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

Le Nguyet Minh takes victory on stage 4 (Image credit: HTV Cup Vietnam)

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.

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Results
Pos.Rider name (Country) TeamResult
1Le Nguyet Minh (Vie) TP Ho Chi Minh0:58:25
2Loic Desriac (Fra) BDNRow 1 - Cell 2
3Trinh Duc Tam (Vie) TLTRow 2 - Cell 2
4Huynh Thanh Tung (Vie) QK7Row 3 - Cell 2
5Tran Nguyen Minh Tri (Vie) DDTRow 4 - Cell 2
6Nguyen Minh Luan (Vie) Ho Chi Minh City-MM Mega MarketRow 5 - Cell 2
7Javier Sarda Perez (Spa) Ho Chi Minh City-MM Mega MarketRow 6 - Cell 2
8Nguyen Van Binh (Vie) TP Ho Chi MinhRow 7 - Cell 2
9Nguyen Tan Hoai (Vie) DDTRow 8 - Cell 2
10Nguyen Quoc Bao (Vie) DDTRow 9 - Cell 2
Swipe to scroll horizontally
General classification after stage 4
Pos.Rider name (Country) TeamResult
1Nguyen Tan Hoai (Vie) D. Domesco Dong Thap11:38:24
2Vo Thanh An (Vie) Vinh Long0:00:09
3Nguyen Van Binh (Vie) TP Ho Chi Minh0:00:14
4Le Nguyet Minh (Vie) TP Ho Chi Minh0:00:16
5Nguyen Truong Tai (Vie) Ho Chi Minh City-MM Mega Market0:00:20
6Loic Desriac (Fra) BDNRow 5 - Cell 2
7Pham Quoc Cuong (Vie) D. Domesco Dong ThapRow 6 - Cell 2
8Trinh Duc Tam (Vie) TLT0:00:21
9Javier Sarda Perez (Spa) Ho Chi Minh City-MM Mega Market0:00:22
10Nguyen Minh Thien (Vie) CVLRow 9 - Cell 2

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