Team Selle Italia's (CLM) climbing veteran Gabriele Massaglia held on in the final stage of the Tour of Qinghai Lake to win the overall yellow jersey by just one second yesterday.

The Italian burst into tears after edging out British Daniel Lloyd from team DFL Cyclingnews and Spain's Relax-Gam (REG) rider Mancebo Perez, who was eight seconds behind the leader.

"I am so excited to win the race as it's the first time to compete here," Massaglia rejoiced.

"Whether I win by one minute or one second, winning is the most important thing for me. I expected that it would be a hard race."

China's Ma Haijun celebrates after snaring the blue jersey in the last stage of the Tour of Qinghai Lake in Xining, Qinghai Province yesterday. Xinhua
 

Massaglia's team-mate and compatriot Sergio Barbero retained the polka dot jersey he held ahead of yesterday's 110km stage, a totally flat circuit route around the center of Xining, because it was this year's last.

Discovery Channel once again showed superior teamwork to claim its sixth stage victory at the world's highest cycling race as team rider Allan Davis dashed across the line first for the overall green jersey as the best speedster of all nine stages.

But Qinghai-born Chinese national rider Ma Haijun gave local fans the most to cheer about by winning the best Asian rider title.

The 22-year-old Ma surprisingly grabbed the blue jersey from fellow countryman Li Fuyu (Discovery) after Saturday's tough racing, a starkly contrasting stage that included 12 sharp curves and a peak altitude of 3448m.

Ma finished 19th and Li 21st in the overall standings.

"I'm proud of standing on the podium in front of the home crowd," said Ma, who has been training in the UCI World Cycling Center of Switzerland.

"It is a reward for my hard work. Every stage was tough.

"My aim is to win a stage at Tour de Qinghai Lake next year and improve my placing to top ten."

Team REG from Spain took the team championship followed by Czech's PSK Whirlpool Hradec Kralove and Poland's Inter-Action. The Venezuelan-registered CLM team finished fifth and Discovery sixth.

(China Daily July 23, 2007)