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Lloyd grabs yellow jersey at Tour de Qinghai Lake(Xinhua)Updated: 2007-07-19 08:37 Allan Davis won the fifth stage in Xining on Wednesday as his Discovery Channel team had expected, but the yellow jersey of the Tour de Qinghai Lake was temporarily owned by DFL's Daniel Lloyd.
Davis, 26, claimed the victory of the 115km mountainous stage in three hours six minutes and 57 seconds, followed tightly by Stybar Zdenek from Belgium's FID and the other 41 riders in the peloton.
"I didn't done well in the first half of the race. But my teammates helped me a lot after the climb," said Davis.
"Our aim was helping Allan to win the stage. We're happy for successfully achieving the goal," said Davis' teammate Li Fuyu.
According to Li, all riders except Davis from the UCI pro team squad managed to advance in the leading group since the start off. "He was dropped behind at first, so we tried to wait him during downhill," the 29-year-old Chinese said.
After chasing up his teammates with 25km to go, Davis was led by the dedicated squad until there was only 200 meters to go. Then, the leading sprinter made a great dash to win the stage.
"Li is a very great teammate. Today he showed that he was strong again," said Davis.
Li still kept the blue jersey standing for the Asian best rider. His overall result is 17:14:10, ranked 25th among 121 remaining competitors.
However, Davis failed to recapture the yellow jersey which he lost after the tough fourth stage. British Daniel edged Italian veteran Gabriele Missaglia to top the overall individual standings in 17:09:31.
"It's fantastic for me and the team," said the 26-year-old. "It's the first time we got the yellow jersey during the race this year. The team is strong and I hope I can keep the yellow jersey until the finish."
Lloyd, representing Giant Asia Racing team in 2006, finished a fine 4th overall at last year's Tour de Qinghai Lake, only seconds behind the winner, despite dedicating his efforts for team leader Hossein Askari.
"I came here to win," said the lanky cyclist. "I'm in good form."
Lloyd's DFL team was placed second in the team ranking, trailing Spain's Relax-Gam in five seconds.
Italian Sergio Barbero from Serramenti Pvc of Venezuela held the polka dot jersey by collecting 14 points from the King of Mountain sessions.
Davis kept the green jersey by leading the sprint with 62 points.
The riders are going to compete in the longest stage of the tour on Thursday. They will begin the 207.8km sixth stage from Xining to Minhe then back to Xining.
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