McCann in action earlier this year in the National Road Race Championships (Photo © Darren Crawford)
David McCann (Giant Asia) has continued his season in China as the European road scene has stopped for the year, putting in a good ride in the nine-day Tour of Hainan (UCI 2.HC).
The Belfast man, who has been one of the best performers in UCI ranked races in Asia in recent years, finished 17th overall just 29 seconds off GC winner Valentin Iglinskiy (Astana).
With few climbs and no time trials, the stages and GC were dominated by sprinters. However, McCann went on the attack on the penultimate stage 8 on Thursday, taking the final KOM while looking to split the field and gain the 29 seconds he needed to take the leader’s jersey.
In the end, Astana closed down the action leaving Iglinskiy to take the stage win and move into the leader’s jersey.
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McCann was 12th in the bunch sprint that settled stage 1, a 163.5km flat run into Wuzhishan last Thursday, October 20th.
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The following day he finished 22nd, in a lead group of 75 riders after the field split on the short 88.6km stage. The third stage was again settled in a bunch gallop, with McCann taking 29th and maintaining his 13th on GC.
The fourth stage was mainly flat and while a couple of riders clipped off the front to contest stage honours there was no major shake-up on GC, with McCann finishing 49th in the peloton. Stage 5 followed a similar pattern; the Irishman finishing again in the bunch, in 18th place.
The sprinters’ bonanza continued on stage 6 (McCann 35th) and stage 7 (McCann 39th), with Skil Shimano sprinter Kenny van Hummel winning both stages.
It was on the penultimate stage that final GC winner Iglinskiy seized the day, taking the (you’ve guessed it) bunch sprint for the stage win into Sanya after 184.7km. That win was enough to give him the leader’s jersey.
McCann was 19th on that stage and while he was aggressive in the finale, taking the final KOM, his strong riding wasn’t enough to cause the split he would have needed to leapfrog the sprinters on GC.
He finished 19th on the stage and was 51st in the bunch sprint the following final day, with Van Hummel victorious again and Astana’s Iglinskiy wrapping up the overall win.
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