Ilya Davidenok wins the seventh Tour of Fuzhou overall.

18th November, 2018 – Yongtai, Fujian, China: Australia’s Kaden Groves of Mitchelton-BikeExchange claimed Stage 5 of the 7th Tour of Fuzhou in a much anticipated sprint finish. He beat China’s Zhang Zheng who created another surprise for the Hengxiang Cycling Team and Jasper Frahm of the German national team after the peloton caught the 9-man breakaway that included Eritrea’s Yakob Debesay, the rider lying fourth on GC with a deficit of 52 seconds. Kazakhstani Ilya Davidenok of Beijing XDS-Innova is the Tour of Fuzhou’s overall winner in Yongtai, ahead of Benjamin Dyball of St George and Lyu Xianjing, also from the Hengxiang Cycling Team. The latter remains the big sensation of the 2018 edition of the year’s final professional bike race, worldwide.
Stage 5 winner Kaden Groves said: “I was quite disappointed with second on Stage 2. I knew I was coming here with good legs. This Tour of Fuzhou being my last race of the year, I couldn’t have asked for any more than winning the last stage. I got hung up on the bridge in a crash. Once I clipped in, my team-mate Sam Jenner did most of my pacemaking to move back up to the front. Coming out of a technical finish with 1km to go, with the fast downhill, at 350 metres to go, I had good legs so I overtook the Germans. I had a big chain ring on today for the downhill finish. I’m delighted to have made it.”
Overall winner Ilya Davidenok said: “I am very, very happy. This is my second win in my career. My team gave their maximum today to save my jersey. We caught the Eritrean rider number 92 [breakaway rider Yakob Debesay]. For my team, winning the Tour of Fuzhou is the maximum.”
Statistic of the day
With Kaden Groves winning Stage 5, Australia becomes the nation with the second most stage wins at the Tour of Fuzhou. Out of 27 stages contested up to date, Iran leads the tally with 5, Australia has 4 (Stage 1 with Scott Sunderland in 2015, Stage 3 with Groves and Stage 4 with Jai Hindley in 2017 before this one); the Czech Republic following with 3.
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