Chinese rider Ma Haijun of China Marida Team (CMT) gave home fans a little consolation yesterday by a third-place finish in the 5th stage of the Tour of Qinghai Lake. The stage was held over 114km between Guide and Qinghai Province's capital Xining.

David Mccann of the Giant Racing Team (GNT) won the stage and Maarten Tjallingii of the Netherlands held the yellow jersey for the Skil-Shimano (SKS).

The sprinter's green jersey went to Nacor Burgos of Relax-GAM (REG) and his team-mate Casarrubi Garcia put on the red one, which represents the King of Mountain.

The GNT's Hossein Askari of Iran, who lost his leading position on the general rankings to Tjallingii on Tuesday, kept the blue jersey for the Best Asian Rider.

Ma, 21, who finished 10th at the fourth stage, moved up to No 30 on the 118-rider standings, is likely to improve the country's best record here since the race was elevated to 2.3 HC by the International Cycling Union in 2003. Wang Guozhang was ranked the 11th overall after all nine stages three years ago.

"I've done all that I can competing against the strong European riders, it's a very hard race for me," said Ma, a Qinghai native. "I expect to move up a bit in the coming stages and challenge Wang's record before the home fans."

Yesterday's stage was being held in the second-highest attitude section of the tour. The pinnacle reaches 3,820 metres. Ma had a chance to win the stage when he charged out the peleton mid-race but was caught by Mccann and Thomas Rabou of Marco Polo near the finish line.

China's national champion Li Fuyu was the second best home rider at 31 while Wu Shengjun of CMT ranked 53rd.

The GNT still tops the team's standings ahead of REG and Capec.

Today's 208 km sixth stage is the longest one in the race.

(China Daily July 20, 2006)