Kemps victorious in Changshu

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After finishing as runner-up on stage 1 and third place on stage 2, Aaron Kemps (V Australia) got it right on the Tour of Taihu's third stage as he outkicked Brad Huff (Jelly Belly p/b Kenda) and race leader Boris Shpilevskiy (Tabriz Petrochemical Team) for victory.

"It was disappointed after yesterday's sprint and I'm just happy to make it up today," Kemps said. "Boris [Shpilevskiy] is a classy rider. I've beaten him on a few occasions before and I was confident that I could do it today as well.

"The intermediate sprints were very difficult. I tried to get up there but in the first one, there was some wind and everyone was watching me. In the second one, a rider from Dukla Praha boxed me in, so I decided that I'd skip the third and save myself for the stage finish."

Shpilevskiy had the same idea after winning the first two sprints. "But in the third one, my closest rival [stage 2 winner] Alois Kankovsky went to the front, so he forced me to sprint again," the Russian said. "After that, I was just left with not enough energy for the final sprint."

Shpilevskiy had mixed feelings after losing to Kemps but he stated that his priority remains to win the overall classification of the Tour of Taihu. Shpilevskiy increased his overall lead after winning all three intermediate sprints in front of the Seastar Island Amusement Park on Kunchenghu Lake.

V Australia is left with only three riders but it didn't prevent them from coming through with a stage win. "Johnnie Walker has a Tour of Spain [in 2010] behind him and Cameron Peterson is in really good condition coming out of being the king of the mountains in the Sun Tour," said team manager Chris White. "Aaron was able to hold his form and it'll be another interesting two days because it's going to come down to time bonuses. Shpilevskiy's team is very impressive but the last stage isn't for pure sprinters."

Although he has the general classification in mind as well, Kemps first enjoyed this success on the Asian Tour. "Now I've won a stage at every Asian race I've done," he said. There's more to come from him in Asia as he has signed for Hong-Kong based team Champion System for next year.