Mizurov delivers as prologue comes down to the wire

Image 1 of 31

At an altitude of 2511 meters - over 200 meters higher than the highest mountain pass of this year's Tour de France - Huzhu played host to the opening stage of the Tour of Qinghai Lake for the first time in its eight year history.

Surrounded by looming mountains which reach elevations of over 5000 meters, the 143 starters faced the dizzying effect of altitude and high temperatures during the 4.8km prologue test. Kazakh Andrey Mizurov (Tabriz Petrochemicals) smashes the competition with a brilliant ride to tackle the heavy parcours in 5:41, besting Fuyu Li (Marco Polo) by six seconds. German Danilo Hondo (PSK Whirlpool) was third, eight seconds adrift.

"I expected to win," Mizurov explained in broken English before accepting the stage win, overall leaders jersey, points jersey and the polka dot jersey as best climber.

Latest Videos From

Indeed he was not the only one who expected him to win, but expectations and delivering on them are two very different things.

Rounding out the top three, with a time shared by two other riders was German sprint ace Danielo Hondo. It came down to just hundredths of a second to separate the three riders, Hondo, Australia's Dylan Newell and Matej Stare on 5.50. Perhaps it was Hondo's finely honed skill of lunging for the line which secured him the podium finish, or maybe it was luck - Newell also threw for the line, but almost came to a crashing halt as his saddle waited until the last possible moment before snapping from the post, which surely cost him a few hundredths of a second, not to mention Praties dream start to the tour.

Either way Hondo was happy to stand on the podium along side two of Asia's best riders.

"It is a nice feeling to come here and experience the hospitality of the people here.

"Five k's was harder than you think before the start, but it was a good prologue, and I hope in the next stages to show myself more at the front."

Hondo has some good form coming into Qinghai - he won a stage and the sprinters classification at the recent Course de Solidarnosc et des Champions Olympiques in Poland, so he will be looking to improve on his third place today.

Even though the Tour of Qinghai Lake tackles some of the highest mountains seen in a bike race doesn't mean that it can't be a sprinters race. The past two editions has seen sprinters take out the majority of the stages of offer. It is a tradition that Hondo no doubt hopes to continue.

"I will win a stage," he said in the typical cocky style of a sprinter. Given he has amassed over 120 wins in his career - most of which were won in sprints - who are we to argue?

One of the first riders to tackle the rather straightforward course was Serhiy Honchar, who not to long ago could be seen racing around France in the familiar yellow jersey of leader of the great race. Showing the familiar rocking style, but not the form which has propelled him to two wins against the clock at the Tour and one world Championship in the same discipline, his effort was not even quick enough to net him best time after just eight riders.

The lead changed several times before the crowd of around 20,000 screaming Chinese cycling fans saw a rider go under the magical six minute mark. Ahad Kazemi Sarai blasted his way to the best time with a 5:54, giving what was possibly the first of many signs that the Iranian Tabriz Petrochemicals had sent their A team to China in a bid to claim the overall title after three near misses,

It would take another former top flight pro to knock the Iranian off his perch, Niklas Axelsson, who has finished as high as 6th overall in the Giro d'Italia, rode just two seconds faster than Kazemi Sari. The Swede's time would stick as leader until Canadian Will Routley (Jelly Belly) knocked a further second from his time.

Routley's time was looking more and more like it was at least good enough for a podium as rider after rider tried but failed to better his time. That was until China's Li Fuyu, who rides for Marco Polo, summoned the collective strength of the Chinese home crowd to better the Canadian's time by three seconds - it was a tall order with 50 riders remaining, but it seemed possible that Fuyu's time might just be enough to clinch the opening stage and leaders jersey.

It was not meant to be, however, but it took the last rider on course to make it known. Prologue specialist Andrey Mizurov, the only foreigner riding for Tabriz Petrochemicals, went into his ride knowing exactly what was needed to deliver the first yellow jersey of the Tour to his employer and he wasn't about to disappoint.

Rounding the final corner with his minute man in sight, it was clear that his ride was going to net him the win, but what was unclear, was by how much.

An incredible time of 5.41 left even the most seasoned pro gasping as Mizurov knocked six seconds off the previous best time. He knew what was needed, and delivered in a similar manner to that of Fabian Cancellara does for his Saxo Bank team.