Champion System rings a Bell at Tour de Taiwan

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If one name remains from stage 4 of the 25th Tour de Taiwan, it’s that of Louis Meintjes. The 21-year-old from MTN-Qhubeka launched an offensive from a long way out but a counter-attack by runner up Bernard Sulzberger (Drapac) eventually dethroned Kirill Pozdnyakov (Baku) while Canada’s Zachary Bell delivered Champion System’s first win in the big league of cycling, which includes the races of category 1 and above, one year after the promotion of the China-registered squad in the Pro Continental ranks.

“It feels great to be back as a winner on the road after a while,” said Bell after the finish. The 30-year-old decided to focus exclusively on road racing after carrying the flag for Canada on the track and becoming a father for the first time in October last year. His last road race was effectively the national championship in June, as he didn’t finish stage 1 of the Tour of Colorado after that. His latest international victory also goes as far back as at the 2007 Vuelta a El Salvador.

The first man in action was also from Champion System: Taiwan’s Feng Chun Kai who targets the king of the mountains competition went away from the gun and created a front group of 17 riders who stayed away until km 36. They were soon relayed ahead of the bunch by Takero Terasaki (Japan) and Bell. The duo was rejoined twenty kilometers later (at km 59) by Gordon McCauley (Drapac), Louis Meintjes and Johan van Zyl (MTN-Qhubeka), Qin Chen Lu (Max Success) and Kohei Uchima (Japan).

With a maximum lead of 2:25, Meintjes who was lying in tenth position on GC only 25 seconds down on Pozdnyakov became the virtual leader of the Tour de Taiwan until a group of five counter attackers came across, including Sulzberger with the help of Floris Goesinen, also from Drapac, Ryoma Nonaka (Shimano Racing), Thomas Vaubourzeix (La Pomme Marseille) and Liam Holohan (Madison Genesis). The junction was made within 10km to go.

A former track rider, Bell proved to be the fastest on the finishing line in front the Metropolitan Park of Taichung, ahead of Vaubourzeix and Sulzberger who got a significant advantage from his surprising offensive in the downhill of the Taichung Route 95 after the KOM at km 74. The Tasmanian leads the Tour de Taiwan by 28 seconds over the sensation of the day, Meintjes, and former leader Pozdnyakov.

“It was improvised”, Sulzberger admitted. “I went away downhill, then with my Dutch teammate Floris Goesinnen, we rode hard till we reached the front of the race. With a 28-second lead, the race is still there to be won overall. It’s not a huge gap but I’m in a better situation than where I was yesterday. There are still a lot of guys in contention. The Tour de Taiwan is really competitive. It’s hard racing every day, very fast, I like it!”

Another change of leadership occurred in the king of the mountains competition but instead of the highly awaited Feng Chun Kai, the new wearer of the polka dot jersey is Qin Chen Lu. The 20-year-old from Max Success, who was also one of the most active riders in the previous day’s breakaway, rode away from the front group on the first category climb of the Taichung Route 95 but showed that his ability for riding downhill are about the opposite of his skills as a climber. He got caught and dropped consecutively but showed the increasing depth of Chinese cycling. “It was slippery after the rain, so I put safety first,” said Qin.

Bell warned there’s also more to be seen from his Chinese team. “We have a lot of cards to play,” the Canadian explained. “We’re not going to sit down and enjoy the rest of the race. Drapac is now probably motivated to keep their lead. [Feng Chun] Kai is a quiet guy but you’ll see a lot more from him in the future. Adiq [Hussainie from Malaysia] is still up there on GC. We’re gonna look to make more of an impact to the race.”

Stage 5 to Taoyuan features another uphill finish while stage 6 is a more difficult one with more possibilities to reshuffle the overall classification prior to the closing criterium in Taipei on Sunday morning.

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