Lloyd on the verge

By Steve Thomas

DFL-Cyclingnews.com's Daniel Lloyd scored two close second place finishes in the past few weeks - both times missing a win by one heartbreaking second. The Briton seems to be teetering on the verge of nabbing his first big win.

Lloyd had yet another close shave this week - this time he watched the back wheel of a flying David Millar ride away to victory in the British Road Race Championships. The duo had been away for a large chunk of the race and on the uphill sprint to the line, the flying Scotsman used his form from the recent Tour de France to power away to his first national title.

Just two weeks earlier, Lloyd had been on the other side of the globe battling for seconds in the Tour of Qinghai Lake deep in China while Millar had been fighting for stage wins in the Tour de France. Qinghai is a long way from the Tour in many aspects - both geographically and as a race, yet for an up and coming rider such as Lloyd, a win in Qinghai would have meant a lot. Instead, Lloyd found himself fighting for time bonuses against the experienced Italian veteran Gabriele Missaglia (Serramenti-Selle Italia) and coming up just one second short of the overall win.

The prominence of the Qinghai race increases every year, and it's now Asia's second highest ranked stage race (just behind the Tour de Langkawi). This year's race included a number of Pro Tour riders, and not to distant Tour contenders, such as Paco Mancebo (Relax-Gam), who finished in third spot overall - one spot behind Lloyd.

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