Last year Moreno Hofland took his first professional victory in the Tour of Hainan. Being the defending champion of the race, the Dutchman was a marked man in today's opening stage of the Chinese race but he was unfazed by the pressure and managed to win another stage.

The Belkin Pro Cycling TEAM’s Moreno Hofland won the first stage in China’s Tour of Hainan. He sprinted ahead of Italian Andrea Palini (Lampre-Merida) and Czech Ondrej Rybin (Team Dukla Praha) in the 85-kilometre opening stage and took the overall lead.

"The stage went well. The stage was very short, only 85 kilometres, and it was raining attacks,” Sports Director Michael Elijzen explained. "After many attacks, five riders manage to escape, but the gap was only reached 55 seconds maximum because several teams kept on riding behind."

The peloton caught the escapees at ten kilometres from the end and readied for a sprint.

"The race situation was ideal for us," Elijzen continued. “The last corner was 600 metres from the finish line, and our men were there first. They got the message and attacked that corner with five guys. Hofland was in the wheels and finished it off in a professional way.”

Hofland won the overall in 2013 and took a good step by winning the opening stage in this year.
 

“The biggest difference with last year is that people were looking at me in the bunch all the time”, the Dutchman realized. “Last year, I didn’t get noticed and we won as a breakaway group but this time, they didn’t let me go. It’s been more difficult to win today. It’s obvious that the level is higher this year with the presence of Astana and Lampre-Merida. It also took us time to bring the CCC Polsat rider [Adrian Kurek] back. As he was away [with 8km to go], we had to ride the last five kilometers flat out.”

Tomorrow the Tour of Hainan continues its way to Haikou with the longest of its stages this year, 207.2 kilometres.

"Moreno is the race leader, but we are not here for the rankings," explained Elijzen. "The pressure will probably be with us, but the teams that want to race for a classification will have to help in the longest stage. We hope for another sprint."