Tour of Beijing - 5th October to 9th October

[Anonymous]

Its happening, after threats of boycotts and various other nonsense, the inaugural Tour of Beijing is the last stage race event on the World Tour Calendar.

Stage One – Wednesday 5th October
Individual Time Trial – 11.3km
Bird’s Nest – Water Cube via Olympic Park circuit

Stage Two – Thursday 6th October
137km
Bird’s Nest to Men Tou Gou via North Gate of Summer Palace

 

[Anonymous]

Stage Three – Friday 7th October
162km
Men Tou Gou to Yong Ning Town via Thirteen Ming Tombs Reservoir

Stage Four – Saturday 8th October
189.5km
Yan Qing Gui Chuan Square to Shunyi Olympic Rowing and Canoeing Centre via Mutianyu Great Wall

Stage Five – Sunday 9th October
118km
Tian An Men Square to Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium

Startlist
despite being a World Tour event, most teams seem to be sending a B-Team with the main riders focussing on the Italian Classics.

Weather Forecast

Official Website

TV Coverage
Uk - Live on British Eurosport at an obscene hour in the morning (around 8.00am)
Europe - Delayed coverage on Eurosport International in the afternoon along with nightly highlights

 

[Anonymous]

Startlist
despite being a World Tour event, most teams seem to be sending a B-Team with the main riders focussing on the Italian Classics.

Weather Forecast

Official Website

TV Coverage
Uk - Live on British Eurosport at an obscene hour in the morning (around 8.00am)
Europe - Delayed coverage on Eurosport International in the afternoon along with nightly highlights

 

[Anonymous]

Personally, struggling to get any enthusiasm up for this one. Expect the crowds to be state organised, very polite flag wavers with about 3 levels of barriers between the riders and the crowd.

Pretty much every stage will come down to a sprint (assume there are time bonus's but nobody seems to know.

That said, im sure it will be the most organised efficient race of the season.

 

[Cult Classics]

I watched a DVD I found the other week of the Olympic road race. The crowd essentially consisted of an armed guard standing to attention every 500m or so and a group of hastily-assembled 'fans' somewhere near the finish line in matching clothes waving plastic flags. Gonna need quite a few more of those for a stage race...

 

[Moondance]

Okay, so 4kms @ ~6% on that final climb to Eppuliang in stage three... Survivable for any decent climber, especially given the 12k run-in to the finish.

Assuming Tony Martin wins the time trial, he's got the best papers FTW. Boni seconds could play a role here in the GC.

Real shame they weren't able to get the Great Wall cordoned off for this race. That was something like 5.5kms at @8% if memory serves. Maybe even a little longer. They screwed it up at the Olympics though by placing the finish near the bottom of the climb rather than the top, but whatever.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

That parcours is... not very exciting. I know it's the first edition and all, but with the likely sterile atmosphere of the fans, and the teams mostly sending B teams, it all feels rather like the teams care about as much as dim or myself.

The OP says the Tour of Beijing is the last event on the World Tour calendar... Lombardia isn't World Tour?!

Also, didn't they say they wanted this to be used as preparation for Lombardia - then they've given us only one stage that's even remotely possible to use for that purpose?

 

[Poursuivant]

Nasty despotic government... and the PRC are scum too..

 

[The Hitch]

So this is the event to which Euskaltel bring Samu Anton and Nieve to

No doubt some agreement her.

While they are at it, Samu might as well attempt that hill and descent, in the land of his greatest truimph, and Txurrukas only win also came in the Orient so if hes riding, why not give it a go.

I think stage 3 should be good because it might be raced kind of like a one day race, seeing as there's nothing else.

 

[AntonioRossi]

Lars Boom leader after stage 1

 

[LukeSchmid]

If stage 3 is raced hard and EE seems to have brought a team to do so then Samu Sanchez is the favourite. Others who might do well, LL Sanchez, Tony Martin, Chris Froome and maybe even Peter Sagan.
If stage 3 is a sprint finish then it depends on whether there is time bonus. Without them Tony Martin is favourite, Bobridge, Millar are the next to best TTers. If there is time bonus' then Sagan , Galimzyanov, Appollonio, Howard, Viviani might be in contention.

 

[LukeSchmid]

Lars Boom leader after stage 1

If Tony Martin gives it his best he might win, or even Bobridge, but Boom is the favourite I guess.

 

[The Hitch]

If Tony Martin gives it his best he might win, or even Bobridge, but Boom is the favourite I guess.

I think 11k is enough for Martin. He lost to Cancellara by only 10s in Rotterdam prologue which was 3k shorter. And the form hes on, i think hell make it.

 

[LukeSchmid]

I think 11k is enough for Martin. He lost to Cancellara by only 10s in Rotterdam prologue which was 3k shorter. And the form hes on, i think hell make it.

On reflection you are right, I was wrong.

 

[saunaking]

I just want to know where they came up with the climb categories. Should this not be universal? Or like most things made in China its the cheap 2nd rate version.

 

[meat puppet]

I just want to know where they came up with the climb categories. Should this not be universal? Or like most things made in China its the cheap 2nd rate version.

The ministry of love does not approve of such implying. You also hurt your keyboard's nationalist pride. Doubleplus shame on you.

I dunno, parts of the race could be exciting, sort of.

 

[Zam_Olyas]

The ministry of love does not approve of such implying. You also hurt your keyboard's nationalist pride. Doubleplus shame on you.

I dunno, parts of the race could be exciting, sort of.

yea, parts of it but i aint holding my breath

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I just want to know where they came up with the climb categories. Should this not be universal? Or like most things made in China its the cheap 2nd rate version.

Some races don't categorise climbs, others have different sets of categories. The Vuelta, for example, doesn't have 4th-category. The Giro didn't, until this year. Neither race have "Hors Catégorie", but both have a special prize for the highest point reached in the race regardless of difficulty of the climb.

Most smaller races seem to go with 3 categories, and then rate the climbs cat.1, 2 or 3 based on how difficult they are FOR THAT PARTICULAR RACE. Hence why Montée Laurent Jalabert was category 1 at Paris-Nice 2010, but category 2 at the Tour de France 2010.

 

[craig1985]

That parcours is... not very exciting. I know it's the first edition and all, but with the likely sterile atmosphere of the fans, and the teams mostly sending B teams, it all feels rather like the teams care about as much as dim or myself.

The OP says the Tour of Beijing is the last event on the World Tour calendar... Lombardia isn't World Tour?!

Also, didn't they say they wanted this to be used as preparation for Lombardia - then they've given us only one stage that's even remotely possible to use for that purpose?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_UCI_World_Tour

I thought it was part of this 'Historical Calendar' like what the TDF is ranked at.

I love China personally, but yeah the parcours isn't exactly inspiring. But it's not like in Qinghai Lake where it is at altitude.

 

[LaFleur]

Tanel Kangert will go for it on the hill if he has a good time trial.

 

[craig1985]

Peter Sagan is on the provisional startlist, I guess he will be up there FTW.

 

[Sylvester]

There are no time bonuses.

TourofBeijing Tour of Beijing

@pvdploeg @alainrumpf Hi Philip. The maps are online at tourofbeijing.net. The Roadbook will also be up shortly. No time bonuses.

 

[Sophistic]

You get as many WT points for winning this crap as for the Dauphine or Paris-Roubaix and more bonus points for the license ranking as for getting 2nd at the Vuelta...

 

[Anonymous]

There are no time bonuses.

TourofBeijing Tour of Beijing

@pvdploeg @alainrumpf Hi Philip. The maps are online at tourofbeijing.net. The Roadbook will also be up shortly. No time bonuses.

no time bonus's...

Ah well, may as well just give this one to Martin then.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I love China personally, but yeah the parcours isn't exactly inspiring. But it's not like in Qinghai Lake where it is at altitude.

I love Norway, doesn't mean that the Glava Tour of Norway managed to showcase anything like the best that the country offers.

I have no problem with China holding a race. I have a problem with the parcours of this race. We have enough races with similar looking profiles on the calendar.

Mind you, I don't know what the weather's like in Beijing at this kind of time, this could be an amazing profile for the time of year. But I'll remain skeptical.