ZHANGYE, Gansu, July 29 (Xinhua) -- Romanian road race champion Eduard Grosu doubled up to claim his third stage win at 17th Tour of Qinghai Lake on Sunday.
Nippo-Vini Fantini sprinter Grosu may have admittedly found it hard to adapt to the extreme elevation peaking at 4,120 meters during the first week of racing, but the 25-year-old Romanian earned his third sprint victory - and second straight - under 1500 meters on the eighth stage, a 237-kilometer ride from Qingshizui to Zhangye.
With two category 2 climbs averaging 3,700 meters above sea level inside the first 85 kilometers on the longest stage of the two-week, 13-stage UCI 2.HC Asia Tour event, Grosu quickly found himself falling off pace and needing to re-connect with his sprint rivals.
"I'm pretty happy because you know after the second climb the Manzana Postobon team did a very hard pace and I was dropped for like 300 meters from the top of the mountain," Grosu explained after taking the bunch sprint victory over the field. "I was the last sprinter to lose contact from the group, but in that moment I realised the legs were good."
Grosu, who also won the third stage, has admittedly learned from a late effort on the fifth stage that cost him what would have been another victory.
"In the final we put all the team in the front to work, and I was like fifth place in the last corner and like yesterday I started the sprint early, like 300 meters, and nobody passed me," said Grosu, who lifted the green points jersey from two-time stage runner-up Luca Pacioni with the win.
"I am very happy I already take green jersey and I want to take it to the final," he said.
Both the yellow leader's jersey and polka-dot mountains jersey is on lockdown by two-time stage winner Hernan Aguirre of Colombia.
The Manzana Postobon rider has a 1 minute 5 seconds advantage on general classification over teammate Hernando Bohorquez.
Only five sprint stages remain, starting with a 175-km undulating parcours from Jinchang to Wuwei before the race's only rest day on Tuesday.
