Ho Chi Minh City Television Cycling Cup: 59 racers eliminated in Khanh Le Pass stage

Today (April 21), the 2025 Ho Chi Minh City Television Cycling Cup took place in stage 17 from Nha Trang to Da Lat with two passes, Khanh Le and Giang Ly, causing many disturbances in the rankings.

Cúp xe đạp truyền hình TP.HCM: 59 tay đua bị loại ở chặng vượt đèo Khánh Lê - Ảnh 1. — Racers try to conquer Khanh Le Pass, the most difficult stage of the Ho Chi Minh City Television Cycling Cup, causing 59 racers to be eliminated.

Khanh Le Pass is 29 km long, more than 1,600 m above sea level, where foreign riders with good climbing ability decided to attack. Mikhail Fokin (Loc Troi An Giang Group) and Savva Novikov (Binh Minh Binh Duong Plastic) were the two riders who showed great performance when they beat the remaining foreign riders to "race" to the top of Khanh Le Pass. Focusing on the number 1 goal of defending the yellow jersey, Mikhail Fokin accepted Savva Novikov's victory at Khanh Le and Giang Ly passes, thereby taking the title of red dot jersey - king of mountain climbing. Mikhail Fokin finished first in Da Lat City, successfully defending the yellow jersey title.

Cúp xe đạp truyền hình TP.HCM: 59 tay đua bị loại ở chặng vượt đèo Khánh Lê - Ảnh 2. — Savva Novikov won the red polka jersey - king of the mountain

Nguyen Hoang Sang (Le Fruit Maxxis Dong Nai ) focused on the goal of protecting the orange jersey for the Vietnamese racer with the best performance, so he stuck to his competitor Pham Le Xuan Loc (Military Zone 7) like a shadow. Also because of focusing on this goal, the Le Fruit Maxxis Dong Nai team accepted losing the first place in the team to the Loc Troi An Giang Group team.

Cúp xe đạp truyền hình TP.HCM: 59 tay đua bị loại ở chặng vượt đèo Khánh Lê - Ảnh 3. — Nguyen Hoang Sang successfully chased Pham Le Xuan Loc, maintaining the orange jersey title.

Green jersey holder Nick Kergozou (620 Vinh Long Agriculture Team) was at one point more than 18 km behind the leading group. The Vinh Long team had a lot of difficulty in protecting and bringing Nick Kergozou to the finish line within the time limit to defend the title. With great efforts, Nick Kergozou managed to finish within the time limit of 15%, more than 32 minutes behind the leader Mikhail Fokin, thereby successfully defending the green jersey title of sprint king. However, up to 59 riders were eliminated in this stage of the race because they dropped out midway or finished after the time limit.