Metlushenko wins rain soaked stage five in Bird Island

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Qinghai Lake showed one of her many moods today. After a beautiful picture postcard stage the day before, heavy rain and a drop in temperature made conditions miserable for the peloton.

In the race, Ukraine fast-man Yuriy Metlushenko (Amore & Vita-Conad) edged out Boris Shpilevskiy (Russian National Team) and Ruslan Tleubayev (Kazakhstan National Team).

Radoslav Rogina (Loborika) remains in the yellow jersey after finishing comfortably in the peloton. He holds a 41 second lead over American Kiel Reijnen (Jelly Belly) with a further three seconds back to Irishman David McCann (Giant Asia Racing Team).

122 riders left Qinghai Lake in terrible conditions, passing loyal locals scattered along the way, huddled beneath umbrellas, and whatever they could hold to keep dry. The rain was still belting down when the field filed its way through the township of Heimahe or “Black Horse River” in Chinese, after seventy kilometres. The race leader Radosalv Rogina had his charges from Loborika controlling the peloton and any attempts at a break were quickly extinguished.

Just after the KOM at the 101.9 kilometre mark the field split into two bunches when the sprinters jostled to the front. Iranian Mehdi Sohrabi (Tabriz Petrochemical) took the points at the KOM before the speed lifted on the run into Bird Island.

With no more than a couple of inches in the finish it was Metlushenko (33) who grabbed the win; Shpilevskiy again unlucky to miss out on a stage victory. The conditions don’t seem to worry the powerhouse sprinter from the Ukraine. “He likes the cold, so he doesn’t really mind” explained his Amore & Vita-Conad team manager Roberto Gaggioli. “He is used to this kind of weather; he races a lot in Belgium so this is a normal day in Belgium.”

“He is in really good shape now, he is getting stronger and stronger and offcourse the moral, the team is really behind him”, he said. “If we can get to the sprint we know we have a ninety percent chance for a win,” explained Gaggioli.

Although he was born in the Ukraine, he now calls Italy home. “You can say he is Italian,” laughed Gaggioli.

The tour continues tomorrow leaving Bird Island for Xihaizhen, a place where China first tested the atomic bomb. It could be a finish once again for the explosive sprinters of the peloton.