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Davis gets another Qinghai win, Massaglia in yellow
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A continent away, as drugs and scandal appear to be perennially linked to the Tour de France, we hope - perhaps now even pray - that what we are seeing at China’s Tour of Qinghai Lake is the real deal. Allan Davis' name was linked to Operación Puerto, but he was cleared to race late last year.
Despite taking an unprecedented fourth stage win in Xining Thursday ahead of the Ukraine's Yuriu Metlushenko and Wiesenhof's André Schulze, it's hardly what one would call inhuman: the Discovery rider lost the lead three days ago because he wasn't climbing well enough, but stuck to what he's good at, and has consistently shown he's a very good sprinter indeed - the best in the race by far.
"Definitely not easy," said Davis, asked if he's walking away with stage wins at the tour. "I started with good form and I'm reading the sprints very well; it's a combination of both, and having a good team to bring it back together for a sprint is another thing as well."
Out on the road today, there was definitely a mental and physical battle of sorts going on between overnight leader Daniel Lloyd (DFL Cyclingnews) and Selle Italia's Gabriele Massaglia. A second separated the two at the start of the day and it was only a second more by the conclusion of Stage 6, Massaglia out-sprinting the Brit in an intermediate sprint and picking up enough bonus seconds to reverse their standings on the overall classification, with Relax-Gam's Francisco Mancebo still in third.
"My fortunes have reversed," said Massaglia, looking far happier than he was the day before. "Yesterday, I had bad luck in the sprint and wasn't able to get the [yellow] jersey; today, I wanted to try again and I got the jersey, so I'm really happy. It's only a few seconds, but it's important for my confidence tomorrow and the next day, and above all, important for me to stay in the jersey by Sunday."
However, a minute still separates the front nine on GC. And for those vying for the podium, the next two days is where it will happen. On both stages, the KOM comes in the latter half; irrespective of the long descents to follow that are typical of this race, there is opportunity for a small breakaway to succeed. Selle Italia, DFL Cyclingnews and Relax-Gam all have strong outfits, so neither of the top three are disadvantaged by the strength of their team.
"Tomorrow is a hard stage, we'll see on the climb," Massaglia said, adding, "I won't attack, only defend - the others will have to take it [the jersey] away from me."
As for Davis, the 26-year-old Aussie could easily grab a fifth win before this race is over, but told VeloNews there's a few more things on his mind when he returns to Europe: "I really wanted to come here to get going for the second half of the season, but I think I've got a bit more improvement to do yet. I did a big strength block in the gym just before and I came to try and find some leg speed. The world's is the big one... we'll see how it goes," he said.
Rain, rain, go away
For the third day running, umbrellas were out in numbers in the Qinghai capital of Xining, and with the mercury 13 just degrees C, just about everyone who could find shelter was taking it. Most of the 121 riders stayed in their team cars till the very last minute before the standard 10am start, before undertaking what would be a mostly rainy 208 km loop around Xining.
Such conditions saw the peloton's journey begin quickly, not so much to force an attack but to simply keep warm. Unsurprisingly, a series of half-hearted breakaway attempts came to nought till well after the first hour, when a 15-man group took off in the hope of uncertain glory; those participating included Peter Schulting (Jo Fiels), James Meadley, Brian Dziewa (both Jelly Belly), Torsten Schmidt, Joerg Ludewig and Felix Odebrecht (all Wiesenhof), Fumiyuki Beppu, Antonio Cruz (both Discovery), Radek Becka (PSK Whirlpool), and Peter Herzig (FRF Couriers).
Certainly, it was a strong gathering of escape artists, but the front 15 only managed to reach a maximum advantage of just under two minutes, as Discovery, despite having two men in the move, seemed intent on taking their fourth stage win of the tour, no doubt with proven performer Davis.
The move did last the best part of 100km before conceding defeat around 70 clicks from the finish, and from that moment on, it was an all-Disco affair as the only ProTour team in the race controlled the peloton all the way to Xining. A three-man move did have a crack 20km from home, but the Discovery juggernaut mowed it down before Davis showed once again why he's a class above the rest in the Qinghai Lake sprinting stakes.
Recalled Davis: "Pretty much the whole team kept me out of the wind for the last kilometers of the race. Coming into the final kilometer, I with was my team-mate Tony Cruz, but I actually got boxed in with 300 meters to go, so I had to leave his wheel and went on the inside.
"The Ukraine sprinter had gone and left really fast - he actually put a couple of bike lengths into me - but I was gaining speed and by the time I got him, I was pretty much at full speed... I had a bit of a slipstream as well and it was in the last 50 meters, so it worked out perfectly for me."
The road ahead - A 150.8km leg from Xining to Menyuan, climbing begins almost immediately, but it's not till the 90km mark where the hors catégorie Daban mountain rears its ugly head, and pitches skywards to a maximum 3,792 meters above the sea. From its crest, the road drops just as sharply down, before a less severe downhill run to the finish.
