Cycling

Martin Lass celebrates his second win at the HCM City Television Cycling Tournament on April 11. Photo of Cycling News

VINH — Martin Lass secured his second win at the eighth stage of the HCM City Television Cycling Tournament on April 11.

Lass of 620 Châu Thới Vĩnh Long finished first in the 150km race from Sầm Sơn Beach of Thanh Hoá Province to Vinh City of Nghệ An in a time of 3hr 35.03min.

The Estonian cyclist was not in the leading eight who opened a strong attack and ran away from the whole peloton early in the competition.

But at the 30km mark, cyclists of Lộc Trời Group and Gạo Hạt Ngọc Trời sped up and pulled out of the second group to join the leading one.

Near the finish, Lass, former teammate off Tour de France's most stage winner Mark Cavendish, made supporters go wild with his furious pedalling that pushed him to cross the line first.

He was followed by Nguyễn Văn Bình of HCM City New Group and defending champion Petr Rikunov of Lộc Trời Group.

"Vĩnh Long are not strong in mountain climbing so we hope that our strong sprinting would help us to vie for the yellow jersey," said Lass.

"Rikunov is the best sprinter here and his strong point helped him win (last year). We have to try our best this year and I have pocketed second stage win," said Lass who won stage four last week.

After eight stages, Ivannov Timofei of HCM City Vinama was still on top of the overall ranking with total time of 14:17.17. Rikunov was close behind with only a nine-second gap. Igor Frolov of HCM City New Group was at third on 17:14.30.

The team's ranking was unchanged with HCM City Vinama, Lộc Trời Group and Le Fruit Đồng Nai the top three.

The ninth stage will be the longest one of 200km from Vinh to Đồng Hới City, Quảng Bình Province. VNS