Myagmarsuren (Miga) Baasaankhuu and Anne Stegehuis kicked off China’s week-long 2019 Granfondo Yunnan stage race just the way they did last year, winning.

PROLOGUE FINISH AT SILVER PALACE © GRANFONDO YUNNAN

Both riders won the opening stage, an 8.6km prologue time trial finishing at spectacular Silver Palace.

With a men’s winning time of 14:08 the Mongolian Miga won by an impressive 22 seconds over American Josh Bauer and 24 in front of Russian Evgenii Vitmanovskii.

Having won the last 4 Granfondo Yunnan editions Miga is now focused on winning his 5th.

STEGEHUIS AT SIGN IN© GRANFONDO YUNNAN

In the women’s category Dutch rider Stegehuis rolled across the finish line in 17:08, 10 seconds ahead of Olivia Ghisoni from France with Canadian Marg Fedyna a few more seconds back.

With 1500 rider starting the prologue one-by-one at 30 second intervals, the streets of Mangshi were closed all day as 1000’s of cycling fans lined the course to cheer every racer, from first to last. Temperatures rose to 30C in the afternoon, making some riders opt to start early and beat the heat, but the heat did not slow down Miga and Stegehuis who started at 16:30.

STAGE 2 START © GRANFONDO YUNNAN

On stage 2 from Mangshi to Ruili, 130km along the beautiful boarder with Myamar, Miga won again with a decisive attack in the final kilometer to beat break-away companions and GC threats Erdenebat Bilguunjargal, Wu Yunfei and Josh Bauer.

MEN’S PODIUM STAGE 2 © GRANFONDO YUNNAN

Stegehuis was once again the strongest women, riding in the all-male front peloton to win stage 2 by over 9 minutes on her GC rivals – Chelsie Tan, Chi Zhaoyuan and Marg Fedyna.

STEGEHUIS CLAIMS STAGE 2 VICTORY© GRANFONDO YUNNAN

GRAN FONDO YUNNAN GC STANDINGS AFTER STAGE 2

MEN
1 Myagmarsuren Basaankhuu 2:39:03
2 Josh Bauer 2:39:39
3 吴云飞 Wu Yun Fei 2:40:03
4 Evgenii Vitmanovskii 2:40:29
5 李俊刚 Li Jun Gang 2:40:43
WOMEN
1 Annemiek Stegehuis 2:47:38
2 Marg Fedyna 2:56:54
3 Chelsie Tan Wei Shi 2:57:08
4 迟照元 Zhaoyuan Chi 2:57:13
5 杨丽萍 Yang Li Ping 2:59:39

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