Iranians power to stage win and tour lead in Xihaizhen

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Iranian Hossein Askari (Tabriz Petrochemical) has sensationally ridden into the overall lead at the Tour of Qinghai Lake after stage six in Xihaizhen. Teammate Mehdi Sohrabi took out the stage ahead of Nikola Kozomara (Partizan SRBIJA) with Askari back in third place. Askari now leads the tour by 44 seconds over previous leader Radoslav Rogina (Loborika) and Kiel Reijnen (Jelly Belly) who is a further 41 seconds behind.

Rogina was in disbelief after the stage. He sat alone in the team van pondering how the trio could stay away from a rampaging peloton. “I cannot believe what’s happened,” he said. “It's unbelievable how they rode in front.”

“We worked very hard, not just my team but all the teams,” Rogina added. It will take a massive effort for the Loboriak team to reclaim the yellow jersey now. ”We are very tired, we worked hard every day,” the Croatian explained. ”We will not surrender, for sure.”

Meanwhile new leader Askari was delighted with his team’s efforts on the day. ”We rode very hard to the finish and I am very happy for my team,” he said. After finishing 49 seconds down the day before in terrible conditions he was glad of the warmer weather. “Yesterday was very bad day for me because I don’t like cold weather,” he said. “Every time there's cold weather I have problems, today I hoped for good weather.”

The trio broke free from the peloton just before the first intermediate sprint in Quanji at 37.9kms. From there they powered towards the finish, taking all the other sprint and king of the mountain competition points on offer en route. At one stage they stretched their margin out to a little over six minutes over the peloton which contained tour leader Rogina.

In between them were two riders caught in no-man’s land, Kun Jiang (China National Team), and Shengjun Wu (Qinghai Tianyoude Cycling Team). The pair were eventually reeled in by an elite group of around 25 riders which included all of the jersey competition leaders. That bunch had formed after the main peloton splintered near the second intermediate sprint at 65kms. The margin between the chasing peloton and the three leaders began to drop nearing the King of the Mountain climb at 115kms. With various teams in the peloton working to bring the trio back it was expected that the timing of domestiques would be impeccable once more.

The margin was reduced to 3:42 near the top of the climb with 37kms to the finish. The peloton may have underestimated the willingness and strength of the trio however, and in particular Askari (35) and Sohrabi (28). The pair virtually dragged the Serbian teenager Nikola Kozomara (Partizan Srbija) all the way and he had to work hard just to hold the wheel of the pair. In the end he simply glad to make the podium, especially given the hardship that his team has endured in this race. The Serbian outfit are down to three riders due to illness and their sprinter Stevic being disqualified.

Team manager Dusan Banovic explained that his 18-year-old charge ”is very happy because he is the youngest rider in this race."

"This is the biggest stage race for him because he is a first year under 23. It is his best result,” Banovic said.

With twenty kilometres remaining the deficit was down to 3:30 but with the fast roads winding down into Xihazhen the chances of a bunch finish were rapidly dwindling.

The peloton crossed the line 2:20 behind Sohrabi and the Iranian was ecstatic at his win. “I'm on cloud nine,” he explained. “The most important thing for us is teamwork. We obtained everything we wanted from this stage.”

It was expected that no major shake up of the general classification would occur until the race reached the serious slopes of stages seven and eight but Tabriz Petrochemical decided otherwise. “We showed our abilities today, they (other teams) did not consider our abilities, because of that we broke away," said Sohrabi.

There was a confrontation between riders from the chasing peloton and tour officials after the stage. The big sprinters may well have been frustrated by the way in which the Iranians held their time gap during the stage. Many of the riders from other teams argued that the leading break had been drafted and sheltered at certain sections of the stage.

Tabriz Petrochemical team manager, Khatoun Abadi Azar Kazem begged to differ. “Every day we push,” he said. “The peloton does not think we have the ability to go forward, but we proved this with our ability on this stage."

The team is now leading in all jersey competition categories. Along with the yellow jersey, Askari also leads the sprint points and best placed Asian rider categories. Ghader Mizbani leads the King of the Mountains competition by one point from Russian National Team rider Alexander Filippov, and the team itself head both the overall team classification and classification for the highest-placed Asian team.

The tour continues tomorrow when stage seven takes the peloton from Xihaizhen to Qilian. It's a 123km trek featuring two KOM climbs including an hors categorie climb to 3,869 metres just fifteen kilometres from the finish.