After puncturing in the first 10km, South African Martin Wesemann put on a show of strength to fight his way back to third overall on the second day of the Tour of Korea on Monday.
After helping his MTN-Qhubeka team-mate Kristian Sbaragli to a win in the opening stage, it was now up to Wesemann to represent the team.
He rode with colleague Bradley Potgieter in the day’s 21-strong group to secure the African Professional Continental team’s second success in the 1 077km 2.2 UCI-rated race.
In a dramatic finale, the 29-year-old lost touch with the lead group at the 10km mark due to a puncture. But the experienced pro from Cape Town fought his way back into the race.
With 28km to go, Korea’s Yoonjong Seo (KSPO) attacked out of the group and quickly built up a gap. The local rider looked to be the sure winner, but the chasers, including Wesemann, reeled him in with 3km to go.
“Once the move got away, the rest of the teams looked to us to control the race. But, with this only being the second stage, we know there’s a lot of racing to come so we didn’t try to close everything down”, said an exhausted but happy Wesemann, who finished eighth on the day.
The victory on the 142km stage between Muju and Gumi went to American Eric Young (Optum), ahead of Korean Jimin Jung (KSPO) and Australian Jason Kerby (Christina Watches).
The new overall leader is Kinglok Cheung from Hong Kong, who rides in the colours of the China National Team.
