The longest stage of Tour of Hainan was won by Italian sprinter Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) after 237km. CCC's Eryk Latoń finished in 14th place.
Despite the long distance, there was a lot of riders willing to get in the break. Many breakaway attempts occurred early in the race, but eventually the leading group was formed after 30 kilometers of racing. Tomas Vaitkus (Rietumu – Delfin), Mohd Zamri Salah (Terengganu Cycling Team), Meiyin Wang (Hengxiang Cycling Team), Andriy Khripta (Ukraine) and Jianpeng Liu (Hengxiang Cycling Team) were part of that action. The peloton was in no hurry and let them gain 12 minutes of advantage.
"Josef Cerny and I were active at the beginning of the stage and we tried to get into the escape. We were involved basically in every move. Unfortunately the break went clear without us. It got a little bit nervous, when the lead increased to over 10 minutes and nobody was eager to start the chase. Finally a few teams sent one of their riders to the front and together we started to reduce the gap," Leszek Pluciński explained.
After covering 200 kilometers the gap dropped to under 2 minutes and the bunch sprint was inevitable. The escapees were reeled in with 19 kilometers to go. The shuffling at the head of the bunch began, as the sprinters’ teams were fighting in the front – it was Novo Nordisk, Astana, Skydive and CCC Sprandi Polkowice who set the pace.
The group entered the final straight led by Sacha Modolo’s team. Grzegorz Stępniak and Eryk Latoń were on the Italian's wheel but this time the young, 22-year old rider was unable to make it into the top 10 and finished 14th. Modolo took his second consecutive victory and became new leader of the general classification. He beat Brenton Jones (Drapac Professional Cycling) and Benjamin Giraud (Team Marseille 13 KTM).
"The team did a great job again. We set up the orange train with 3 kilometers remaining and in the very finale Grzegorz Stępniak put me in a great position behind Lampre-Merida. Unfortunately I got blocked in a decisive moment and had to sprint on a windier side. Because of that I was lacking power in the legs in the end.
"It was the first race of more than 230km in cycling career. I was very exhausted but I still had something left in the tank for the sprint. I need to draw conclusions after that kind of sprint and gain valuable experience to avoid similar mistakes in the future," Eryk Latoń said afterwards.
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