We're on the hit for home in Vietnam now, with the final mini-stage being a 51km crit (10x 5,1km) around the Xuân Lake in Đà Lạt, the traditional follow-up to the queen stage. It's a very scenic stage, as it's a beautiful city and who doesn't like a good mountains + lakes backdrop for a bike race? However, with the time gaps being herculean in the GC after the previous day's bloodbath, it wasn't an especially interesting one, with the yellow, polka dot and white jerseys all more or less sorted, and the points jersey becoming far less interesting now there is only the two Lộc Trời teammates in the hunt with the elimination of Trần Tuấn Kiệt and Lê Nguyệt Minh after they missed the time cut over Khanh Lê pass. However, they were still able to compete due to the rules of the HTV Cup, and promptly took 1st and 2nd respectively on the stage, and now that the time bonuses are of no further relevance, Nguyễn Tấn Hoài taking 3rd secures him a pretty good lead over his teammate in the points classification.
Stage 22, from Đà Lạt to Bảo Lộc, marked the final opportunity for any GC manoeuvres. The hopes of those still harbouring hopes of improving their GC position were buoyed by the unexpected downturn in the weather, as torrential rain welcomed the riders to the shortish but lumpy stage. Erdenebat Bilguunjargal was the first to attack on đèo Phú Hiệp, the last categorised climb of the race, but in the final few kilometres of the climb his attack was wound back as Konstantin Nekrasov sought to improve his position, being as he is just 24 seconds off the podium. He took the summit alone, but Frolov was keen to manage things lest his compatriot get out of sight and out of mind, and he wound back his fellow Russian allowing Võ Thanh An to escape and take the bonus seconds from the intermediate sprint as the ever-combative young rider fought away solo for some time. Nekrasov was again attacking late on and brought the local man back, but Loïc Désriac was alert and patrolled the front to make sure that Nekrasov couldn't gain significant time. The pace did splinter the group, as did a few crashes in the final kilometres with the largely downhill run-in and the wet roads proving treacherous, and in the end a small group got a few seconds to duke out the sprint amongst themselves, with Nguyễn Văn Bình - who had worn the white jersey from day 1 all the way to the Đà Lạt stage on the 20th competition day of the race but was then eliminated hors delais - rescuing his race somewhat with a completely unexpected success, outsprinting Nguyễn Tấn Hoài and taking his first career win.
It seems tomorrow's final stage will be largely ceremonial, as Quàng Văn Cường appears to have conceded in the battle for the points jersey, losing the battle for the lesser intermediate placings to Nguyễn Tấn Hoài, and then not bothering to sprint for the minor placings to keep the battle alive. Although Nekrasov got a couple of seconds' bonus, it seems the climb onto the podium will be beyond him.
Stage 22, from Đà Lạt to Bảo Lộc, marked the final opportunity for any GC manoeuvres. The hopes of those still harbouring hopes of improving their GC position were buoyed by the unexpected downturn in the weather, as torrential rain welcomed the riders to the shortish but lumpy stage. Erdenebat Bilguunjargal was the first to attack on đèo Phú Hiệp, the last categorised climb of the race, but in the final few kilometres of the climb his attack was wound back as Konstantin Nekrasov sought to improve his position, being as he is just 24 seconds off the podium. He took the summit alone, but Frolov was keen to manage things lest his compatriot get out of sight and out of mind, and he wound back his fellow Russian allowing Võ Thanh An to escape and take the bonus seconds from the intermediate sprint as the ever-combative young rider fought away solo for some time. Nekrasov was again attacking late on and brought the local man back, but Loïc Désriac was alert and patrolled the front to make sure that Nekrasov couldn't gain significant time. The pace did splinter the group, as did a few crashes in the final kilometres with the largely downhill run-in and the wet roads proving treacherous, and in the end a small group got a few seconds to duke out the sprint amongst themselves, with Nguyễn Văn Bình - who had worn the white jersey from day 1 all the way to the Đà Lạt stage on the 20th competition day of the race but was then eliminated hors delais - rescuing his race somewhat with a completely unexpected success, outsprinting Nguyễn Tấn Hoài and taking his first career win.
It seems tomorrow's final stage will be largely ceremonial, as Quàng Văn Cường appears to have conceded in the battle for the points jersey, losing the battle for the lesser intermediate placings to Nguyễn Tấn Hoài, and then not bothering to sprint for the minor placings to keep the battle alive. Although Nekrasov got a couple of seconds' bonus, it seems the climb onto the podium will be beyond him.
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