Today we saw a very fast criterium in Huzhu, China as pre-race for the Tour of Qinghai Lake. The race was on a smooth 5 km lap through the city with beautiful historical Chinese buildings as background. With only small and short break-aways during the race it seemed to become a mass sprint. But with 10 km to go it was Danial Abraham and Estifanos Gebresselassie that made a 4 rider break-away which grew to 16 riders, quickly taking more then half a minute on the peloton. The break did seem to have a chance, but somehow the cooperation was not good and the group lost tempo and got caught back.
So it came down to a field sprint and after 2 big crashes, one at only 500 meters to go, it was Boris Shiplevsky of Tabriz that won tis race ahead of Joaquin Sobrino from Caja Rural and FlyV's Aaron Kemps. Solomon Shiferaw who lost his good position at the first crash did still make it to a good 12th place in this star studded UCI category HC field.
Solomon Shiferaw after his 12th place in the criterium in Zhuzu, Qinghai, China. (photo: Remko Kramer)