Serebryakov claims another stage win at Taihu

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The war is on at the Tour of Taihu Lake as stage winner Alexandr Serebryakov refused the congratulations of green jersey wearer Alois Kankovsky as a result of the move by the Czech at the end of stage 4.

The Russian from Team Type 1 made it two at the spectacular Bamboo Forest Park of Yixing and scored his eleventh victory of the 2012 season after a stage at the Tour of Korea, the GP Philadelphia, four stages at the Tour of China and three at the Tour of Hainan.

"I'm happy to still be alive today", Serebryakov told Cyclingnews. "I can't accept congratulations from someone who made me risk my life yesterday. I'm lucky that I didn't crash. There's no respect in the sprints here."

"Today it was nervous again and the final straight was hard because of the head wind blowing from the left. There isn't one team able to give the direction to the sprint. It comes and attacks from everywhere."

"My team-mate Aldo Ilesic took the wind for me. I was waiting, waiting... till I found the right timing for sprinting but I remain bitter about what happened yesterday. I also punctured in the front group once the echelon was formed and it's also because of a flat tyre that my team-mate Joey Rosskopf lost his second place on GC."

“We raced five laps in the valley and then shot up the last three kilometers for the finish. As expected it came down to a sprint, and the team was extremely focussed on staying at the front for the race. I was able to avoid the crash because of the hard work the guys did to put me at the front,” Serebryakov said. 

Pro Continental teams took power in stage 5 as Belgian team Landbouwkrediet-Euphony got second and third place with Joeri Stallaert and Kevin Peeters.

"It wasn't a very long stage (110km)", Stallaert noted. "In the final sprint, I was on the Serebryakov's wheel. He beat me by ten centimeters. Had the finishing line been five metres further, I would have won. However, to position two guys in the top three is a good result for our team."

The 21 year old Belgian from Termonde near Ghent confirmed his come-back after he finished four times on the podium (third) at the recent Tour of Hainan. This was only his 33rd day of racing in 2012 since he resumed competing in July after suffering from glandular fever.

The leading Chinese team from Hong Kong changed their tactic as they no longer cooperated with Dukla Praha to defend their respective positions on GC.

"We don't want Serebryakov to pass me in the overall ranking, so we would have been happy with a success of the breakaway", revealed best young rider Choi Ki Ho, 21. Li Fuyu (Hengxiang), Benjamin Giraud (La Pomme-Marseille) and Stuart Shaw (Drapac) didn't get much more than an advantage of one minute over the bunch led by the Czechs.

With three stages to go and a deficit of 29 seconds from race leader Milan Kadlec, Serebryakov eyes the overall victory, shall he collect the ten seconds bonus awarded to the winner every day.

"Three out of three seem too difficult to me", the Russian said. "I'll need luck and great legs. I understand that my team might have to pull from now on." "We could let a breakaway go", echoed Kadlec.

"Our first tactic consists in our confidence in Alois [Kankovsky] to take the time bonus away from Serebryakov." The rivalry is strong between the track riders from Czech Republic and the American team that promotes cycling for diabetics.

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