Jul 27th, 10. The Tour of Qinghai Lake, China was tougher than the Subway Avanti team expected, with the team taking time to acclimatise to racing at the extreme altitude.

The full team at the start of the tour ©Subway Avanti Pro Cycling

They knew the altitude and competition would be tough and they did what they could to acclimatise before they arrived in China.  

International based riders trained at altitude, while New Zealand riders did a programme of simulated altitude training.

With focused training, the team had their sights set on a stage win and two riders hoped to do well in the General Classification.

After the first day, however, they realised the altitude impact was beyond their expectations.  Two riders, Ryan Wills and Nick Lovegrove, were unlucky to finish outside the cut off time meaning they had no opportunity to adjust as the tour continued. Their tour was over.

Gastro issues caused by food and altitude made the climbing days even harder, especially for James Williamson, but the remaining five riders strengthened on and of the bike as the tour progressed.

Arguably their best stage was the final day's 66km circuit race - average speed 50.8km/h

"The boys have all come through well and raced hard in the final stage," Team Manager in China, Graeme Miller said after the final stage.

"I'm proud of how hard they worked in what was a very, very tough tour. Joe [Cooper] got in a key move and spent a good amount of time at the front of the final race and James [Williamson] finished strongly crossing the finish line in the lead bunch."

Sam Horgan was 9sec seconds off the winning time, closely followed by Eric Drower with Ian Smallman 50sec further back and followed by Cooper.

The tour was won by Hossein Askari (Tabrz Petrochemical). Askari fininshed 44sec ahead of Croatian Radoslav Rogina (Loborika) with American Keil Reijnen (Jelly Belly) in 3rd place 35sec behind Reijnen.

Eric Drower had the best General Classification ranking of the New Zealand UCI Continental team. He finished in 69th place +55m33s.  James Williamson had the honour of being the lanterne rouge, the last rider to complete the tour.

"It was a tour of attrition, with lots of challenges but I am proud of how the boys stuck to their task, dug deep and they will all be better for the experience," Miller said.

Related

• Tour of Qinghai Lake, China results