Lyu Xianjing takes historic maiden victory


20-year-old Chinese mountain biker-turned-road-racer leads Tour of Fuzhou.

14th November, 2018 – Ku Liang, Fuzhou, China: Following his impressive fifth place overall in the Tour of Hainan, Lyu Xianjing of the Hengxiang Cycling Team – directed by China’s first ever WorldTour rider, Li Fuyu – took the first road race stage victory of his career. Lyu Xianjing outsprinted Kazakhstan’s Ilya Davidenok, Hanibal Tesfay of the Eritrean national team and Australia’s Ben Dyball atop the 10km long climb to Kuliang on Stage 1 of the 2018 Tour of Fuzhou. This is only the second international road race for the 20-year-old cross-country mountain bike specialist from the Yunnan province. He leads the Tour of Fuzhou by four seconds with four stages remaining.

After the finish, stage winner Lyu Xianjing said: “I’m very happy to win here today. My hard training and the experience I gained in my previous road race [the Tour of Hainan] have paid off. I had climbed to Kuliang before so I was confident in doing something good in this stage but I had no idea about the strength of my opponents. It was hard to evaluate the attacks of the other riders. I’m still new in the game. But today’s performance doesn’t mean I’ve reached the maximum of my capacities yet. I will continue to try and do my best in the next four stages.”

Statistic of the day
In seven editions and 23 stages of the Tour of Fuzhou contested so far, Lyu Xianjing is the second Chinese stage winner after Zhao Jingbiao, also from the Hengxiang team, who claimed Stage 3 to Jinzhou in 2016. Hong Kong’s Choi Ki Ho won the first edition overall and Stage 2 in 2012.
Statistic of the day
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