Tour of Qinghai Lake - 2.5

China, July 27 - August 3, 2002

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Stage 1 - July 27: Xining City ITT, 1.5 km

Australian team report

By Brian Stephens, AIS U23 coach

Soon after the finish of the Baby Giro we had a small mid season break and rebuild period. We decided on a 2 week training camp in Toluca, Mexico thanks to an agreement between the AIS and Mexican Sports Institute who jointly funded us and are now right in the centre of China in a place called Xining. The whole of this 8 day tour is between 2,200 meters and 4,000 meters altitude which is what we were training at in Mexico so the guys should be fairly well adjusted though still finding oxygen hard to come by. Australian, Glen Chadwick, is here as a guest rider with a composite team called Marco Polo.

Today was a short 1.5km prologue time trial and a 60.9km circuit race in Xining. Although about a quarter of the riders crashed in the prologue due to a fairly slippery road surface, our guys played it a bit safer and all stayed upright with David Pell coming in, in 13th place. The crowds were unbelievable for both the prologue and first stage with riders being mobbed wherever they went.

Results

1 Alex Lavalee (Can) Canada                    1.58.45
2 Marco Baggenstos (Swi) Switzerland           2.00.68
3 Ngai Ching Wong (HK) Hong Kong               2.01.36
4 Kam Po Wong (HK) Hong Kong                   2.01.39
5 Max Becker (Lux) Collstrop                   2.01.56
...
15 Geln Chadwick (Aus) Marco Polo              2.04.64
17 David Pell (Aus) AIS Australia              2.05.36
19 Ben Johnson (Aus) AIS Australia             2.05.46
37 Gene Bates (Aus) AIS Australia              2.06.40
38 Dave McPartland (Aus) AIS Australia         2.06.46
47 Simon Gerrans (Aus) AIS Australia           2.07.85
71 Adrian Laidler (Aus) AIS Australia          2.11.54