Shpilevskiy scores one for the team on stage eight

Russian National Team rider Boris Shpilevskiy won his second stage of the Tour of Qinghai Lake on the penultimate day into Qingshizui. Shpilevskiy (27) defeated Mehdi Sohrabi (Tabriz Petrochemical) and Valentin Iglinskiy (Kazakhstan National Team) in a bunch sprint after the hors categorie climb at 94.6kms failed to crack the sprinters' legs.

Iranian Hossein Askari (Tabriz Petrochemical) will take the tour leader's yellow jersey into the final day tomorrow in Xining. Askari and his team have dominated the general classification categories with only today's winner, Shpilevskiy, foiling a clean sweep for them by taking an unassailable lead in the sprints points' competition.

Shpilevskiy commended his team after his win. "The winner of the stage was my team", he said. "Without my team and what they are doing, without their work, i could not win today". "The last forty kilometres they were on the front always working", he told a large crowd at the presentations.

The day began when 117 riders left the beautiful city of Qilian in the warmest conditions of the race to date. The Qilian prairie is known as "The land of white Tibetan sheep" and the city itself is nestled in-between breathtaking mountains that offered a magnificent backdrop to the start of the stage.

The peloton completed one lap on a street circuit in-front of thousands of fans before heading out onto the open road that was lined with locals cheering on the tour. Ghader Mizbani (Tabriz Petrochemical) made sure of his win in the King of the Mountains competition with more points at the first climb just fourteen kilometres into the stage.

Together the trio opened up a gap of more than one-and-a-half minutes as the tour travelled beside the Qilian mountain ranges. The margin began to drop as the leaders made their way through Ebao (Castle in the Mountain) near the 70 kilometre mark. With the road temperature recorded at forty degrees Rabou decided three was a crowd and attacked again.

Locals parked their motor-bikes on the edge of the road and waved on Rabou as he worked hard to hold a gap of 1:16 near the feed zone at 80kms. The chasing peloton began to fracture into several bunches as the pace was on to bring back the breakaway. Rabou had been joined by Volodymyr Starchyk (Amore & Vita-Conad) and Simon Clarke (ISD-Neri) on the approach to the climb but were soon gobbled up by chasing riders.

Former tour leader Radoslav Rogina (Loborika) led Tabriz Petrochemical teammates Hossein Alieadeh and Ghader Mizbani over the summit of the climb. On the descent a large group formed containing the yellow jersey of Askari. After two-and-a-half hours on the road and with the climb behind them it again seemed a bunch sprint into the finish was inevitable.

The Russian National Team, with the advantage of a tail wind, drove the peloton towards Qingshizui at high speed. Shpilevskiy was positioned in sixth wheel, and for a while had Askari right behind him. With twenty kilometres to the finish the Russians were in no mood for any assistance.

They catapulted Shpilevskiy to his second stage win in succession and were duly rewarded for their efforts in the final forty kilometres. "The finish was very fast", Shpilevskiy said. "I think maybe 75 km/h, it was very dangerous". "We see that Amore & Vita-Conad and their sprinter Metlushenko were at the back, so we went for it". "Tomorrow i will see, the conditions maybe different", he added.

On a stage where the thought was that a break may succeed, the hors categorie climb again proved a manageable task for the majority of the riders as King of the Mountains winner Ghader Mizbani explained. "In the race manual today was the hors categorie but it was not so tough and not such a big mountain", he said afterwards. "All the teams come together at the finish, it was a good result for us (today), we have the yellow jersey, now we wait for tomorrow", he added.

Tomorrow the tour concludes with a 66km circuit race around the streets of Xining. Shpilevskiy can be confident of obtaining three-in-a-row and the green jersey; Askari can be confident of holding the trophy aloft in Xining, and a night of celebrations with his team from Tabriz Petrochemical.