Tabriz Petrochemical Cycling Team

Mehdi Sohrabi (Tabriz Petrochemical) has taken out the final stage criterium in Xining to complete a tour to remember for his team. Sohrabi defeated Ruslan Tleubayev (Kazakhstan National Team) with the sprint points competition winner, Boris Shpilevskiy (Russian National Team), back in third place.

The tour has been won by Hossein Askari (Tabrz Petrochemical) who had a quiet day proudly wearing yellow around the street circuit with ample time to savour every moment of what is the greatest win of his career. Askari defeated Croatian Radoslav Rogina (Loborika) by 44 seconds with American Keil Reijnen (Jelly Belly) regaining third place a further 35 seconds back.

The affable Iranian finished second here in 2006 and third in 2008 and was delighted to finally win the top spot on the podium. “I am very happy, my team worked very well,” he said after the stage. “I have third, i have second, and now i have first,” he smiled. “I am also very happy for Mehdi to win the final stage, it is great for my team”, he added.

The tour wound up in sultry conditions around the streets of Xining before an estimated crowd of more than 50,000. On a fast and furious six kilometre circuit, breaks were almost impossible to organise. In the second half of the twelve lap race a small group of five riders managed to sneak away and open up a gap of around thirty seconds. Kun Jiang (China National Team), Vitaliy Kondrut (ISD-Neri), Thomas Rabou (Team Type 1), Gregor Gazvoda (Arbo KTM-Gebruder Weiss), and Joseph Cooper (Subway-Avanti) tried valiantly to escape the peloton’s clutches.

In the concluding laps the tour leader sent his charges to the front and at an average speed of 50.86 km/h the field was lapping at around six minutes and twenty five seconds. With a lap to go the peloton was all together and fans rushed to get vantage points. Riders spread out across the road on the run into the finish.

But it was the strength of Tabriz Petrochemical and their solidly-built speedster Mehdi Sohrabi that won the day. He took his second stage of the tour after winning on day six, a day which proved to be the definitive moment of the tour when he guided Askari into the yellow jersey.

Tabriz Petrochemical team manager Khatoun Abadi Azar Kazem was ecstatic as expected. “My team is about teamwork”, he said. “I am happy for Mehdi Sohrabi to win the stage but the yellow jersey was most important, I am very happy today”, he added. He hopes to take his team to France next month before returning for the Tour of China later in the year.

Their dominance of the race showed on the podium with Askari winning the best Asian rider classification as well as the overall tour, while teammate Ghader Mizbani won the King of the Mountains category and the team won the best Asian team and best team overall categories. Only Russian sprinter Boris Shpilevskiy could split Tabriz Petrochemical’s clean sweep by taking out the green jersey for the sprint point’s competition.

After nine days of racing the tour had seven different stage winners and there was something for everyone across its 1,171 kilometres. Some breathtaking scenery spread out across the country that had team support staff snap happy with their compact cameras. Thousands of people lined the race route and supported the event in a festival like manner. Security was never an issue with local police and members of the Chinese armed forces always on hand. The highest race in the world certainly is a unique event and holds a place on the racing calendar with plenty of respect.

So it’s Zaijaian (goodbye) from China.