The 13th Tour of South China Sea is on it way to be a historical event for the Champion System Team. In this UCI 2.2 event our team is currently on 4th on the Team Overall and today we had a podium finish with Alberto Blanco finishing 3rd in today’s stage.

It was a fast race from them start and a break of 22 riders got away. Our boys in orange and blue were not in the break and it was time to react. Alberto Blanco tried to bridge the gap but it was too much to handle, so Chad Butts and Gavi Epstein led the field and chased down the 22 bringing the field back together. Within seconds another attack came from the field and a splinter group of 9 formed including our own, Alberto Blanco.

It was a fast sprint to the finish and Alberto gave it his all and our first podium finish. It was a great performance with a true team effort from the Champion System Racing Team.

Results

The 13th Tour of South China Sea

Hong Kong, December 14-21, 2008

Stage 1 - December 14: Hong Kong circuit race, 80.5km

Results for Champion System Racing

Alberto Blanco – USA 10th Place

Brain Butts - USA 13th Place

Vladamir Esteves – DOM 21st Place

Chad Butts – USA 34th Place

Gavi Epstein – CAN 45th Place

Stage 2 - December 15: Shenzhen circuit race,

Alberto Blanco – USA 8th Place

Stage 3 - December 16: Dongguan circuit race,

Alberto Blanco – USA 3rd Place

Stage 4 - December 17: Foshan circuit race,

Stage 5 - December 18: Guangzhou circuit race,

Stage 6 - December 19: Zhongshan circuit race,

Stage 7 - December 20: Zhuhai circuit race,

Stage 8 - December 21: Macao circuit race,

Team Overall Classification

1 HSBC Hong Kong Team

2 China National Team

3 Hong Kong & Shanghai Sports Institute

4 Kraftgenie Cycling / Champion System Racing

5 Team Sports Club Macau

6 MNCF Cycling Team

7 Casa de Portugal de Macau-Crédito Agrícola

8 City of Perth Cycling Team

9 China PLA

10 Guangdong

11 SCAA

12 Jazysports-Beacon

13 Japan National Team

14 Champion System Bici

15 Stegcomputer-CKT-Cogeas

16 Macau-Beijing Selection

17 Colossi - CMS Team

URL: http://www.cyclingnews.com/road.php?id=road/2008/dec08/southchina08/southchina081