HTV Cup: Javier Sardá Perez brings home second overall victory

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Spain's Javier Sardá Perez, who is in his fourth season racing professionally in Vietnam, claimed his second overall victory in the HTV Cup. Le Ngoc Son of the Loc Troi team triumphed on the final stage to Ho Chi Minh City from a six-man breakaway, his second win of the race.

The 20-day long race from Vinh in the northern part of the country to the south happened just as if the COVID-19 pandemics hadn't affected the world. 

"I'm very happy to win this race once again", Sardá told Cyclingnews. "We've had to work and fight a lot for this."

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Sardá's TP Ho Chi Minh team controlled the last stage as well the previous ones since they took the lead, firstly with Nguyen Truong Tai, throughout the team time trial on stage 13.

Beforehand, they rode smartly enough to leave the responsibilities onto the shoulders of the Domesco riders of four-time stage winner Nguyen Tan Hoai who eventually came second overall and won the points classification while Sardá also took the King of the Mountain price and Nguyen Van Binh of Ho Chi Minh-MM Mega Market brought home the white jersey of best young rider.

Right after the grand finale near the Independence Palace of Ho Chi Minh City and the Notre-Dame cathedral – a replica of the Parisian one since the French colonial time – the price giving ceremony was held in the theatre of HTV [Ho Chi Minh Television] and broadcast live on TV.

The next major stage race in Vietnam is set to be the VTV Cup, organised by rival broadcaster Vietnam Television.

The HTV Cup was the first bike race organised since the COVID-19 outbreak in a country that didn't register any fatality due to the coronavirus. Precautionary measures were announced prior to the event that was initially supposed to take place in April, "but eventually, the race was ran just as if nothing happened", Sardá noted. "There were even more spectators and media than in previous years. It's been a huge success for cycling here in Vietnam."