The decisive eighth stage in the Tour of Hainan is drawing closer and for stage six Trek Factory Racing decided to up its presence in preparation Sunday.

“I said to the guys in the pre-race meeting, that today the tour starts for our team and we treated this stage as a single race,” explained director Adriano Baffi. “So for the start when it was hilly we tested our legs thinking about stage eight and looking to the mountain jersey as stimulation. After this, we would see if a good break formed, or if we play the sprint for Fabio again.

“The guys raced well in the first part; Matthew [Busche] tried in the mountain sprints, but the main peloton controlled all the attacks and it was clear that today was going to be another sprint.”

The early hills instrumented an aggressive and punishing start to the 174-kilometer race and Trek Factory Racing finally began to show its hand with Busche snagging a few points in the mountain competition and Julien Bernard sneaking into the first intermediate sprint and take the third place points and time bonus.

“El Fares from Team Marseille attacked alone, with power, at the start of the stage, and he was solo over the first KOM,” said Baffi. “Behind there were a lot of dropped riders but nobody from us. After the 2nd KOM at 29kms, the peloton slowed and let El Fares go.

“On the first sprint bonification two of the break passed the line first and Julien took 3rd place and one-second time bonus, which could be very important for the GC.  It was nice to see Julien be attentive in the sprint and take the bonus second -  I was surprised when radio tour announced the number of Julien and not Fabio!

“After this sprint the two men ahead waited for the peloton. Again there were attacks and 4 riders went away. They did the second sprint bonification and only one kept going, the other 3 waited for the peloton. In the end, it was a logical sprint with the usual same names in the first positions.”

At the line Jakub Mareczko (Southeast) edged out Andrea Palini (Skydive Dubai) and Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) in the battle of the fastmen, with Fabio Silvestre taking his fifth top 10 finish with a strong seventh place. Modolo defended his lead in the overall as he continues to hold a slim nine-second advantage over Palini.

“Fabio, again, was there, in his place for his condition right now,” continued Baffi. “On the final sprint our guys helped Fabio for what they could, they did a great job until the last kilometer. Fabio fought as always and to finish between 5th and 10th places is his potential right now. There are some very good sprinters here, and he is in there fighting with them at the end. Today we really made a presence in the race.

“[Szymon] Rekita felt just a bit pain with his shoulder after the crash of yesterday, and also [Leonardo] Basso experienced a little pain in his leg, but nothing serious. They both are able to start tomorrow, no problem.”