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After Briton Rory Townsend, Russian teenager Lev Gonov and Mongolia’s Jambaljamts Saibayar, two more riders have concluded the eighth Tour of Fuzhou with their first international elite victory in the bag as Aliaksai Shnyrko (Ningxia Sports Lottery Livall) from Belarus claimed stage 7 and Kazakhstani Artur Fedosseyev (Shenzhen XDS) won the overall classification. Compatriot Ilya Davidenok finished second while Colombia’s Carlos Quintero (Ningxia Sports Lottery Livall) rounded out the podium.
It was a bunch sprint finish in Yongtai after Ryan Cavanagh (St George) was the last survivor of the breakaway formed with James Oram (Mitchelton-BikeExchange), Vasili Bialiauski (Minsk), Przemyslaw Kasperkiewicz (Delko Marseille) and Folkert Oostra (Monkey Town). Blake Quick (St George) was the favorite but got pushed towards the barricades in a hectic finale and had to be content with the green jersey he preserved while Shnyrko, 25, surprised the Russian team on the left hand side of the road and beat Gonov.
“This is the first victory of my career,” Shnyrko said.
“I rode the Tour of Fuzhou two years ago but I crashed before the finish in that same last stage. Today I had good legs and good work from my teammates. I started the sprint first 300 metres before the line. I hope for this win to give me a good contract for next year, preferably in Europe.”
“It’s also my first victory and it makes me very happy”, echoed Fedosseyev who is also 25 years of age. “It’s very big for me. I believe it means this is the real start of my career. We just had to control the peloton in this last stage even though Bialiauski in the breakaway was only two minutes down on GC but we weren’t worried.”
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Fedosseyev rode most of the Tour of Fuzhou in support of Davidenok and remained a loyal domestique until the winner of stage 1 slipped uphill on the queen stage and lost a few seconds at the very end in the fog in Yongtai. The duo from Kazakhstan had made the right move to attack earlier than expected with 7.5km to go in the first uphill finish.
