Tour of Hainan: Zanotti wins stage 8

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Marco Zanotti (Monkey Town) won stage 8 of the Tour of Hainan from a reduced peloton, taking full advantage of the absence of Jakub Mareczko (Wilier Triestina) and Martin Laas (Delko Marseille), who were unable to overcome the day's first difficulty.

It was a tight finish, with Zanotti squeezing out Marco Maronese (Bardiani CSF) and Emils Liepins (Delko Marseille), while Jacopo Mosca (Wilier Triestina) placed 7th on the stage to retain the lead with one day to go in the 12th Tour of Hainan.

"I came to Hainan without racing for three months but I trained well the mountains," Zanotti explained. "I'm not a sprinter like a few years ago anymore but in a smaller peloton like today, I can still have a say. Nowadays, there are sprinters like Mareczko who is almost unbeatable here, but on a harder course, I can still play my cards. I hadn't won a race for two years. I came close on several occasions but finally, I managed to unlock myself."

The first category climb out of Wuzhishan put several sprinters in difficulty in the early morning after the queen stage. Second and third on stage 7, Benjamin Prades (Ukyo) and Marc De Maar (Hengxiang) were among the most motivated attackers. Mosca felt the fatigue but the Wilier Triestina team kept him focused to bring him back in the main group. Zanotti won the KOM prize after 12 kilometres ahead of Patrick Schelling (Vorarlberg), Sam Crome (IsoWhey Sports-Swisswellness), De Maar and Prades, which was a strong indication of what was going to follow.

36 riders gathered at the front after 36 kilometres when Schelling opened a solo attack. At kilometre 55, he missed a move by Serghey Tvetcov (Jelly Belly), Andriy Vasylyuk (Kolss), Martin Schäppi (Switzerland) and best Asian rider Liu Jianpeng (Hengxiang), but he was prompt in rejoining the quartet before the KOM prize at km 126, which he duly won. Jai Hindley (Mitchelton-Scott) bridged the gap by himself to make it a front group of six riders. Tvetcov rode away 30km before the end. Schelling made it across but the duo was reined in with 6km to go.

Mosca commented: "I have to say a big thank you to my team, especially [Luca] Raggio, [Ilya] Koshevoy and a great [Alex] Turrin who have guided me since km 0. In the first hill, I was a bit in trouble. I didn't feel good. They brought me back and then, with the help of Bardiani who was interested to set up the sprint for Maronese, we managed to catch the breakaway that worried us a lot at some point."

Delko Marseille led the sprint for Liepins in Lingshui. "I thought I was going to win but there was some headwind in the last one hundred metres," the Latvian explained. "Two guys [Zanotti and Maronese] took my wheel and passed me within the last ten metres. I got a very good lead out, I sprinted well but I launched a bit too early due to this headwind. I'm not happy with this third place."

Winning the stage meant moving up to third place overall for Zanotti who is only seven seconds down on Mosca in the overall ranking before the conclusive stage. "I think it'll be very difficult to win GC," the Monkey Town rider said. "I expect a full bunch sprint finish tomorrow and there are stronger sprinters than me but I have to try because it's a great opportunity."

A tired Mareczko is thus forced to go for a sixth stage victory on Sunday to prevent Zanotti, his training partner from Brescia, from depriving Mosca, his teammate from Wilier Triestina, of the overall win.

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