Golovash wins opening 5.9km time trial

Image 1 of 4

Oleksandr Golovash won the 5.9km prologue time trial stage of the Tour of Taihu Lake. The Ukrainian specialist was four seconds faster than Iran’s Karim Khorrami, while Australia’s Cameron Bayly had to settle for third place, also four seconds down.

“This is one of the biggest wins of my career, if not the biggest so far”, Golovash told Cyclingnews before climbing on stage for the impressive awards ceremony.

“I never performed at this category of racing (UCI 2.1) before. But I’m a time trial specialist; I was third in the under 23 European championship in 2012 and second in 2013. I’ve been under 23 Ukrainian national champion four times. I had good preparation for the Tour of Taihu Lake by riding the Abu Dhabi Tour along with the likes of Alberto Contador, Vincenzo Nibali and Mark Cavendish and the Tour of Sharjah where we won three stages as a team with the Minsk Cycling Club.”

The time gaps on stage one will set shape the coming stages of the Tour of Taihu Lake but the 25 year old from Kiev has no plan for the overall classification, being unsure how the weeklong race will unfold.

Last year Italian sprinter Jakub Mareczko (Wilier-Southeast) lost twenty seconds in the prologue but picked time bonus of ten seconds each day to secure overall victory. However the Tour of Taihu Lake may be a different race this year, with a 10km uphill finish on stage 3 in Anji.

“Because of this hilly stage, I hope to do better than usual on GC”, said best placed Chinese rider Zhao Joingbiao of Wisdom-Hengxiang who clocked the twelfth best time.

“I did my best but I’m a bit upset. I wanted to be the best young rider as well but Ukraine’s Timur Maleev rode one tenth of a second faster. I want to follow the path of my teammate Wang Meiyin who will join the WorldTour with Bahrain-Merida next year. If I get a chance, I’ll go as well. He’s a good example to follow.”

“I was a little bit surprised by my result”, commented Bayly who races for Taiwanese-based Attaque Gusto team.

“I thought I didn’t do very good so I’m happy I got third. I’m grateful this time trial was on road bikes because I never ride time trial bikes. There was no corner, nothing to brake for. I’m hoping for a good result overall since there’s a climb on the course this year. I’ll give it a crack.”

Stage one will be the traditional Wuxi Binhu Circuit on the banks of the Lake Taihu, east of Shanghai.

Full Results