Stage 7: Mosca takes over from team-mate Mareczko
Italy’s Jacopo Mosca delivered a surprise victory, also for himself, in the queen stage and continued the winning streak of the Wilier Triestina team after five stage wins by Jakub Mareczko. Mosca also moved into the lead with a 3-seconds advantage over Benjamin Prades (Ukyo) and eight seconds over Mykhaylo Kononenko (Kolss) and Marc De Maar (Hengxiang).
113 riders started stage 7 in Sanya. 19 of them composed a breakaway group after ten kilometers, including Enrico Barbin (Bardiani CSF), Martin Laas (Delko Marseille), Marc-Antoine Nadon (H&R Block), Luke Mudgway (RTS-Monton), Sam Crome (IsoWhey Sports-Swisswellness), Vitaly Buts, Oleksandr Polivoda and Andriy Bratashchuk (Kolss), Rob Stannard (Mitchelton-Scott), Jacob Rathe (Jelly Belly), Meiler and Der Zsolt (Vorarlberg), Jon Aberasturi and Prades (Ukyo), Radoslav Konstantinov (Hainan Jilun), Rick van Breda and Sven van Luijk (Monkey Town), Dylan Page (Swiss national team) and Mosca.
Crome won the battle against polka dot jersey wearer Buts for the KOM competition as he crested three summits out of four in first position. “Being down to four riders, we knew it would be hard for GC so we targeted something else and we got the KOM jersey”, Crome explained. Polivoda was focused on the intermediate sprints and won the first one while Page claimed the second one ahead of Aberasturi and Buts at km 140. The maximum time gap was four minutes after 40km.
Wilier Triestina led the peloton most of the time but keeping a gap of two minutes, it was unclear whether they wanted to bring the breakaway back or not. The answer came with 20km to go when race leader Mareczko went to his team car behind the peloton to bring bottles for his team-mates. He let the peloton go in the final climb whose summit was 12km before the finishing line in Wuzhishan.
Crome attacked with Prades. Barbin, Mosca and Polivoda reacted. Prades and Mosca forged on while Marc De Maar (Hengxiang) attacked solo from the peloton and made it across. The Dutchman attacked with 2km to go and again with 500 metres to go but didn’t manage to drop his two rivals. Mosca had more resources as it wasn’t up to him to pull in the front group at the difference of the Spaniards from Ukyo. He won the three men sprint, keeping just a few seconds of an advantage over a small group from which best Asian rider Liu Jianpeng (Hengxiang) won his duel against Nazaerbieke Bieken (Keyi-Look) and took a remarkable sixth place to enter the top 10 overall too.
Post race quotes
Stage 7 winner and race leader Jacopo Mosca: “I’m really happy. It’s an unexpected victory but a very nice one. The winning streak of our team continues. This morning, we started with Kuba [Mareczko] in the leader’s jersey. We had two weapons, either help him to hold onto the yellow jersey or sneak into the breakaways and make the best of it, which is what I’ve done eventually. Having the yellow jersey in the team, it wasn’t up to me to pull at the front. I’ve had the green light to ride for myself at the end. There are two stages left. Anything can happen. We’ve had a phenomenal tactic since the beginning of the Tour of Hainan. This is my first year with the team and I want to thank them for trusting me. It’s hard for me to believe in which situation I find myself because I’ve never been used to raise my hands up in the air, even in the amateur ranks I wasn’t a winner. To win a race in my first pro year is beautiful.”
Second placed and most aggressive rider Benjamin Prades: “Jon (Aberasturi) and I covered the break and then we had to go on. At first, the collaboration wasn’t really good, everyone wanted to go on his own. There were a lot of attacks and I think it’s because some riders were afraid not to get over the climbs. In the last climb, I was feeling tired, I had worked more than I hoped, but I set my pace. Marc De Maar must have climbed very fast to get back to the Wilier (Mosca) and I. In the end, I just lacked a little bit of strength. I’m sad because I’ve had many places of 2nd this year. I won the Tour of Taiwan but I really wanted the win here. I was racing for the stage win more than for the GC today. I don’t think there are many options to take the yellow jersey. Wilier are very strong. Jon has done an amazing job. Thanks to him, I had a shot for the stage victory. I think he has options for another win, he’s the only one who’s been able to beat Mareczko and we’ll give it all for him.”
Third placed Marc De Maar: “My only chance to win the race was to attack. At least I tried, but the Italian guy [Jacopo Mosca] was really strong. I knew I wasn’t going to win the sprint. You have to gamble a little bit, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. I’m still happy with the third place.”
Points classification leader Jakub Mareczko: “I went to the car to carry the bottles for my team-mates because every day they have worked for me. Today, it was no longer needed to keep the race under control, as we had Mosca at the front and we were pretty sure he could do well since we realized in the past few days that he’s in a great form with the way he could help me. I wasn’t able to hold the pace in the last climb so I let it go and I saved energy for the last two days. We’ll look at keeping the yellow jersey. That becomes our primary goal now.”
King of the Mountain Sam Crome: “The KOM jersey was definitely a goal of the team. We knew there were a few categorized climbs today. We wanted to put two of us in a break. Being down to four riders, we knew it would be hard for GC so we targeted something else and we got the KOM jersey. I took three KOMs out of four. We didn’t know if the peloton was gonna come back when we had four and half minutes lead but it dropped quite quickly. We set up Joe [Cooper] who was fourth in the end. It was a good day for the team.”
Best Asian rider Liu Jianpeng: “Our team’s plan was to stay in the peloton because the last climb was the most difficult. I saved energy for that part of the race. My goal was a top 10 in the stage [he came sixth] and top 20 on GC [he’s seventh now], so I’m very happy with my performance. At the top of the climb, I realized I was going to retain the blue jersey and I’m determined to keep it till the end.”
