Arman Kamyshev took his first professional victory when he won stage 3 of the Tour of Hainan. The win came as a surprise as he was expected to work as a lead-out man for Ruslan Tleubayev.

“We were all working for Ruslan today, but in a group sprint it’s always chaos," Arman Kamyshev who won stage three at the Tour of Hainan on Wednesday, said. "I found myself in the best position at the best moment and then found victory inside the chao.

Kamyshev and his teammates found themselves in the bright tropical sun, chasing a dangerous 5-man breakaway on a rolling course across three intermediate sprint points. With just a few kilometers to go two riders from the breakaway remained in front by nearly a minute, and Dmitriy Gruzdev and Andrey Zeits took to the front to close the gap and set up designated sprinter Ruslan Tleubayev for a shot at the sprint finish.

In the confusion and strong winds that met the peloton all day, Tleubayev found himself in a good position, but for the finish line Kamyshev was even better, and with no need to communicate, the two riders acknowledged their shared team interest and Kamyshev rode to victory.

“I felt better than him during the race”, said the 23 year old from Kazakhstan who was one of the best U23 riders in the world prior to joining the Pro Team last year with victories in Nations Cup races ZLM Tour and Ville de Saguenay under his belt. “This is the fourth time Astana comes to the Tour of Hainan. The organization is very good and this is a very important race for us as the only Asian Pro Team, so we’ll do our best to get more results than this one in the coming six days.”