Tour of Qinghai Lake (HC), China

Winners, podium, distance, average speed

The Tour of Qinghai Lake is a highly rated professional bike race held around, of course, Qinghai Lake, China's largest inland body of salt water. Qinghai is a west-central province of the People's Republic of China. The Tour of Qinghai Lake is part of the UCI Asia Tour, one of the five UCI Continental Circuits (along with Europe, Africa, Oceania and Americas circuits). It was promoted to "HC" status in 2005.

The race is challenging because it takes place on the Tibetan Plateau, which has an average elevation of 3000 meters. Historically, it has featured some difficult climbing along with flatter stages that favor sprinters.

The race is held in mid-July, the same time as the Tour de France.

I suggest clicking on the 2009 edition link below for a lovely gallery of photographs.

More information about the Tour of Qinghai Lake

Year	1st Place	2nd Place	3rd Place	Distance	Average Speed km/hr
2002	Tom Danielson	Glen Chadwick	Xabier Tondo
2003	Damiano Cunego 26hr 5min 32sec	Ghader Mizbani	Wang Gou Zhang	1131 km	43.35
2004	Ryan Cox 29hr 51min 8sec	Ghader Mizbani	Jeff Louder	1292 km	43.28
2005	Martin Mares 30hr 2min 51sec	Kairat Baigudinov @ 1min 38sec	Valerio Agnoli @ 4min 19sec	1287.3 km	42.842
2006	Maarten Tjallingii 30hr 2min 56sec	Hossein Askari @ 1sec	Nacor Burgos @ 10sec	1309.3 km	43.572
2007	Gabriele Massaglia 31hr 47min 28sec	Daniel Lloyd @ 1sec	Francisco Mancebo @ 8sec	1332.9 km	41.926
2008	Tyler Hamilton 30hr 50min 38sec	Marek Rutkiewicz @ 10sec	Hossein Askari @ 1min 8sec	1352.6 km	43.85
2009	Andrey Mizurov 30hr 2min 24sec	Ghader Mizbani @ 1min 36sec	Mitja Mahoric @ 1min 40sec	1278.5 km	42.559
2010	Hossein Askari 26hr 54min 59sec	Radoslav Rogina @ 44sec	Kiel Reijnen @ 1min 19sec	1169.2 km	43.438
2011	Gregor Gazvoda 28hr 40min 28sec	Dmitriy Gruzdev @ 4sec	Mateusz Taciak @ 1min 2sec	1,282 km	44.709
2012	Hossein Alizadeh 41hr 43min 1sec	Cameron Wurf @ 9sec	Giovanny Manuel Baez @ s.t.	1,854.8 km	44.462
2013	Pourseyedigolakhour Mirsamad  46hr 20min 49sec	Yevgeny Nepomnyachshiy @ 42sec	Daniil Fominykh @ 1min 6sec	1,974 km	42.592
2014	Ilya Davidenok 51hr 39min 58sec	Mykhailo Kononenko @ 42sec	Thomas Vaubourzeix @ 43sec	2,219 km	42.949 km/hr
2015	Radoslav Rogina 46hr 53min 38sec	Hossein Alizadeh @ 3sec	Francisco Jarley Colorado @ 4sec	2,030 km	43.289 km/hr
2016	Sergiy Lagkuti 43hr 42min 58sec	Matej Mugerli @ 37sec	Vitaliy Buts @ 1min 0sec	1,916 km	43.828 km/hr
2017	Yonathan Monsalve 41hr 19min 30sec	Mauricio Ortega @ 20sec	Björn Thurau @ 24sec	1,802 km	43.606 km/hr
2018	Hernan Aguirre 42hr 16min 47sec	Hernando Bohorquez @ 1min 5sec	Radoslav Rogina @ 2min 35sec	1,841 km	43.543 km/hr
2019	Robinson Chalapud 37hr 18min 40sec	Oscar Sevilla @ 1min 44sec	Benjamin Dyball @ 2min 37sec	1,631 km	43.714 km/hr
2020	Race cancelled
2021	Zhishan Zhang 24hr 14min 59sec	Xin Peng @ 1min 2sec	Tiantian Hu @ 5min 16sec	993.1 km	40.953 km/hr
2022	Jiankun Liu 26hr 14min 17sec	Shishan Zhang @ 2min 53sec	Tutao Shen @ 3min 30sec	1,079 km	41.124 km/hr

More on the Tour of Qinghai Lake:

The Growth of Tour of Qinghai Lake

The race started modestly at UCI 2.5 class in 2002 in Qinghai Province, China, and held annually with steady improvements and climbed the ranks to the highest of 2.HC in 2005 till today. Qinghai Lake, literally means “Blue Lake”, is the largest salt water lake in China, lies about 151km west of the Qinghai capital city Xining located at 3,205 m (10,515 feet) above sea level in a depression of the Tibetan Plateau some 40 million years ago. TdQL today proved to be the most prestigious and biggest international professional cycling event in China with total prize money of US$300,000 in 2010.

As the name implies the tour normally starts in Xining and heads northwest to circle around Qinghai Lake, along the way riders will pass the well-known lofty Kunlun Mountain ranges in the south and Qilian Mountain in the north. Riders should therefore prepare themselves well to attack KOMs of around 3000-4000m high including 3 hors categories.  With more obstacles of thin air and cold wind plus sometimes rain the race will often turn into a very tough highland challenge as described by many as “The Highest Race in the World”.
On the bright side riders can also enjoy the beauty of this highland here which lies in its salty vastness and the remote peace that it instills. The colours that can be found around the lake are of purity and contrasts, from the deep yellows of oil seed rape against the cold blues of the lake to the dark green of distant mountains against the fluffy white clouds.

Highlights of the lake include the Bird Island, a peninsular in the westernmost part of the lake and the most impressive sight, especially in season. For most of the summer rare species can be seen here in great multitude. The cuisine at the lake is also of interest, composed of variations on a fish theme. Especially notable is the naked carp, whose tender flesh is served in most local restaurants and hostels.

The tour usually runs for 9 days in mid July where the weather is less severe for a total distance of around 1200km.  In 2010 it attracted 21 teams of 147 riders from all continents around the world comprising of 2 Pro Continental teams, 11 Continental teams, 7 National teams and one team from Hong Kong.  And the champion (GC) of 2010 Tour of Qinghai Lake was Hossein Askari from Tabiz Petrochemical Cycling Team (TPT), Iran, who has clocked 26.54.59 hrs. in total.
As the next edition is approaching near, the organizer is trying hard to make the 10th edition a very special and biggest ever. An early preparation is now underway to make sure that every detail will be taken care of. We look forward to seeing another page of a successful Tour of Qinghai Lake, “The Highest Race in the World”.

By Yanyong Charoenpong
27.1.2011