Cheung powers to first stage win for Hong Kong
Cheung King-wai registered the first victory for a Hong Kong rider in this year's Tour of Hong Kong Shanghai when he took the fourth stage in Fuyang yesterday. It was also Cheung's first stage win in a significant tour and was enough to earn him the overall leader's yellow jersey.
His efforts helped Hong Kong take the overall team lead, three seconds ahead of previous leaders Konica Minolta of South Africa.
The 23-year-old HSBC Hong Kong team rider broke away with Dennis van Niekerk of Team Konica Minolta during the final lap of the 132km race before outsprinting the South African.
Cheung (pictured) clocked three hours, two minutes and 43 seconds to complete the three-lap race in Zhejiang province and his accumulated time of 8:37:40 also put him on top of the overall standings. Van Niekerk is second, while fellow South African Christoff van Heerden dropped from first to third.
'We are very happy to finally make a breakthrough,' said Cheung. 'I broke away in the final stages, but it was my teammates who controlled the peloton so that no one could come up to challenge me.'
The 92.5km sixth stage starts today in Taicang, Jiangsu.
