FUZHOU, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- British cyclist Harry Tanfield from Bike Channel Canyon team clocked one hour 38 minutes and 47 seconds to win the opening stage of 2017 Tour of Quanzhou Bay on Saturday, wearing the first blue jersey of the 120,000 U.S. dollars event.
Initiated in 2016, the three-stage race is currently registered as a level 2.1 race of the International Cycling Union (UCI), with a total distance of 287.6km. The first stage of coastal 87.6km, starting at Chong Wu ancient town in southeast China's Fujian Province, set one climb at 30.4km and two sprints at 45.4km and 59.8km.
The 23-year-old Tanfield rode to the podiums with blue jersey as the leader of general individual classification. His teammate Rory Townsend hit the line the second and grabbed polka dot jersey as the king of mountains and green jersey as the best sprinter.
Tanfield told Xinhua it was his second time to ride in this tour. "Now the European races are finished and it is cold and snowy in England, so it is good to combat here," said the postgraduate student from Britain. "It's a good day to have the wind from behind most of the time. It'd be horrible if it came from the front."
"The gap we kept was good. We were pressing hard. When it got 30km to go, the gap began to come down, but we increased the gap a bit. The difficult part is the hills. Me and Rory we tried to keep calm and not to ride so hard on the climbs."
"Everyone was committed. We targeted the sprints and we did it. Thing couldn't be better," said the blue jersey owner.
Leung Ka Yu from Team of Hong Kong, China, timed at 1:39:50 to wear the red jersey as the best Chinese rider.
The second stage will come to the longest and hardest uphill ride with two sprints and three climbs through a distance of 111.4km in Anxi County.
