TheManxMissile wrote:
You say we need points for budget... i say we'll sack everyone else to make the money... or just let Pinot go cause he's sucked ass all season

History

Whereas Beijing and the great wall have existed for centuries, 2013 sees only the third edition of the Tour of Beijing. In 2011 Tony Martin won the race, and in 2012 Tony Martin won the race.

The route

*2012 route has been used due to lack of 2013 route and the large similarity of both routes.


Stage 1 is flat and short. Mass sprint. Next


A hilly-ish stage. The climbs are long, but not very steep, so many sprinters should be able to survive. However, an early escape might make it today.


The Queen stage of this edition leads us towards the Great Wall. With a long climb to Badaling the climbers should be in favour today, at the possible decider of the race.


Another hilly-ish stage. A long downhill should give all sprinters the chance of coming back and sprinting for the win.


At the end we find a stage very similar to the second. The climb once again isn't very steep and most sprinters should hang on.

The riders

The Tour of Beijing has a growing popularity. Many strong riders are hoping to obtain the last WorldTour points of the season here. For the climb to Badaling, where the general classifcation will be decided, Joaquím Rodríguez arguably seems the strongest. With the support of Caruso, Vorganov, Paolini and Kolobnev he seems secure for the climbs though. Rigoberto Urán may have even stronger support though. With Sergio Henao, Bradley Wiggins and Edvald Boasson Hagen he seems secure as well. The question is whether he himself is strong enough though. The same goes for Daniel Martin who has an ideal helper in Ryder Hesjedal. With Vande Velde, Navardauskas and Morton by his side as well he surely will be a competitor here. Rui Costa will be another favourite here. He seems to have the weakest support of the top-4 competitors though, with Herrada, Teruel and Szmyd his strongest helpers for the difficult stages. Other competitors for the GC seem to be Cadel Evans, Robert Gesink, Jan Bakelants, Michael Albasini and Fabian Cancellara. However, it seems unlikely they will be stronger than the first four mentioned. The winner of the first two editions, Tony Martin, is highly unlikely to repeat his performance this time with this strong field.

However, the race doesn't just consist of hilly stages. The 3 flat stages should be very suitable for sprinters. The fastest man in this field seems to be the Brit Adrien Hanzen. However, it's questionable how much support he will get given the presence of Uran in the squad. Nacer Bouhanni therefore seems to be another likely option for the sprints. With support of Ladagnous, Offredo, Soupe and others he seems to be the key rider of this squad, instead of his lead climber Pinot. Giacomo Nizzolo seems another good option. He'll have experienced helpers in Danilo Hondo and Hayden Roulston and Alinejad should provide for a good, reliable lead-out, even after a tough race. Fabian Brookes is less likely to perform well here. With O'Callaghan as his only support anywhere it seems unlikely he'll do too well. Nicklas Stromberg hasn't shown very much so far, but with help of Navardauskas he surely can do something at least. Furthermore, some other sprinters could surprise us. Luka Mezgec, Elia Viviani and Daniele Bennati seem the likeliest for that, but even Dehaes, Markus, Pozzato, Meersman and Kruopis could do something.

Finally, we'll take a look at the home team, Champion System. With Christian de Vries they brought their strongest rider for this race. He won't have the strongest support though. Surprisingly Champion System, as a Chinese team, managed to bring 0 Chinese riders to this race.

Startlist

Conclusion

The riders make the race, together with the route. It's clear that we'll have some entertaining stages, and hopefully we will be able to say that about all stages. The race has its strongest startlist in its very long history, and hopefully for the locals especially the stars like Rodriguez and Cancellara won't let them down.

brewers90 wrote:
6 EPIC riders in the top 10 in Hainan! Dermot has really got to sort his climbing out. How can you be dropped when Kennedy and Abundi get top 10s?