- Feb 20, 2010
- 32,363
- 13,935
- 28,180
In the sub-100km 17th stage, Lộc Trời once more took the responsibility of pacing despite Vinama holding the jersey, in their bid to win back time through the intermediate bonuses. This was successful after a fashion, but it meant that late in the stage when Frolov punctured, his domestiques were available and fresh enough to pull him back into the group, negating the benefits of those incremental time gaps. And with Frolov's lead still over a minute and a half, winning that time back in 3 second chunks is not going to suffice. Especially as this time, as on stage 2, Erdenebat Bilguunjargal was able to escape from the clutches of the péloton to take the solo win, and with Quàng Văn Cường and Nguyễn Tấn Hoài both duking out both the GC and the points jersey battle amongst themselves, it's a bit of a quandary for Lộc Trời as the pair are taking bonuses off one another, and with Nguyễn finishing 2nd on the stage, he moves to within 2 seconds of his teammate, with the pair occupying 2nd and 3rd on the GC.
Stage 18 was more typical fare, 130km and with a noteworthy mountain pass early on in the day, the đèo Cả climb. DDT were interested in sending outstanding young rider Phan Hoàng Thái up the road to collect points in the GPM, and he duly escaped to take the maximum, however to their chagrin Frolov seems intent on cannibalising the race, jumping from the péloton to take 2nd place and prevent Phan getting the polka dots back, holding a 2-point lead in the competition as a result.
Once the passes were dispensed with, however, things settled down to the usual fare of break compositions trying to form and Vinama managing the time gaps to keep Frolov safe at the head of proceedings. In the end, Quân Khu 7's Hà Văn Sơn managed to effect a solo breakaway, and, having lost a lot of time in the stage 12 mountain climb, Vinama were once more happy for him to take bonus second opportunities away from their rivals, as well as saving some energy for the stage 19 TTT. Even more to their liking was when Lộc Trời elected not to chase, also thinking about the TTT, and allowed a second rider, Hồ Ngọc Chánh, to ride across to Hà - even more strangely, this escapee rode for Gạo Hạt Ngọc Trời, the sister team of Lộc Trời! In the end, however, he had left it too late, and did not have enough time, once he had caught up with Hà Văn Sơn, to regather his strength for the sprint, and so the Vietnamese military-affiliated team registered its first win of this year's race.
Stage 18 was more typical fare, 130km and with a noteworthy mountain pass early on in the day, the đèo Cả climb. DDT were interested in sending outstanding young rider Phan Hoàng Thái up the road to collect points in the GPM, and he duly escaped to take the maximum, however to their chagrin Frolov seems intent on cannibalising the race, jumping from the péloton to take 2nd place and prevent Phan getting the polka dots back, holding a 2-point lead in the competition as a result.
Once the passes were dispensed with, however, things settled down to the usual fare of break compositions trying to form and Vinama managing the time gaps to keep Frolov safe at the head of proceedings. In the end, Quân Khu 7's Hà Văn Sơn managed to effect a solo breakaway, and, having lost a lot of time in the stage 12 mountain climb, Vinama were once more happy for him to take bonus second opportunities away from their rivals, as well as saving some energy for the stage 19 TTT. Even more to their liking was when Lộc Trời elected not to chase, also thinking about the TTT, and allowed a second rider, Hồ Ngọc Chánh, to ride across to Hà - even more strangely, this escapee rode for Gạo Hạt Ngọc Trời, the sister team of Lộc Trời! In the end, however, he had left it too late, and did not have enough time, once he had caught up with Hà Văn Sơn, to regather his strength for the sprint, and so the Vietnamese military-affiliated team registered its first win of this year's race.
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