The 5th stage of the Tour de Korea again saw the breakaway contest for the line honours as 5 riders arrived at the finish just 16 seconds ahead of the charging peloton. Michael Cuming (Rapha Condor JLT) was able to out sprint his breakaway companions in the tactical finale. Ying Hon Ronald Yeung (OCBC Singapore) was 2nd while our young South African, Johann van Zyl claimed 3rd spot.
The 5 rider move only went clear after 69km’s of racing today. Up until that point, racing had again been fast and furious with a number of attacks forcing a high speed early on. Once a slight gap was established by Cuming, Yeung, Van Zyl, Yuma Koishi (Vini Fantini Nippo) and Floris Goesinnen (Drapac), they were able to push their lead up to the 2’15” mark. This would prove to be enough though as they kept a high tempo right up until the final km.
It was only in the final kilometer really that any of the escapees decided take matters into their own hands. Last years Tour de Korea overall winner, Cuming would reign supreme though. In the pelotons sprint for 6th place, Kristian Sbaragli punctured with 1km to go. Luckily the Italian was able to sprint to 13th on his rim and so still kept the blue sprinters jersey. That was not the only Drama affecting Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung, with 200m to go a 17 rider pile up had our GC hope Dennis van Niekerk spewed across the road. Thankfully Van Niekerk could could still finish, riding away with only some minor cuts and bruises.
Rider – Johann van Zyl
The break today took quite a while to go, like around 60km’s and we had averaged 46km/h up until that stage. I got into the right move that eventually stuck to the end today. The Drapac rider attacked with 800m to go and i jumped first, my mistake there. As i caught him the pace dropped and Cuming counter attacked and got a gap which i couldn’t close. I had a decent ride but i am still a bit bummed on not getting a result.
Stage Results
Tour de Korea (Korea) – (8 June – 15 June/UCI 2.1) Team Lineup
Tomorrow’s Stage Profile
Stage 6 (13 June)
