Maarten Tjallingii of Skil-Shimano (SKS) was finally crowned champion of the Tour of Qinghai Lake yesterday, with a narrow one-second victory over arch-rival Hossein Askari of the Giant Racing Team (GNT).

Coming into the race with a Tour de Belgium victory earlier this month, Tjallingii gained a 21-second cushion over Askari after the eighth stage on Saturday, but was then given a 20-second fine as his team manager clashed with GNT's director during the race.

However, the 27-year-old from the Netherlands was able to hold off a scramble challenge from Askari and defend the tiny margin with a 15th finish on the 10 laps of an 8.4km street circuit in provincial capital Xining.

"I'm very happy to win my first race in China in this way," said Tjallingii. "It's a tough situation for me but now, one second is enough. I feel great."

Askari, who ranked second in the overall standings after nine stages, charged out of the peloton together with six other riders in the fourth lap and stretched his lead to one minute and 41 seconds, but he was caught by a group led by SKS' riders in the last lap.

Bogdan Bondrev of Inter-action (INT) won the stage with a strong sprint, Tobias Erler of GNT and SKS's Kenny Van Hummel shared second and third place.

Spanish rider Nacor Burgos of Relax-GAM (REG) holds the sprinter's green jersey and his team-mate Casarrubi Garcia kept the red one for the King of Mountain.

A disappointed Askari had the consolation of the blue jersey representing the best Asian rider.

Qinghai native Ma Haijun climbed to 25th overall, while Fang Xu and Jin Long, who compete for SKS, were 62 and 82.

(China Daily July 24, 2006)