12th Tour of Qinghai Lake to kick off on July 7

The 12th Tour of Qinghai Lake will be held in Qinghai, Gansu and Ningxia from July 7 to 20, 2013. A total of 22 high-level teams from around the world will be participating in the competition.

The prize money for the Tour of Qinghai Lake has been raised to 700,000 U.S. dollars, the highest in Asia. To attract more high-level players, the organization committee decided to increase the total amount of the prize money from 600,000 to 700,000 U.S. dollars.

There are nearly 50 teams signing up for the 12th Tour of Qinghai Lake, setting the highest record in the tournament’s history. Of the 50 teams, 22 are initially confirmed, including one UCI Proteam (team of Tour of France), three Pro Continentals, 17 Intercontinental teams and one national team.

Tour of Qinghai competition will extend to Yinchuan, Ningxia Hui autonomous region for the first time. It will start from Xining city and end in Lanzhou city. The total distance is 3,075 kilometers, including 2,002 kilometers of race distance and 1,054 kilometers of transfer distance. The competition will take up to 14 days, with 13 stages and one day off (competition requirements). Of all the 13 stages, there will be 7.5 stages in Qinghai, 3.5 stages in Gansu and 2 stages in Ningxia.

The competition will go through several cities and regions, including Xining city, Haidong prefecture, Hainan prefecture, Haixi prefecture, Haibei prefecture, Zhangye city, Wuyi city, Baiyin city, Yinchuan city, Zhongwei city and Lanzhou city.

Race schedule
July 7 : 1st stage Xining Circuit Race (96.8km)
July 8: 2nd stage Huzhu-Guide (145km)
July 9: 3rd stage Guide-Qinghai Lake (147km)
July 10: 4th stage Qinghai Lake-Tianjun (228km)
July 11: 5th stage Tianjun-Xihaizhen (205km)
July 12: 6th stage Xihaizhen-Qilian (207km)
July 13: 7th stage Qilian (93.3km)
July 14: 8th stage Qilian-Zhangye (201km)
July 15: one day off
July 16: 9th stage Zhangye Circuit Race (161km)
July 17: 10th stage Wuwei-Jingtai (190km)
July 18: 11th stage Yinchuan (107km)
July 19: 12th stage Zhongwei (129.5km)
July 20: 13th stage Lanzhou Circuit Race (92km)

We recommend:
Zhang Yuqi, Wang Quanan get married	Super kittens that make you laugh	Never-seen photos of Madonna on display
"Low-carbon fashion" show held in China	Hold on to the last tattoo of Li people	11 most creative elevators in the world
World's most precious diamonds	Cute baby and his little bulldogs	Angelababy poses for VOGUE magazine