Max Walscheid (Giant-Alpecin) took his third victory in a row at the Tour of Hainan after he outsprinted Rafael Andriato (Wilier – Southeast) and Roberto Ferrari (Lampre – Merida), and extended his lead in the general and points classification.
A rather hilly 184.9km stage from Danzhou to Changjiang was in store for the riders with Max Walscheid still looking after a 16 second lead in the general classification. The breakaway of eight riders was rarely afforded an advantage of more than four minutes as our team and the sprinters’ teams looked to control the gap.
The stage was always likely to come down to a sprint finish, with just two categories climbs to negotiate along the route and it was once again Max Walscheid who was the strongest to take his third victory of the week in China.
Max Walscheid said after the stage: “It was a great day of racing, everything went according to plan and I am delighted with my third victory in succession. The finale was a bit chaotic, but the team did a great job. We managed to stay together and the guys did another good lead-out for me. From 250 meters I started the sprint and it was harder than expected with the wind. It was a tight finish, but I am glad I got to the finish line first.
“Concerning tomorrow’s stage, it is going to be a hard with some climbs to overcome. However, I have got a fantastic team around me and we will see tomorrow.”
Tour of Hainan 2016 – stage 5 results:
| 1 | Max Walscheid (Giant-Alpecin) | 4:29:52 |
| 2 | Rafael Andriato (Wilier – Southeast) | ,, |
| 3 | Roberto Ferrari (Lampre-Merida) | ,, |
| 4 | Brenton Jones (Drapac) | ,, |
| 5 | Arman Kamyshev (Astana) | ,, |
| 6 | Simone Ponzi (CCC Sprandi Polkowice) | ,, |
| 7 | Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) | ,, |
| 8 | Andrea Pasqualon (Roth) | ,, |
| 9 | Zsolt Der (Vorarlberg) | ,, |
| 10 | Tino Thomel (RTS – Monton) | ,, |
