Hofland continues Belkin’s sweep

Tour of Hainan, stage 6, Sanya-Wuzhishan, km 115.6

Hofland continues Belkin’s sweep 

Race leader Moreno Hofland added one more stage win to the counter of Belkin Pro Cycling to make it six out of six stages as he crossed the line first in the charming town of Wuzhishan at the end of an uphill sprint. In the absence of Theo Bos, Lars Boom secured one more 1-2 for the Dutch squad, while Synergy Baku’s Christoph Schweizer took the third place.

With two second category climbs on the menu, the race became too hard for Theo Bos to win a fifth stage in a row. “I managed to get back on after the first climb but not the second one, despite the help of Dennis van Winden to take me across”, Bos explained. “It doesn’t matter because my team-mates have finished the job at perfection once again.”

Belkin Pro Cycling didn’t allow any breakaway to develop. They rode behind a duo formed at the front by Marek Rutkewicz (CCC Polsat) and Clément Saint-Martin (La Pomme Marseille). “A lot of guys are only one minute down on GC, so we have to be very careful with who goes away”, Hofland explained to justify why the Dutch team keeps racing hard every day without leaving much freedom to others. “There were a lot of attacks at the beginning of the race but Marc Goos set a strong pace in the climbs, so there was no gap to the leaders really. We’re on a winning mood, that’s why we keep it that way. I’m glad that I was able to win the sprint with a good lead out and that we were able to get first and second place again with Lars Boom.”

Stage 6 was full of fights for different classifications. La Pomme Marseille got José Gonçalves to move up to sixth place overall after coming third and first at the two intermediate sprints. As Jiao Pengda of Champion System was second to him, he became a threat to Liu Yilin’s lead in the best Asian rider classification, now only four seconds down. Michael Gogl of KTM scored three more points than Vitaly Buts for the King of the Mountains classification. Therefore, the Ukrainian still leads but with an advantage of two points only.

“I wasn’t feeling very well today but with the help of my team, I managed to keep the polka dot jersey”, Buts said. “Tomorrow, it’ll be an usual stage with the biggest climb of the whole Tour of Hainan located in the first ten kilometers of racing. We’ll be racing flat out from the gun. I hope to be first at the top at the top of the climb. After that, there’ll be 200km to cover! But we’ll try to set up a sprint for Yuriy Metlushenko.”

Belkin Pro Cycling reckons stage 7 might be the right time to let a breakaway go but if other teams work for another bunch gallop to take place in Dongfang, they’ll pursue their idea of winning nine stages out of nine.

Stage 6 Results – Tour of Hainan
1. Moreno Hofland (BEL) 2:36:43

2. Lars Boom (BEL)

3. Christoph Schweizer (BCP)

4. Boris Shpilevskiy (RTS)

5. Rico Rogers (BCP)

6. Maksym Averin (ARH)

General classification 
1. Moreno Hofland (BEL) 20:34:23

2. Frédéric Amorison (CRE) +53

3. Thomas Leezer (BEL) +1:02

4. Fabian Schnaidt (CSS) +1:05

5. Kevin Peeters (CRE)

6. José Goncalves (LPM) +1:06

LEADERBOARD going into stage seven, the classification leaders are:

Yellow Jersey (Individual GC): Moreno Hofland (BEL) 
Green Jersey (Points Classification): Moreno Hofland (BEL) 

Polka Dot Jersey: Vitaliy Buts (UKR) 
Blue Jersey (Best Asian Rider Classification): Liu Yilin (HEN)
Teams GC: Belkin Pro Cycling Team

Sprint 1

1.Maksym Averin (ARH)

2.Mykhailo Kononenko (UKR)

3.José Goncalves (LPM)

Sprint 2

1. José Goncalves (LPM)

2. Jiao Pengda (CSS)

3. Kanstantsin Klimiankou (ARH)

KOM (Cat.2, Elevation 274m)
1. Mateusz Taciak (CCC)

2. Volodymyr Zagorodniy (UKR)

3. Nikolay Mihaylov (CCC)

KOM (Cat.2, Elevation 461m)
1. David Belda Garcia (BUR)

2. Christopher Butler (CSS)

3. Kanstantsin Klimiankou (ARH)