Tran Tuan Kiet makes it three for Dopagan

Tran Tuan Kiet of Dopagan took his third stage victory in Phan Rang on stage 14 of the 32 nd HTV Cup throughout one more breakaway along the beautiful coastline. Nguyen Van Duc of Bikelife Dong Nai and Le Hai Dang from Domesco rounded out the podium. 

Former race leader and now points classification leader Nguyen Tan Hoai, also from Domesco, won the bunch sprint only thirteen seconds later while Nguyen Truong Tai of TP Ho Chi Minh retained the yellow jersey ahead of the queen stage.

"It's amazing to get a third win", said Tran Tuan Kiet who was full of praise for his team. 

The 135km long stage was contested in between the two most important stages of the HTV Cup, the team time trial and the mountainous stage 15 to Da Lat where the team of TP Ho Chi Minh seriously trained together before the start.

They've showed their dominance in the first two weeks of racing and enjoy the first three positions in the overall ranking. But will they attack each other in the queen stage? The birthday of defending champion Javier Sardá Perez lands on June 4. The postponement of the HTV Cup from April to May-June might give him a double reason to celebrate. 

"The yellow jersey could be a nice birthday present", Sardá told Cyclingnews. "I know this stage very well. It's a short one [123km] but after fifteen days of heat, it'll be a hard one. It'll be the last opportunity to try something. The first climb isn't very steep but it's long: 16km. The second climb is similar and about 10km long but it'll create some damage."