Ireland’s Dan Martin took the fourth stage of the Tour of Beijing with an extraordinary uphill sprint yesterday, but Belgian Philippe Gilbert stayed just close enough to keep the overall lead.
Martin, who won the Tour of Lombardy earlier this month, struck in the last kilometer of the long climb up Miaofeng Mountain in Mentougou, after a series of attacks had been reeled in by the peloton.
He opened up a gap, but overnight leader Gilbert — who is not known as a climber — was kept in touch by his BMC teammates and crossed the line just 2 seconds behind the Garmin-Sharp rider.
With bonuses, that meant Martin rose to second place in the general classification, but was still 3 seconds behind the Belgian.
The 157km stage took place under clear skies in the hills north of Beijing, a contrast to the heavy pollution that forced Saturday’s second stage to be cut short.
Gilbert said he “gave everything” in the sprint to the line.
“It was very hard to close the gap to Martin, but he did a nice win,” he said.
Grand Tours
Reuters, PARIS
Tinkoff-Saxo’s proposal to pit cycling’s top-four Grand Tour riders against each other in the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana could provide a perfect platform to make the sport more attractive to a wider audience.
Last week, team owner Oleg Tinkov offered a US$1 million prize pool to be shared between Giro winner Nairo Quintana, Vuelta champion Alberto Contador, and the past two Tour de France winners, Chris Froome and Vincenzo Nibali, to battle for supremacy on all three Grand Tours.
However, the Russian businessman’s eccentric character meant that his proposal was generally met with a wry grin and considered something not to be taken too seriously.
Yesterday, team Tinkoff-Saxo chief executive officer Stefano Feltrin gave the project more substance, revealing that the team had actually approached rival outfits.
“This isn’t a joke or a publicity stunt. We are very serious about it and we feel it is a proposal that will help cycling move forward,” Feltrin said in a statement. “We first approached the other teams during the recent Vuelta and we are encouraged by the recent positive reaction to our idea. We look forward to further discussing it with the key stakeholders.”
“Team Movistar manager Eusebio Unzue said he thought it was a good idea, while Team Sky manager David Brailsford thinks it has a lot of merit,” Feltrin said.
Feltrin added that next year would be a good year to trial the scheme because there was “no major international sports event ... it might even be the biggest sports story next year and capture the attention of audiences that don’t usually follow cycling.”
It is unusual for top riders to take part in all three Grand Tours with a credible hope of prevailing in each one of them.
Six riders, including Contador and Nibali, have achieved a career hat-trick across the races, but nobody has managed to win all three in the same year.
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