Three in a row for Miga

As could be expected, Myagmarsuren Baasankhuu left the best for last at this year's edition of Granfondo Yunnan. The Mongolian scored a hattrick of wins in Lijiang and once again claimed the overall title of our event  at the 3200m high Maoniuping or Yak Plateau.

The last stage measured 102km and 2850 hm and was unique for China. The course included two climbs before a 30km long mountain descent with a kilometre of elevation loss to 1750m, before going back up to 3250m above sea level. After an attempt by Frenchman Nicolas Raybaud on the first climb of the day, Iderbold Bold stormed down the descent causing the bunch to split up. In the confusion after the end of the descent, Jamba put in a fierce attack and Miga followed. Yellow jersey Tugulduur Tuulkhangai was a bit late to react... and his two younger compatriots were gone. Jamba and Miga are on paper the best climbers of the Mongolian Panda team and therefore it became pretty clear that these two would not get caught again. We were just 10 km into the race.

Both worked together very well and took no chances in the descent. In the background, Teghsee was not having his best day and would in the end need to fight hard to keep third place in the GC. Jamba was almost 20 minutes down, but on a big mountain stage like this that is no luxury. Teghsee succeeded but only by a few minutes. Up front, Jamba had to let the more experienced Miga go at 8km before the finish. Miga had a relatively relaxed entry into the finish area and had ample time to celebrate his new victory in Yunnan. Jamba secured second, and minutes later Tugulduur would still get third place on the stage. Iderbold was fourth ahead of Pu Jinxue, the best Chinese rider in this year's Granfondo Yunnan. Nicolas Raybaud caught Teghsee towards the end and took seventh.

Tang Xin was clearly the best woman, although Canada's Marg Fedyna was battling hard. Zhou Qing was third.