“There are many good sprinters here”, noted Metlushenko. “I’m lucky that even though he had produced a strong effort in the breakaway, Grechyn was still able to lead me out in the last kilometer. I was in second position in the last curve. I started sprinting very early. Every victory is precious for me. I’ve had a season below my expectation and I’m still without a contract for next year. Today’s win is dedicated to my wife Natalia. Although she’s happy when I win, she has to wait for me at our house in Italy while I’m racing in China for one month. Everything I have, I owe it to cycling: my education that gave me two diplomas in jurisprudence and teaching sport, my military service, my discovery of the world, my practice of foreign languages… I even met my wife thanks to cycling. All my background in that sport makes happy winning at my age (37).”

As one third of the 2013 Tour of Taihu Lake is passed, stage 4 “Soochow Life Insurance” will consist in a 17km long circuit to be covered eight times for a total of 136km at Changshu Kunchenghu Lake.

Result:

1. Yuriy Metlushenko 2.02.12

2. Alois Kankovsky

3. Boris Shpilevsky

4. Alex Wohler

5. Erdenesuren Munkhtulga

6. Ahmet Orken

7. Vitaliy Buts

8. Mark Sehested Pedersen

9. Yannick Martinez

10. Rasmus Guldhammer

General classification:

1. Yury Metlushenko 6.22.32

2. Alois Kankovsky +0.16

3. Boris Shpilevsky +0.24

4. Vitaliy Buts +0.25

5. Jiri Hochmann +0.26

6. Yannick Martinez +0.27

7. Jesse Kerrison

8. Christophe Premont +0.29

9. Juan Carlos Riutort Martinez +0.32

10. Kevin Peeters

Points classification:

1. Yury Metlushenko 47

2. Alois Kankovsky 37

3. Jesse Kerrison 20

4. Jiri Hochmann 19

5. Vitaliy Buts 17

Youth classification:

1. Jesse Kerrison 6.22.59

2. Juan Carlos Riutort Martinez +0.05

3. Alex Wohler +0.06

4. Yat Wai Chan

5. Mark Sehested Pedersen

Teams classication:

1. ASC Dukla Praha 19.09.15

2. Team Budget Forklifts

3. Ukraine

4. Torku Sekerspor +0.05

5. La Pomme Marseille