Stevic flies like a bird to win stage 4

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Ivan Stevic (Partizan SRBIJA) from Serbia has taken the fourth stage of the Tour of Qinghai Lake into the tourist resort beside the beautiful lake of the same name. Stevic flew home to beat Yuriy Metlushenko (Amore & Vita-Conad) and Boris Shpilevskiy (Russian National Team), giving the “Bird” or middle-finger salute as he crossed the line.

Radoslav Rogina (Loborika) remains in the yellow jersey after finishing 18th in the bunch sprint. He leads Gregor Gazvoda (KTM-Gebruder Weiss) by 34 seconds with a further ten back to Kiel Reijnen (Jelly Belly).

A pumped up Stevic gestured at the finish with his finger in response to the difficulties his team has endured this week, more so than trying to offend anyone. “We were waiting for this,” he said after his win. “We had a really hard time in last three stages up in the climbs”.

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Stevic (30) is the only rider on his team who hasn’t become ill so far in the race, robbing them of any rhythm or tempo with their racing. “This (today’s stage) was actually good for us because it was a steady pace all the way to the top”, he added.

The rider who loves to cook has added this win to a stage victory in the 2007 Tour of Georgia. He may well cook up a storm for his teammates in China tonight.

Earlier in the day the race left the Duoba National Sports Training Centre with the temperature in the low thirties. The peloton made their way along the Huangshui River heading towards the north-west of China. It was here where the breakaway of the day evolved.

Four riders got away near the first sprint at 21 kilometres. The quartet was reduced to a trio soon after and Ying Hon Yeung (Hong Kong), Matej Stare (Slovenian National Team), and Vladislav Borisov (Amore & Vita-Conad) worked hard to put some time into the peloton.
They were the first over the climb at “The sun and the moon” mountain and when the chasing peloton reached fifty kilometres to the finish their lead was still almost five minutes.

But when the race hit the flat fields of Daotang where the Chinese herd their yak and sheep, the peloton were closing in. They were driven by the Russian National Team who were confident in their sprinter Shpilevskiy. The gap was rapidly reduced to just over a minute when the chasing peloton passed the twenty kilometres to the finish marker.

With the leading trio swept up the tour would have a bunch sprint at last. The long and straight road into Qinghai Lake made for a mad charge to the line. The hard work by the Russian team to bridge the gap played into the hands of the Serbian speedster.

“The Russian team took the responsibility for taking the break back because they have a really good sprinter”, Stevic said afterwards.

“So, I think that was the perfect combination for us, we didn’t have to do anything”.

Tour leader Rogina was again complementary of his team. “We work hard in the first part of the race”, he said. “The other teams worked for the sprinters”. He will wear the yellow jersey for the fourth consecutive day tomorrow but is still cautious of the stages ahead. “We will see, we will try to defend”, he said. “We must be careful.”

Tomorrow the race heads to Bird Island for stage five of the tour with a race profile that will have the sprinters licking their lips at an opportunity for another stage win.