"The stage today was short, fast and calm - the hard stage and all the emotions are all in front of us."

Those were the words of Astana's Bakhtiyar Kozhatayev after stage one at the Tour of Hainan. Kozhatayev, Dmitriy Gruzdev and Ruslan Tleubayev worked in the final 5km of the race to bring teammate Arman Kamyshev forward for a good position in the mass sprint at the end of the stage.

Kamyshev finished fifth in the stage near the outskirts of Vanin in the middle of China's tropical Hainan island behind stage winner Andrea Pallini of Italy.

Eight stages await the peloton on exotic vacation destination Hainan, including the decisive mountain stage next Tuesday.