Mizbani leads Tabriz assault on high mountain stage

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With two big climbs looming on today's stage no one expected an attack of two riders which began on the lower slopes of the first climb to stay away until the finish. But this is exactly what happened. Ghadar Mizbani Iranagh along with his teammate and current king of the mountains leader, Ahad Kazemi Sarai, forced a pace so hard that they simply rode the rest of the field off their wheel on the first climb. They next time they would be seen was as they stood on the podium, Mizbani as winner and Sarai on the step below in second.

The Iranian pair, riding for Tabriz Petrochemicals, executed their team's plan to attack the race to perfection. Even though they already have the overall leader in their ranks, the team are here to take home as many of the prizes on offer as they can. Next on their list after the overall win is the king of the mountains prize and teams classification. After today, they have all three along with the bonus of leading the Asian rider classification.

"I am very happy with this win," explained Mizbani who is also currently leads the UCI Asian Tour.

"The stage was very difficult today, the mountains were very hard, but we can be happy as a team. We got the KOM jersey and a stage win, and now we are leading the teams classification as well as the Tour overall."

As the pair approached the line, there was no sprint for the win. Instead both riders had their arms raised, indicating that it was a win for the team. There was however a pecking order as to who would cross first as Sarai explained.

"It was very easy [to decide who would win the stage]. Mizbani was much stronger than me today. He did most of the work today, so it was logical that he would take the win today."

Mizbani and Sarai were by far the two strongest riders on the 173 kilometre stage which included a lung bursting Hors Categorie climb to over 3300 meters. As they crested that climb, they had amassed an advantage of over five minutes to the chasing peloton of around sixty riders.

But with over 40 kilometres of flat road to the finish after the final descent, it was to be a tough day in the saddle for the pair as they worked hard to hold off the chasing peloton.

As the peloton worked to reel in the five minute gap to the leaders, the 60 strong group splintered into several smaller groups as the stage and the altitude began to take its toll on some weary legs.

At the finish the pair held onto just 51 seconds of their original five minute advantage, as yesterday's second place getter Mitja Mahoric led home a group of eight riders to take third place. He reduced his deficit to the overall lead to Andrey Mizurov to just over one minute. Mizurov retained his overall lead, but lost 40 seconds on the day to Mahoric, who moved into third overall.

With Mizbani now occupying 5th overall, one minute and 34 seconds adrift of his team-mate, Tabriz now has not one but two options as they work towards the overall win. However, the team has no defined team leader, opting instead to see what happens on the road.

"For us it doesn't matter who wins, be that a stage or the yellow jersey," explained Mizbani of the teams tactics. "So long as we keep it in the team we will be happy. Before the Tour we decided that we wanted to go for the win - it doesn't matter which one of us does that, so long as we win."

Looking ahead to tomorrow's stage, which is somewhat flatter than the jagged profile of today's stage, the team will do what it needs to defend Mizurov's lead, but still they won't discount the possibility of going for another stage win.

"Tomorrow we will see what happens in the race, first we must ensure that we keep the yellow jersey, after that if we can, sure we will go for the stage win again."

As the battle for the overall win hots up, Tabriz' rivals will need to put on their thinking caps if they wish to out shine the Iranian team, who have quickly shown that they are the strongest team in the mountains.

In second overall at just 15 seconds from the lead, Niklas Axelsson (Utensilnord) is the biggest threat to Tabriz' succes. Axelsson's team showed today that they can control the front of the peloton as they did over the two climbs to limit their losses to the two leaders, who were at one stage virtual first and second on the road. We still cannot discount the tall Swede who seems to be sitting back and biding his time.

Also Slovenia's Mahoric should not be underestimated. He succeeded in moving closer to the overall lead on a day when all Mizurov needed to do was follow wheels.

With the top 10 riders all within two and a half minutes of the lead, and some very tough stages still to come, it really is still anyone's race.