Welcome to stage 1 of the Tour of Beijing 2013. The weather looks good today. It's not too warm, a bit cloudy and the air quality is decent, which is as good as it can get in this region.

It takes a while, but eventually we get our first attack. Kamyshev (AST), Schnaidt (CSS) and McEvoy (TNE) form a small group of 3.


Nowak (CCC) tries to chase this group and catch up.


The sprinter teams don't seem to like the amount of riders ahead and speed up the pack.


After a while the pack realizes this is useless and lets the break gain.


The first intermediate sprint, 70km from the line, is won by Nowak. The gap is up to 4 minutes by now.


The pack, lead by Bardiani, FDJ and Sky, therefore decides to speed up. With 50km to go the lead is under 3 minutes already.


Schnaidt easily wins the second sprint, 40km from the line. The lead is just over 2 minutes.


For the first time in a while the break is in sight again for the pack, as with 20km to go the gap is just 1m13.


Drama in the pack! With 15km to go a mass crash occurs. Many major names are involved: Alinejad crashes in a corner and takes Costa, Dan Martin, Meersman, Bennati and many others with him.


No time to wait in the pack. The break is still ahead and the pace is kept high.


Over 100 riders are caught behind either due to crashing or due to being behind the crash.


The situation is even worse for Mexican Champion Juarez though, as he has to abandon as a consequence of the injuries caused by the crash.


With just under 10km to go the breakaway is caught. The pack doesn't slow down though.


A new crash in the pack, with 8km to go! It's not as massive as the previous one, but there seem to be some major victims. Gesink, Albasini and Kruopis are the most notable names.


The sprinter teams don't wait though and with 4km to go the sprint trains come to the front.


Van Winden abandons as a consequence of the second crash.


With 3km to go we have the following situation in front.

	Boasson Hagen
O'Callaghan	Hanzen
Brookes		Nizzolo
Bouhanni
Stromberg

The other sprinters seem out of contention.


With an incredible effort Renshaw, Dehaes and Viviani catch up. The question is though whether this has cost them too much energy.


With 1km to go most sprinters launch their sprints. Only Brookes and Hanzen wait.


A bit later Brookes and Hanzen launch as well. Stromberg and Viviani look strong though and have a higher speed.


Renshaw surprisingly comes to the front with a massive pace! With 500 meters to go Hagen is still in the lead, although it doesn't seem like that will last very long.


And indeed, with 300 meters to go Stromberg, who is the only one that can match Renshaw's speed, is leading with a good gap.


At the line

Stromberg wins. Renshaw comes 2nd, Hanzen completes the podium. Bouhanni and Viviani come 4th and 5th.

The two groups involved with the crashes have merged. Lead by Albasini they make it over the line almost 2 and a half minute later than Stromberg.

Cycleman123 wrote:
Also, is Pologne even finished yet?

Ollfardh wrote:
Here I was cheering Gesink avoided the crash, only to have him crash a few kilometrers later

Good job by Renshaw, but my GC expectations are gone now.

Drama in the pack! With 15km to go a mass crash occurs. Many major names are involved: Alinejad crashes in a corner and takes Costa, Dan Martin, Meersman, Bennati and many others with him.

knockout wrote:
Go kill that f***ing Iranian!