Spain’s Javier Sardá Perez won the queen stage of the 32nd HTV Cup in a solo effort in Da Lat and took the lead of the overall classification over from his teammate Nguyen Truong Tai as their team TP Ho Chi Minh retained the first three places three days before the grand finale in their hometown, which is also the home of television broadcaster and race organiser HTV.

“I love Vietnam and Vietnamese people”, said the Zamora-born cyclist on the day of the celebration of his 32nd birthday. 

“So it’s an immense pleasure to win this stage and take the yellow jersey. After I won the HTV Cup last year, I easily found the motivation to prepare for this race again despite feeling concerned about the pandemics worldwide.”

Sardá broke away solo with 7km to go. The summit of the second major climb was located 2km before the end. “As we begun riding uphill, I waited a little bit for the right place to attack and I gave it all”, the Spaniard told Cyclingnews. “It’s been a great day!” 

Following the queen stage, the contenders of the HTV Cup will enjoy a respite with a 51km long criterium in Da Lat on stage 16 before the highly anticipated Spanish “fiesta” on Sunday in Ho Chi Minh City.