Serebryakov scores sprint win at Xitaihu Lake

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Team Type 1’s Alexandr Serebryakov waited for stage 3 of the Tour of Taihu Lake to strike again, as he did on four occasions at the Tour of China in September and three at the Tour of Hainan in October.

He opened up the sprint with 250 metres to go and maintained a small advantage over the previous stage winner Alois Kankovsky of Dukla Praha and Frenchman Benjamin Giraud from La Pomme-Marseille.

“My teammates have closed the gap to the escapees to perfection,” said the 25-year-old Russian, who is now the most prolific sprinter seen in Asia this year ahead of Andrea Guardini – the Italian had six wins at Le Tour de Langkawi and one at the Tour of Qinghai Lake.

“I was scared at the end because I’ve seen people like [Yuriy] Metlushenko coming on both sides. With the tailwind, it was a very fast sprint but fortunately not as crazy as yesterday when a relay was given like in the Madison. This morning I spoke with some of these guys and I said ‘ok you’re track riders but it’s road racing here’. My team did a maximum effort today. Every day, we try and win and there will be more occasions because I guess that the remaining five stages will also be bunch sprint finishes.”

Race leader Milan Kadlec, who finally received his suitcase and therefore wore his jersey of national Czech champion that was missing for stage 1, warned that stage 4 might not be so easy to control for Dukla Praha. Turns at the head of the peloton are shared by Hong Kong defending their position as best Chinese team and rider. They never let the breakaway riders to have more than 1:02 lead. Four riders had attacked from the gun: Roman Maykin (RusVelo), Alejandrio Marque (Carmim-Prio), Hossein Jahanbanian (Tabriz) and Yannick Martinez (La Pomme-Marseille) who won all three intermediate sprints. They were reinforced by four more riders: Secaaltin Dazkirli (Konya Torku Seker Spor), Zhang Hui (Max Success), Xing Fu and Wang Bo (Hengxiang), but the sprint finish was inevitable.

Giraud appeared in the top three as he did at Tour of Hainan as well. The former mountain biker from the south of France was happy with his result. “I’d like to win a stage," he said. “But I’ve done a good sprint, with a good positioning, even though this kind of false flat downhill finish with tailwind isn’t exactly my forte, but we’re doing better and better as a team in the preparation of the sprints.”

TD Bank Philadelphia International Cycling Championship winner Serebryakov revealed that he’s at the Tour of Taihu Lake with the qualification for the 2014 WorldTour already in mind. “I wanted to sign a two-year contract for feeling secure and racing with no pressure, but it’s a one-year deal with Euskaltel”, he explained. “Now with my results on the 2013 Asia Tour [that has started at the beginning of October], I’m already scoring points that might count for the sporting evaluation of the team I’ll ride for in 2014. That’s what I’m here for, even though it’s been a long season already and I wish I was in Moscow by now with my wife and our twins who are one and half years old.”

The awarded riders of the day were invited to plant trees as a legacy of the race organization for the preservation of the environment around the Taihu Lake (Taihu means "big lake" in Mandarin).