HAIKOU, China, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Italian cyclist Manuel Belletti from the Androni Giocattoli team won the fifth stage of the 2018 Tour of Hainan in Lingshui Li autonomous county, southern China's Hainan province, on Saturday, and put on the yellow jersey as the overall leader.
The fifth day of the road race concluded with the sprint of a large group. After a long ride of about five hours, Belletti grabbed the opportunity in the last 200 meters, secured another victory for his team.
"To win this stage is totally beyond my expectation", said the 33-year-old after the game, "before I came here I told myself that I just need to win one stage".
"Our team adopted a very successful strategy today, and took control of the game from the beginning to the end ", Belletti thanked his teammates for holding off attacks from other riders till the last 200 meters.
"All I need to do is to win the final sprint, I'm so proud that I didn't waste their efforts," he added.
The stage started from Wanning city in southeast Hainan to Lingshui via Qiongzhong Li and Miao autonomous county in central Hainan, covering a total distance of 178.4 kilometers.
Crossing the 1,519-meter-high Diaoluo Moutain, stage five is the first mountain stage of this nine-day tour. And China's Lyu Xianjing of the Hengxiang Cycling Team seized the polka-dot jersey after becoming the best climber, scoring 14 after three climbing points along the way.
"This is my first time to take part in a professional road cycling event, and there are many rules that I don't know," said Lyu, "for me the next plan is to learn more about how to play better on the road and I need to adjust myself to the differences between the mountain and the road."
The 2018 Tour of Hainan will run till Oct. 31 with nine stages for a total distance of 1,481 kilometers, featuring 20 teams to vie for a total award of around 350,000 U.S. dollars.
The next stage will be from Lingshui to Wuzhishan city, in south central Hainan.
