One year later Henok Mulueberhan has returned to raise his arms to the sky at the Tour of Magnificent Qinghai. The Eritrean from XDS Astana team won the third stage, prevailing in a sprint over a group of 11 athletes. Second place went to Jonathan Caicedo (Wheeltop Rotor Chengdu Team) and third to Antonio Fagundez (Burgos Burpellet). Fifth position for Alex Tolio (Bardiani CSF 7 Saber), the best Italian of the day.

THE RACE. Third day of racing at the Tour of Magnificent Qinghai; the peloton departed from Menyuan where yesterday's stage ended to arrive in Huzhu after 168 km. A stage divided into two parts with all the climbs concentrated in the second half of the race where the ascents of Twelve Bends Slope and Beilonghsan were tackled, finishing still 20 km from the finish line.

Right after the start there were several attacks and, once the scramble ended, a breakaway of 8 athletes formed: Marcin Buzinski (MBH BANK CSB TELECOM FORT), Maxime Dubai (Azerion Villa Valkenburg), Augustus Max Campbell (Ccache x BodyWrap), Zeb Muffin (Terengganu Cycling Team), Gaoshang Noi (BodyWrap Ltwoo Cycling Team), Jonas Rapp and Markus Pajur (Fnix Scom Hengxiang Cycling Team) and Alexander Salby (Li Ning Star). The breakaway riders managed to gain a maximum advantage of 7 minutes over the peloton, which was led for several kilometers by the Polti Visit Malta team of the overall leader Gabriele Bessega.

The peloton tried to keep the attack under control, gradually reducing the gap. As expected, as soon as the first climb of the day began, the leading group literally exploded and soon only Jonas Rapp remained at the front.

In the peloton, Cristian Rodriguez was the first to attack while behind him the main group fragmented into small pieces and leader Bessega had to wave the white flag. Rapp's advantage gradually diminished while behind him a quartet formed consisting of Jon Agirre (Euskaltel Euskadi) and the Astana CDS team pair Rodriguez and Mulueberhan.

23 km from the finish, many athletes managed to rejoin the chasing group, including Alex Tolio. Jonas Rapp's solo attack ended 13 km from the finish line.

The XDS Astana team took advantage of their numerical superiority to execute excellent teamwork and thus Henok Mulueberhan was able to prevail in the sprint and claim the third stage of the Tour of Magnificent Qinghai.

Jonathan Caicedo, thanks to today's second place, is the new overall leader.

FINISHING ORDER

1 Mulueberhan Henok XDS Astana Team 3:33:08

2 Caicedo Jonathan Klever Wheeltop Rotor Chengdu Team ,,

3 Fagundez Eric Antoni Burgos Burpellet BH ,,

4 Castellon Jan Caja Rural - Seguros RGA ,,

5 Tolio Alex Bardiani CSF 7 Saber ,,

6 Fernández Samuel Caja Rural - Seguros RGA ,,

7 Agirre Jon Euskaltel - Euskadi ,,

8 Rapp Jonas FNIX - SCOM - Hengxiang Cycling Team ,,

9 Buchmann Emanuel Cofidis ,,

10 Rodríguez Cristián XDS Astana Team ,,