Tour of Sailimu Lake, Stage 2, Wenquan - Southen gate of Sailimu Lake

Today the total distance is 95K. The profile of the route was: going
slightly down for the first 30K, and for the next 30K, that's the
killer climbs - the altitude gain was about 900m to 1K within this
30K, and then all the way down to the finish for the last 35K.

Again the start was super fast up to a small hill, the pack already
splited before we reached the top. The pace was then steady until we
got into a tight corner. I guess some of the riders didn't even
realize that there's a turn in the front. And suddenly someone
crashed in that turn, and cause caused a string of reaction in the
pack. Our master of salad Miguel was one of the victims but not the
worst, just some slight rash. However, Jian Zhihang who was the GC
winner last year crashed on Miguel and his Zipp front wheel hit on
Miguel's helmet and literally broke into two pieces...

On the pack side, we started the climbing part of the stage. The pace
was fast at the beginning. Michael and I were trying hard to follow,
while Freddie felt really good staying near the front, and AJ in the
middle. The pace gradually slowed down as the leading riders were
tired a bit, which gave Michael and me the chance to deep breathe and
find the rythem.

When we hit the 50K mark, the hardest part came. The whole pack soon
splited into several small group. The muscal Michael and cramp-the-
first-day Kaiyuan couldn't hold the pace and dropped. Michael was
pushing and breathing hard, and I just tried to find the right gear
ratio, and I found out it's simply the lowest gear... My hands on the
top of bar and picked up the pace. Michael tried hard but had already
given everything.

I rode by myself, and gradually I could see the two rider in the front
and I was getting closer. When I reached the top of the hill, I was
really close to them and could see the numbers on their back. Then
zipped up, changed to the big chainring, I was going to get them.

The downhill was steep but no sharp turns - at least not for me. The
guys in the front seemed to be tired and was coasting... I got them
very easily and we worked with each other all the way to the finish.

For Freddie, he was in the second group in which there were other 10
riders. So Freddie decided to go by himself when there was 50K to go,
and he made it - stroke, no one followed, and TT to the finish, and he
got the 8th place!

This was the most beautiful stage of the whole race - we saw snow
covered mountain, sheep, cows, grassland and the beautiful Sailimu
Lake mirroring the blue sky and white cloud. So on the other hand,
it's not bad to ride not fast...

For the result of stage, AJ got the 21st, Kaiyuan 41st, Michael 47th
and Miguel 48th.

BTW, we are the most popular team in terms of local media coverage.
And pictures, video, and the interview have been online.

Today we stayed in the lakeside Mongolia tent in which there are 16
people... The night is freezing - zero degree outside

Tomorrow will be the TTT. By far our team ranked the 9th place out of
the 22 teams. And the 8th place is just 1 point higher than us, so we
will try to move up at least one position.

Hanging-on Kaiyuan, reporting from Sailimu Lake, Xinjiang

第二赛段的前十名成绩：{dy}名 98 张文龙 新疆车队；第二名 99 张瑞松 新疆车队；第三名 101 吴佩伦 新疆车队；第四名 100 赵宇箭 新疆车队；第五名 44号 张楠 精河鸿锦车队；第六名 97号 刘博 新疆车队；第七名 3号 周伟文 香港卓比奥斯单车队；第八名 21号 费德里克 上海链轮单车-Wilier车队；第九名 43号 简志航 精河鸿锦车队；第十名 25号 张振生 河南环球UCC车队。