Yoshida wins final stage in Taiwan

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Hayato Yoshida of Shimano Racing came out as a surprise winner of the closing 52-km long criterium of the 25th Tour de Taiwan. He survived in a crash-marred final sprint where hot favorites Anuar Manan of Synergy Baku Cycling Project and Anthony Giacoppo of Huon Salmon-Genesys went down in the last corner. The 23 year old Japanese rider preceded on the line stage 6 winner Benjamin Giraud of La Pomme-Marseille and Patrick Shaw of Huon Salmon-Genesys. Drapac's Bernard Sulzberger retained the lead he took on the overall classification at the end of stage 4 in Taichung.

At the age of 29, Sulzberger finally became a winner in an era of Tasmanian cycling being dominated by Richie Porte and proved that he was worth more than his reputation of having been an inspiration for Matt Goss to take up cycling when they used to live in the same street of Launceston. "This is definitely the biggest win of my career", the Australian said. "This is a massive win for myself and for my team that has been 100% committed from when I had the jersey. They had won the Tour de Taiwan already last year [with Rhys Pollock], it's a big achievement to repeat that."

Tipped as a very promising rider ten years ago, Sulzberger has been right to keep his career running despite many hiccups that would have led many other riders to retirement. "Yeah, I've not had the best of luck with teams folding and crashes", he said. "This victory repays me for the difficult times I've had as a pro rider." His last international success was stage 6 of the 2009 Tour de Beauce when he raced for Fly V-Australia. He recently returned to a continental team of his country after spending a year with British outfit Raleigh-GAC. The winner of the 2013 Tour de Taiwan took the opportunity to send a message to his younger brother Wesley who is also looking for a long awaited success as he didn't get any since riding the 2010 GP Plumelec with FDJ.

"I've been talking to Wes every day of the Tour de Taiwan, he's very happy with me winning here", the elderly said. "I hope his turn is coming soon with a big achievement as well on the World Tour with Orica-GreenEdge."

The last stage of the Taiwanese event was a question of fights for positions on GC behind Sulzberger and for the win in the best Asian rider competition. By winning the first intermediate sprint, stage 1 winner Kirill Pozdnyakov of Synergy Baku Cycling Project secured his place in the final top 3 of the Tour de Taiwan but couldn't pass stage 5 winner Tsgabu Grmay of MTN-Qhubeka for second overall. The Ethiopian who impressed by his climbing abilities earlier two days ago showed a bit more of his talent as he managed to outsprint Pozdnyakov for third place in the second hot spot sprint, which was won by Terengganu's Saufi Mat Senan ahead of Hong Kong's Choi Ki Ho.

As he also came third in the third and last intermediate sprint, Saufi secured the blue jersey and the sixth place overall. "This is the first award of my career as best Asian rider in a stage race, it's a huge achievement", said the member of the Terengganu team that won the 2012 Asia Tour but had a quiet Le Tour de Langkawi on home soil. The LTdL – as they call it – became an efficient training platform for Malaysians who have performed well again in Taiwan with Shahrul Mat Amin winning stage 3 and Champion System's Adiq Hussainie coming second to Sulzberger in the points classification.

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