Le Nguyet Minh sprints to victory on stage 4 of the HTV Cup

Stage 4 of the HTV Cup in Hué saw the first stage victory of Vietnam’s most renowned sprinter, Le Nguyet Minh (TP Ho Chi Minh), ahead of Loïc Desriac (Bikelife Dong Nai).

The Frenchman made the podium for the first time while Nguyen Tan Hoai retained the yellow jersey for one more day.

"I was pissed off after stage 2 as I couldn’t sprint because of some problems with my bike," declared Le, who was the hot favorite in Dong Hoi but suffered a flat tyre with 3km to go. 

"I was unlucky two days ago, but that makes my joy of winning bigger today."

Le mimicked the baby’s bottle on the finishing line and dedicated his victory to his wife and newborn son. The whole race was controlled by the two teams from TP Ho Chi Minh, the Ho Chi Minh Cycling Team and MM Megar Market.

It was a scenic route of 2.1km to be covered twenty times, making the stage a mere 42km, passing on the Truong Tien’s bridge and Phu Xuan’s bridge over the Huong River, also known as the Perfume River because of the orchards flowers that fall into the water in autumn.

Thanks to the time bonus, Le moved up to fourth overall and Desriac to sixth but Luong Van Sinh of Hanoi, one of the pre-race favorites, lost 44 seconds in the splits towards the end of the race. 

Stage 5 will take the riders from Hué to Da Nang, a famous coastal city. It’ll be the first mountainous stage of the 32rd HTV Cup.