Mosca seals overall victory at Tour of Hainan

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New Zealand national champion Joe Cooper of IsoWhey Sports-Swisswellness fended off the whole peloton for the last 12 kilometres to claim the final stage of the Tour of Hainan ahead of Emils Liepins (Delko Marseille) and Andriy Kulyk (Kolss). Neo-pro Jacopo Mosca (Wilier Triestina) took his first-ever stage race overall victory despite losing the support of five-time stage winner Jakub Mareczko, who sustained a flat tyre with 10 kilometres to go.

"I still can't believe that I've won the Tour of Hainan," Mosca said. "I have to thank all my teammates because today again they've been fabulous. It's a great emotion. It'll take some time for me to realise what happened. Going for the time bonuses, [Marco] Zanotti and [Mykhaylo] Kononenko made me sweat until the very end."

Cooper's solo rush in the last twelve kilometers led him to stage victory, but the Kiwi had already been away by himself in the early part of the race, which happened to be a very competitive one in windy circumstances on the south part of China's paradisiacal island.

As Mirko Maestri and Paolo Simion (Bardiani CSF), Jure Rupnik (H&R Block), Reid McClure (Novo Nordisk), Eugert Zhupa (Wilier Triestina), Oleksandr Prevar (Kolss), Steven Cuesta (Hainan Jilun), Lukas Spengler (Switzerland), Ivar Slik (Monkey Town), Rodrigo Araque (Ukyo), Jordan Cheyne (Jelly Belly) and Gian Friesecke (Vorarlberg) got caught at km 35, Cooper rode away from the bunch to win the KOM prizes on the two category 3 climbs shortly afterwards, while his teammate Sam Crome came second on each occasion to secure the polka dot jersey.

Cooper got reeled in after 60 kilometres, but went again with Alexis Cartier (H&R Block), Rob Stannard (Mitchelton-Scott) and Ulises Castillo (Jelly Belly). As a crucial intermediate sprint was looming at km 91, the quartet got pulled back and GC contenders Liepins, Kononenko and Zanotti sprinted in that order to snap up three, two and one bonus seconds, respectively.

Cartier, Cuesta and Gordian Banzer (Switzerland) then went on the move, rejoined by Simion, Michael Sheehan (Jelly Belly) and Reinier Honig (Vorarlberg). Wilier led the peloton and the breakaway only enjoyed a 35-second lead with 55km to go. Attacking machine Cartier went alone with 45km to go. Cartier and Sheehan led with 15km to go but as they got reeled in, Cooper escaped 12km before the end.

Mosca closely watched an attack by Marc De Maar (Hengxiang), but Mareczko's puncture 10km before the end disturbed the plans of Wilier Triestina and their opponents. "We've been unlucky because had he been able to sprint, we could have relied on him to take the time bonuses," Mosca commented. "But luckily, one rider went solo and collected the ten seconds of the win that were precious. He made a very strong action."

"We didn't really want a bunch kick because we didn't have any sprinter in our team today," Cooper explained. "We sort of invented a solo breakaway that was about twelve k long. I managed to hold on and avoid the bunch kick. We got the job done." Kolss was trying to set up Kononenko for the sprint but they lost him in the last corner, so Kulyk went for it and came third.

Second placed Emils Liepins declared: "I'm not as disappointed as yesterday for missing out on the stage win because the time bonus for second place puts me third in GC. I think it's very good because the Tour of Hainan also features a mountain stage and I'm a sprinter. It means I've had a good race overall. I'm happy with that. We thought we were going to catch the breakaway rider but this guy [Cooper] was very fast. I was just a little bit too late to pass him. I want to thank the team. They did a really good job to help me get this result. I hope it'll help me find a team for next year."

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