Yellow shirt cross-Vietnam cycling tournament flaunts strength

The 162.5km-long route from Quang Binh to Hue ended with a convincing victory and the strength of Petr Rikunov - a Russian rookie fighting for the team of An Giang Loc Troi Group. "Rikunov will be the strongest candidate for the final Yellow Vest title," former driver Mai Nguyen Hung commented after the race.

First place after 3 hours 48 minutes 57 seconds with an average speed of 41,668km/h, Rikunov successfully defended both the Yellow Vest and the Blue Shirt holding them. He also increased the gap between bonus hours and points for the two titles, issuing a challenge to the reigning Yellow Vest Igor Frolov for the rest of the tournament.

At the beginning of the race this morning, the An Giang racers took control of the situation, and let the group of riders not have a chance to dispute the final rank to rush to win prizes along the way (sprint).

After that, the race started to be exciting when the Dong Nai cyclists one by one broke the top, but were caught up by the next team. About 10km from the finish line, the Ho Chi Minh City racers attacked continuously to break the unique position of An Giang. Minh Viet and Minh Quan, in turn, tried to leave, but could not escape. It was the turn of the reigning Yellow Vest Igor Frolov to "go out", but the bronzes did not understand the meaning to support him. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Rikunov attacked and dragged Loic Desriac, a foreign soldier of Domesco Dong Thap Pharmaceutical - separating the group.

Rikunov is a personal timekeeper, and Desriac has been the individual champion of timekeeping in the French U23 color. These two cyclists take turns to go together at high speed, up to 50k/h towards the finish line. Realizing that a minute of negligence affects the ability to contest titles, the drivers of Ho Chi Minh City at this time tried their best to chase the two leading racers, but it was too late.

At the finish line, Rikunov overcame Desriac to win the race for the second time this year. The racers of Ho Chi Minh City, despite their best efforts, only brought the latter group to the finish line seven seconds behind.

"Today was a great day for me and the whole team. Everyone did their job well," Rikunov said after finishing. "I have succeeded with the goal of attacking to the finish to release the pressure on my teammates. I am happy to play in a strong, united team and will try to play good results through each stage ahead. ".

The Russian rookie has increased the Golden Shirt bonus time with the second person, Pham Le Xuan Loc, to 28 seconds. He is also four points ahead of the second in the Blue Shirt title, Tran Tuan Kiet.

Other titles remain unchanged. Pham Le Xuan Loc (Military Zone 7) wears the best young racer in White. This cyclist also holds the Orange shirt for the Vietnamese racer with the best record. And Phan Hoang Bao Tin (Army) holds the Red Shirt of the climbing king.

Domesco Dong Thap is leading the team tournament, while An Giang Loc Troi Group is second and Military Region 7 is third.

Tomorrow, April 7, the race team will rest for the riders to recover, before racing the sixth stage, around the two bridges Truong Tien - Phu Xuan in Hue, 42km long on April 8.