Tour of Beijing - October 11-15, 2013 - General Thread **Spoiler Tags Required**

dastardly00

Tour of Beijing, Friday 11th - Tuesday 15th October, 2013
The 3rd edition of the Tour of Beijing is the last UCI WorldTour race on this year's calendar. There are five stages, covering 836 kilometres. The main highlights will be a summit finish on Stage 4, and the traditional last day route from Tienanmen Square to the Bird's Nest Olympic Plaza in central Bejing. The official website can be found here. The start list is here.

Dan Martin (Garmin-Sharp) is the favourite for the race. Despite his crashes in the Vuelta and the World Championships, Dan's form has been very good. He finished 11th at Milan-Torino, and a very impressive 4th in Il Lombardia last week, despite crashing near the finish. Also, Dan finished 4th in the 2012 race so he seems to like this race. Interestingly, Dan is the highest ranked rider taking part in the Tour of Beijing this year. He could move up to 6th overall in the world rankings if he wins. Here's a link to UCI World Rankings.

Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) has won the previous two editions of the Tour of Beijing, but there isn't any time trial stage this year, so it's unlikely he'll make it three-in-a-row. Some of the other big contenders taking part are: the new World Champion Rui Costa (Movistar), who finished 11th here last year; Richie Porte (Sky) who is ranked 9th in the UCI standings; and Ivan Basso (Cannondale). It'll be interesting to see how Michael Rogers (Saxo-Tinkoff) performs, it's not often that he gets to lead the Saxo team. Juan Antonio Flecha (Vacansoleil-DCM) is sadly retiring after this race, but expect to see him on the attack pretty much every day! Matt Brammeier (Champion Systems) is in this race as well



Betting: D Martin 9/4; R Costa 7/1; R Gesink 8/1; R Porte 11/1; I Basso 12/1; C Betancur 12/1.

Live TV coverage on Eurosport and on the Tour of Beijing Youtube channel.

dastardly00

Live TV coverage on Eurosport1 at 7.45am, and on Youtube.
Highlights on Eurosport2 at 4.30pm and on Eurosport1 at 10pm.

AnotherView

For me its between Dan Martin, Ivan Basso (who looked tired at Giro launch on Monday and still had to fly to Beijing..must have just got there before the race) , Robert Gesink and Mick Rodgers

I think/hope Dan wins the queen's stage and overall and then goes on to win the Japan Cup

dastardly00

Stage 1 finished in a bunch sprint as expected. The Norwegian National Champion Thor Hushovd won, increasing his number of individual stage wins for 2013 to seven. Michael Matthews had the lead with less than 100 metres to go, but he faded and only finished 5th.

Results:
1. HUSHOVD Thor (BMC) 4:20:34
2. MEZGEC Luka (Argos - Shimano)
3. MAES Nikolas (Omega Pharma - Quick-Step)
4. PETACCHI Alessandro (Omega Pharma - Quick-Step)
5. MATTHEWS Michael (Orica GreenEDGE)

Dan and Matt finished safely in the peloton in 41st and 122nd place respectively.

GetWithIt

dastardly00 wrote: »

Interestingly, Dan is the highest ranked rider taking part in the Tour of Beijing this year. He could move up to 6th overall in the world rankings if he wins. Here's a link to UCI World Rankings.

And with it bring Ireland into the top 10 nations. Is there any significance to that for the World Championships next year?

dastardly00

GetWithIt wrote: »

And with it bring Ireland into the top 10 nations. Is there any significance to that for the World Championships next year?

Don't think it would have any significance for the 2014 World Champs since the rankings will be all reset at the start of the 2014 season. I'm open to correction though.

gordongekko

dastardly00 wrote: »

Don't think it would have any significance for the 2014 World Champs since the rankings will be all reset at the start of the 2014 season. I'm open to correction though.

it does seem to be a bit confusing but I think it counts to next season

he classification shal be drawn up per season, by adding the points won from the 1st October (15th October for the Europe Tour) until the 30th September (14th October for the Europe Tour) of the next year. The classification shal be drawn up on the 25th day of each month. Where applicable, the classification for preceding months shal be corected. The new classification shal come into force on the 1st day of the folowing month and remains valid until the end of the month.

pprendeville

Hoping to make stages 4 and 5 finish areas as I'm out here at the moment and also planning to do Sundays 门头沟山 (showing off my Chinese writing skills - employers take note) climb tomorrow to see what its like. Heard it's not overly tough but long.

dastardly00

^^^^^
Class!!!

Glass Prison 1214

A tweet from Dan 'Interesting life experience this morning. Chinese AntiDoping playing with my career. Luckily I was at front of 40 rider queue. #fustercluck'. Anyone know what this is about?

dewindygap

According to Matt Brammeier's tweet:

Matt Brammeier ‏@Mattbrammeier85 20h

7:30 wake up call for blood control. 45 riders waiting, 3 testers, 10mins each test & were leaving hotel 9:35. That's not to mention the...

at1withmyself

Last 2 hours from day 2 plus the sprint at the start from Day 1:

dastardly00

Results:

Cracking sprint finish from Bouhanni. FDJ let the other teams control the front of the peloton in the last couple of kilometres, but then out of nowhere Dominique Rollin led Bouhanni to the front with 200m to go. Bouhanni took over with 100m to go and he wasn't going to be overtaken. Sometimes you don't need a big train to win a sprint. One lead-out man will do.

1. Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ.fr) 4:59:49
2. Roberto Ferrari (Lampre-Merida)
3. Mitchell Docker (Orica-GreenEdge)
4. Matti Breschel (Saxo-Tinkoff)
5. Alessandro Petacchi (Omega Pharma-Quick Step)

Dan and Matt finished safely in the peloton in 53rd and 122nd place respectively.

pprendeville

Went up Miaofengshan today (or at least partially anyway). It's a great climb. Starts off at about 1-2% for a few km and then kicks up to 5-6% before getting to 8%. At this stage I turned around as it was getting late and cycling in the dark here is not very appealing. Tough climb and I can't see Tony Martin holding onto Dan's wheel or any other climber's wheel for that matter. There was still about 10km of the climb left when I turned around which I think tops off at around 1200m. Road is freshly surfaced and the scenery is beautiful. Leaves on trees just turning red, really pretty. Air quality isn't so great though. AQI of around 170 today so that isn't great for the lungs. When you're going full tilt I think it would be worse. Hopefully it rains tonight (few drops earlier but unlikely) or wind picks up and blows away smog.
http://www.strava.com/activities/88562219

https://app.box.com/s/k0jhny1zk0o69dquigv3
https://app.box.com/s/rhlwn7uilar7gzuncit8
https://app.box.com/s/f70rlbwp8hv79kqbmjvw

Beasty

Just watching today's highlights and what struck me was the complete lack of atmosphere. There was hardly anyone on the roadside until the last km or so, and even then it looked a bit like "rentacrowd" with mainly adults waving their Chinese flags

Is this really an example of true globalisation of the sport. You're over there pprederville - is it getting much publicity locally and do you feel as if there's a groundswell of support for the event?

happytramp

Beasty wrote: »

Just watching today's highlights and what struck me was the complete lack of atmosphere. There was hardly anyone on the roadside until the last km or so, and even then it looked a bit like "rentacrowd" with mainly adults waving their Chinese flags

Is this really an example of true globalisation of the sport. You're over there pprederville - is it getting much publicity locally and do you feel as if there's a groundswell of support for the event?

There seems to be some problem with the ambient sound which adds to the lack of atmosphere. It'll be interesting to see what sort of crowd presence (if any) appears on the mountain stage. Somehow I can't quite see them in their beer hats and underwear running alongside the riders.

Pudsy33

Is tomorrow the big climb?

dastardly00

Pudsy33 wrote: »

Is tomorrow the big climb?

Monday I think.

riparooo

Spent two hours this lunchtime watching the recorded stage 2.

By a long long distance this is the most boring race on the calender. No crowds, no scenery, no excitement. As an attempt to expand the sport it appears to me that it could do the opposite - I cant see this lasting - since its inception it just hasn't got any better.Its so weird that in in the capital city of the most populous country in the world there is literally a couple of thousand people who come out and watch a 200km, 6 hour race.

China has a lot of areas a lot prettier with more variable terrain than Beijing. The Chinese authorities/UCI really need to review this. By all means hold a week long multi stage race in China - but dump Beijing.

AnotherView

riparooo wrote: »

Spent two hours this lunchtime watching the recorded stage 2.

By a long long distance this is the most boring race on the calender. No crowds, no scenery, no excitement. As an attempt to expand the sport it appears to me that it could do the opposite - I cant see this lasting - since its inception it just hasn't got any better.Its so weird that in in the capital city of the most populous country in the world there is literally a couple of thousand people who come out and watch a 200km, 6 hour race.

China has a lot of areas a lot prettier with more variable terrain than Beijing. The Chinese authorities/UCI really need to review this. By all means hold a week long multi stage race in China - but dump Beijing.

I wonder that you lasted 2 hours watching it

Agree with the need to move outside Beijing.....could do further west and still include the great wall...

Chinese need more Chinese in the race to stir up some passion

pprendeville

Beasty wrote: »

Just watching today's highlights and what struck me was the complete lack of atmosphere. There was hardly anyone on the roadside until the last km or so, and even then it looked a bit like "rentacrowd" with mainly adults waving their Chinese flags

Is this really an example of true globalisation of the sport. You're over there pprederville - is it getting much publicity locally and do you feel as if there's a groundswell of support for the event?

Haven't seen any of the race so far due to college commitments so I can't really comment on the atmosphere but I'd imagine it's fairly low key. I haven't seen any advertising on billboards. I don't watch TV as the stuff they have on is dreadful (plus all in Chinese which is too hard at the moment but terrible anyway) so I don't know if they're covering it.

Cycling hasn't reached the stage here where it is recognised as a truly global and interesting sport among the masses. I'd say if I mentioned The Tour de France to people on the street here most people wouldn't have a clue. In saying that, the way I see things is that the Chinese (and possibly other Asians) don't really do mass sporting events like Europeans/Americans). It's just not in the culture. There's nothing like the Premiership here or The All Ireland (communism sucks the souls out of people and the legacy of that is still in play here). Other reasons being a lack of knowledge of sport in general, work commitments (typical work week here is Mon-Sat 8-6), expenses and inconvenience of getting from A-B. The Olympics probably made it seem like a great idea with all the interest in sport it generated but that was all a patriotic thing. Also, there is no successful Chinese cyclist that I know of (apart from Li Fuyu who tested positive a few years ago) who is successful. Can you imagine 150 Chinese/Asian riders coming to Ireland and a good Irish cycling club (good meaning well established in the cycling world but relatively unknown outside it) with 6 riders taking part in a tour of Ireland. Do you think the locals are going to line the roadside. Pretty unlikely and it seems to be the case here.

Think this tour is a legacy of Pat McQuaid and The Global Cycling Project(which according to an article on Cyclingnews is operating at a loss to the UCI) which seems to me to be a way of swinging elections which thankfully didn't work. It's probably a good idea but being run the wrong way. Develop the locals first so they are recognised in their own country as being successful, then work on bringing in outsiders. I know an Aussie guy, doesn't speak much Chinese but is on the organising committee so can't really get feedback from locals. Local knowledge is essential if you want an event to be successful. Also, the website doesn't have any Chinese on it so not really useful for the locals. The media company is Australian I believe. Not real incentive being offered to the Chinese in any form so why should they bother turning up. Definitely a "Rentacrowd".

dastardly00

I agree regarding lack of atmosphere and fans on the roadside.

However, the Chinese have gone bananas about 'Panda Corner' in today's stage They have created the 'Panda of the Mountain' (P.O.M.) for today. The first rider of the Cat.1 climb gets a free round of drinks for his team after the stage.

dastardly00

Less than 10km to go. Tony Martin has gone on the attack on the final descent. No one can follow him.

Edit: Tony Martin caught now.

happytramp

Dan looks absolutely thrilled with the Panda.

dastardly00

Stage 3 results:

Another superb sprint finish from Bouhanni in a reduced peloton.

1. BOUHANNI Nacer (FDJ) 4:08:15
2. MATTHEWS Michael (Orica GreenEDGE)
3. TSATEVITCH Alexey (Katusha)
4. VIVIANI Elia (Cannondale)
5. KOHLER Martin (BMC)

Dan finished 25th in the lead peloton along with all the other big GC boys. Although Zdenek Stybar (OPQS) and JC Peraud (AG2R) lost 14 and 43 seconds respectively. Matt Brammeier finished 98th, 54 seconds behind the winner.

4 DNFs today: Thomas de Gendt (Vacansoleil - DCM); Biao Liu (Champion System); Davide Cimolai (Lampre); and Michael Hepburn (Orica GreenEdge). Thor Hushovd (BMC) was a DNS.

dastardly00

Here's one to stick up on the mantelpiece :pac:

spoke2cun

Haven't seen any of this race yet apart from 20 minutes this morning. I was delighted when I heard Phil Ligget commentating on the youtube channel. The streaming worked perfectly. I don't have eurosport and find some of the internet sports channels are hit and miss regarding streaming. I was also pleased that Phil was commentating for itv4 for the tour de France and the vuelta. I find it hard to listen to the eurosport lads even when the streaming is going really well! So it'll be up early for youtube tomorrow morning!

Lusk_Doyle

spoke2cun wrote: »

Haven't seen any of this race yet apart from 20 minutes this morning. I was delighted when I heard Phil Ligget commentating on the youtube channel. The streaming worked perfectly. I don't have eurosport and find some of the internet sports channels are hit and miss regarding streaming. I was also pleased that Phil was commentating for itv4 for the tour de France and the vuelta. I find it hard to listen to the eurosport lads even when the streaming is going really well! So it'll be up early for youtube tomorrow morning!

I think that is the first time I've ever heard anyone picking Phil Ligget over any other commentator.

happytramp

Lusk_Doyle wrote: »

I think that is the first time I've ever heard anyone picking Phil Ligget over any other commentator.

Actually his commentary on that link wasn't too bad. The lack of road sound and the fact that he was doing it alone made it feel weird though.

dastardly00

Stage 4 is the mountain top finish and will decide the winner of the Tour of Beijing 2013. The final climb to the finish is 12.6km in length with an average gradient of 5.7%.



Betting: D Martin 13/8; R Gesink 6/1; R Costa 7/1; I Basso 10/1.

Live TV coverage on Eurosport1 from 7.45am and on the Tour of Beijing Youtube channel.

Glass Prison 1214

Really looking forward to this. I find it a bit weird just how strong of a favourite Dan Martin is, I know it suites him but the bookies have him way ahead while Porte is way back at 80/1, surely hes got a bit of a shot?

riparooo

Although tomorrow stage is clearly the decider I think it wont be as decisive as suggested. The climb is only 5.7% average with the steepest only 7%. So while the climb will wittle down to a select group its simply not steep enough for any of the climbers to be dropped.

I think that select groups of 10 - 20 including De Costa, Porte, Gesnik, Martin, Riblon, Basso and a half of dozen more. Alternatively one of the teams (Garmin maybe) beast it from the start and try shake off rival team mates and some of Martin's climbing challengers before the final climb.

I can see it being a sprint finish of these with the winner of the stage winning the GC on time bonuses.

Have to agree with former poster than Porte at 80/1 is a decent punt.

Koobcam

riparooo wrote: »

Although tomorrow stage is clearly the decider I think it wont be as decisive as suggested. The climb is only 5.7% average with the steepest only 7%. So while the climb will wittle down to a select group its simply not steep enough for any of the climbers to be dropped.

I think that select groups of 10 - 20 including De Costa, Porte, Gesnik, Martin, Riblon, Basso and a half of dozen more. Alternatively one of the teams (Garmin maybe) beast it from the start and try shake off rival team mates and some of Martin's climbing challengers before the final climb.

I can see it being a sprint finish of these with the winner of the stage winning the GC on time bonuses.

Have to agree with former poster than Porte at 80/1 is a decent punt.

I've been up this climb a fair few times (in Beijing most of the time since January). Starts off gently, first 6-7km at 2-3% (think this bit is before the start of the KOM), then kicks up into a proper climb (http://www.strava.com/segments/1342452). I think the steepest bits are around 9% or so, so there are a few good places for someone to have a go. There's a bit of a ramp with about 1.5-2km to go, on a bend which might be a decent place for someone to jump. I'd say it's a climb which allows for quite a few potential winners, I suppose Dan has as good a chance as anyone since he's a decent uphill sprinter and he has good form at the moment-probably be a select group rather than a solo win, but who knows really?

Koobcam

riparooo wrote: »

Spent two hours this lunchtime watching the recorded stage 2.

By a long long distance this is the most boring race on the calender. No crowds, no scenery, no excitement. As an attempt to expand the sport it appears to me that it could do the opposite - I cant see this lasting - since its inception it just hasn't got any better.Its so weird that in in the capital city of the most populous country in the world there is literally a couple of thousand people who come out and watch a 200km, 6 hour race.

China has a lot of areas a lot prettier with more variable terrain than Beijing. The Chinese authorities/UCI really need to review this. By all means hold a week long multi stage race in China - but dump Beijing.

I went along to the race yesterday with the other Pandas in the bus (think someone posted a picture somewhere on this thread). Once we got on to the course, maybe 15km before the 'Panda corner', the lack of spectators was obvious. Actually, there were hundreds of police, but hardly anyone else. In fairness, this climb is in the middle of nowhere, so it's probably to be expected. I think though most of the cycling fans in Beijing were probably on the Panda corner. The other thing is it took us more than two hours to drive from Beijing to the corner and another two and a half to get back, so I guess some people who might have come were put off by that as well. I think the lack of interest from the public plus the terrible air quality are big factors against the race. Then again, it is supposed to be something that helps develop the sport in China and I suppose if there was no race people might say the UCI was not trying.

Pudsy33

When does the YouTube stream start?

dastardly00

Pudsy33 wrote: »

When does the YouTube stream start?

It's working for me.

happytramp

Glass Prison 1214 wrote: »

while Porte is way back at 80/1, surely hes got a bit of a shot?

He lost 17min yesterday to a stage won by a sprinter so he's probably not in great shape.

dastardly00

About 10km to go. Belkin leading the peloton. Dan up near the front.

Pudsy33

YouTube not working

gordongekko

Pudsy33 wrote: »

YouTube not working

same for me

Morrisseeee

2 guys clipping off the front now & no sign of the chasers

Rovi

Dan M has brought the peloton back up to the escapees!

Morrisseeee

Dan looking good, nope he's in no mans land now with 2 movistar guys!

Morrisseeee

Brave brave effort by Dan !!

Glass Prison 1214

Dan was very impressive but he was outnumbered by Moviestar.

Captain Havoc

Dan only needed a tiny bit more in the tank. What was Rui Costa doing?

dastardly00

Dan was unlucky there. He was definitely the strongest rider. The amount that he caught up to Intxausti in the last kilometre was phenomenal. But he just ran out of road in the end. It was an impossible task in the end for Dan to control all the attacks.

Glass Prison 1214

It was a bit disappointing that right from the start of the climb there was no other Garmin riders there to assist him. If there had been it might have been different.

AnotherView

Yes...I was thinking that today and during the Vuelta. Dan Martin needs some teammates in the last kilometers of races......Teams win races and Garmin do not look too strong on climbs......not when you think of Sky, Movistar, Saxo, Belkin....Maybe Vaughters needs to buy some climbers .....or Dan needs to think of his future

dastardly00

Results:

Stage 4:
1. Benat Intxausti (Movistar) 3:43:26
2. Daniel Martin (Garmin-Sharp) @3"
3. David Lopez Sky (Procycling)
4. Rui Costa (Movistar) @6"
5. Romain Bardet (AG2R) @11"
6. Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step)
7. Jan Bakelants (Radioshack-Leopard) @13"
8. Rober Gesink (Belkin)
9. Ivan Basso (Cannondale)
10. Matthias Frank (BMC) @18"

General classification:
1. Benat Intxausti (Movistar) 17:11:50
2. Daniel Martin (Garmin-Sharp) @10"
3. David Lopez (Sky) @13"

dastardly00

Dan should also move up to 6th place now in the UCI World Rankings.