YINCHUAN, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Spanish rider Daniel Lopez blitzed to take bunch sprint victory of the 12th stage of Tour of Qinghai Lake on fast Yinchuan city circuit on Friday.
The 24-year-old Spaniard stood atop the penultimate stage podium over Stage 9 winner and Turkish champion Onur Balkan (Torku-Sekerspor) and Englishman Jacob Hennessy (Mitchelton-BikeExchange) following the 107-kilometer circuit race containing a 40.44-km opener transitioning into five laps of 13.26km each.
"I'm so happy because it's the first professional win of my career and the first of the team in the 2018," said Lopez, who took second in a crash-marred Stage 10 final a day earlier.
"This is the way Burgos planned it. We pedalled it and, finally, we won. I need to thank a lot my team for the wonderful job today," he said.
With one stage remaining, Colombian Hernan Aguirre (Manzana Postobon) will enjoy the 13th and final stage as a ceremonial victory lap as he will wrap up both the yellow leader's jersey and polka-dot mountains jersey after taking both on the first of his two mountain stage wins.
Aguirre holds a 1-minute 5-second lead on general classification over fellow Colombian and Manzana teammate Hernando Bohorquez while 2015 race winner Radoslav Rogina (Adria Mobil) of Croatia in third (+2:35).
The green points jersey did switch backs as Italian Luca Pacioni (Wilier Triestina-Selle Italia), who was heavily scraped during the previous day's finish line crash, surrendered the points lead to Stage 2 winner Brenton Jones (Delko-Marseille Provence KTM), who has recorded a third- and two fourth-place results in Qinghai over the past two weeks.
"Letting out the frustration of coming from too far back in the sprint today, but doing enough to take the lead in the green jersey," posted the 26-year-old Australian on his official Instagram page. "One more day to go, the competition is tight, but I'm ready to fight."
Meanwhile, Kazakhstan's Ilya Davidenok (Beijing XDS-Innova) holds the blue jersey for 'Best Asian Rider' heading into the last day of racing - a 108-km circuit in Lanzhou featuring three intermediate sprints spread over seven 15.43-km laps.
