Discovery Channel Marco Polo’s Sergey Kudentsov was regarded as chanceless in stage 5. The race headed into the hills and the sprinters would be dropped. Excactly that happened, but… Sergey hung on to the field longer then the other sprinters and his DCMP team mates were around him to bring him back. Especially Xing Yan Dong did a great job in this. They made it back and Sergey got 3rd in the bunch sprint that resulted. As Tour leader Galimzyanov lost more then 10 minutes, Sergey is in yellow now!

Stage 6 has a bigger mountain in it and very close to the finish, so chances are slim that Sergey can take the overall. The team will have to come up with plan B, or will Sergey show the unexpected again!? One never knows what can happen in a bike race!