Stephen Clancy has spent the second stage of the Tour of
China II on the attack, though the breakaway’s efforts just came up short.
The Irish rider, who competes with Novo Nordisk, went
clear on the 127.8km stage starting and finishing in Anshun with three other
riders.
However, while they thought they would survive to fight
it out for victory, they were caught at the death.
The stage came down to a bunch sprint won by Marco
Benfatto (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec) from Andrea Guardini (Bardiani-CSF).
“It was a great day for me personally,” said Clancy of
being up the road. “After the first intermediate sprint I got away with three
other guys.
“We had four guys together working really well throughout
the entire stage in the breakaway. It was a little bit wet, a little bit windy.
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“There were some technical parts, turns and everything. But
I think that worked in our favour and we got a gap of up to 2½ minutes.
“And I must say, we all thought we had it in the bag. We
were riding well in the last 10km with a gap of just over a minute.
“But it was heart-breaking stuff; we got pulled back in
with just 200 metres to go to.
“The finish line was just right there in front of us but
he sprinters trains took over and that was the end of that.”
The racing continues tomorrow with a short sharp stage
finishing atop Mengding Mountain.
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