Discovery Channel Marco Polo-sprinter Sergey Kudentsov finished 3rd in the first stage of Hong Kong - Shanghai. Sergey was supported by a fresh and agressive team, which brought him into the last lap perfectly.
In the final sprint to the line, Sergey got locked in a bit and was just too late to pass Wong Kam Po and Park Sung Baek, that became second and first respectively.

The 70 km flat criterium, saw one serious break, which contained Thijs Zonneveld, but as many teams believed in their chances, the mass sprint was certain. US team Jelly Belly did most of the work in the field and looked confident, but their sprinter did not make the podium.

Two 'resting days' with big transfers do follow now, after which the race will recommence with two half stages: a 130 km road race and a 24(!) km criterium.

After a few weeks of relative rest and some smaller races, the team is active on two fronts again!

26th of July Loh, Hisanori, Joe, Brad and Rudi van Houts will race in the Belgium UCI race Internatie. It will be interesting to see how the new guys go and if Loh is back on track!

The same guys will line up for the Sparkassen Giro Pro race in Germany on 4th of August. They will be joined then, by Li Chao of China.

29th of July – 4th of August, Sergey, Robin, Thijs, Pol, Kenji and Xing Yan Dong will line up for Tour of Hong Kong – Shanghai. Sergey is in great shape, so should on the flat, short stages, we expect nothing less then wins. In the harder stages, especially from Robin and Thijs a lot is expected.

Oggi, Robin, Thijs, Pol, Xing Yan Dong and new man Zhang Li or Yutong will race the Beijing test event, which will be held on next year’s Olympic courses on 18-19th of August.

Sergey Kudentsov has won a Belgium kirmesse race in Hoegaerden, a town famous for its beer.

The race had 120 international participants and developed like many Belgium races do. A leading group of more then 10 riders that was attacked over and over again, untill a smaller split occurred, then there were attacks again and finally Sergey was left with the local favoutite, to fight it out between the two of them. When it became a sprint, everybody knew that the victory was ours.

Xing Yan Dong got 29th, Hisanori also finished the race and Loh had a mechanical problem.

Hopefully this is the start of a second part of the season with many wins!!

On thursday 5th of July, there was a 8-9 minute long report on the Discovery Channel Marco Polo team (focussing on Xing Yan Dong/Fuyu Li) in Dutch National TV program 1 Vandaag. The program can also be watched through internet:

Click on the picture to watch the video:

The Discovery Channel Marco Polo Team had good succes in Velm, Belgium. Robin Reid finished 3rd, Pol Nabben 5th and Bradley White 6th. Chinese Xing Yan Dong also made the top 10. In the past weeks in Europe we saw that Xing Yan Dong got used to racing here and his performance got better and better. Now he took a nice 9th place, soon maybe even better...

During the race the Dutch national television program "1 Vandaag" filmed the team and soon it will broadcast about the Discovery Channel Marco Polo Team and developments in Chinese cycling.