Stage 4 Yanqing - Mentougou Miaofeng Mountain 158.3 km
The stage starts in Yanqing, a city of about 100.000 people, located about 100 km northwest of Beijing center, in Yanqing District (Yánqìng Qū). The area contains the famous Badaling section of the Great Wall.
From Yanqing the route moves south into the hills northwest of Beijing City, finishing on Mount Miaofeng, The Mountain is famous for its many temples and shrines.
Today’s route is up and down all day, the first 120 km on relative soft waves with mild slopes, but the last 40 km a lot steeper climbs up to the finish at Mount Miaofeng
A beautiful day with a light breeze at the start line, even less wind closing in on Mount Miaofeng.
We still got a full peloton of 139 riders starting again today. KoM holder Visconti opens the race after about 2 km, Saggiorato counters.
There is relative limited fighting for the breakaway today, only one short lived attempt before Thaouta get away alone and joins the first group. They got 2’10 over the top of the early uncategorized climb.
There is 6 KoM points on the top of the only categorized climb today, additional 6 points at the finish. If Visconti can collect the first 6 points his overall KoM win should be safe, as KoM 2nd Le Gac is not likely to get anything today, and the last stage has just two cat. 4.
None of these riders is a threat to the GC, all more than 20 minutes behind.
On the climb up to the intermediate sprint, a short downhill section and we get the first crash today. Ortega, Biermans, Santoro and De Plus
Ortega very serious, he won’t be able to continue.
The breakaway passes the intermediate sprint with 1’56 Visconti Saggiorato Thaouta
Meiji - JR East, have been leading the peloton most of the time, holding the distance just under 3 minutes, but with 40 km left some of the other teams decide that it is time to reduce that gap, we now see Ji, Michely, Bauer, Moser, Canola, Kupfernagel and Baska taking the front and upping the pace a lot.
We are at the short but hard hill, just before the KoM climb, in the breakaway Thaouta can’t keep up with the harder pace now set by Saggiorato
In the peloton most of the top riders have moved closer to the front, but we see GC 16th Cyrile Thièry struggling very far back sitting protected by Molard
Thièry has done very well to sit at 16th in GC, not a huge surprise if he can’t keep that up.
We start the very hard categorized climb, 8.6 km at 7%. The breakaway has exactly 2 minutes
The situation of GC top 20 is approximately this:
GC20 Michely sitting in 3rd position, looks like he will be working as domestic for Di Maggio
In a group right behind the front we have GC1 Kinoshita, GC2 Ulissi, GC3 Froome, GC4 Anuar Aziz, GC6 Flügel, GC7 Di Maggio, GC9 Reichenbach, all with domestic and all inside the first 22 riders.
In this group also GC15 Vogt unprotected
About 25 position GC8 Kwiatkowski with GC5th Betancourt at wheel, neither of them with domestic at this point. Same goes for GC 18 Schachmann at Kwiatkowski left side.
About 30 position GC10 Boily at the wheel of Lay
About 60 position GC11 Lavery without help.
GC12 Caruso in 27 position close to Betancourt, protected by Terpstra
GC13 Levarlet in about 40 position unprotected. GC14 Mehr-Wenige side by side with Levarlet, GC17 Khalilikhosroshani close to these riders, also GC 19 Fumeaux close behind those riders.
GC16 Thièry, still very low at least 100 riders in front of him.
The pace in the pack takes its told between the less skilled climbers, most of the sprinters lost contact. Pack reduced to 94 riders.
Somewhat surprising it is now Berg Cycles leading the pack, Bauer, Portela and Schachmann at front.
5 km to the top, 25.7 to the finish line, Thaouta has been caught, Visconti and Saggiorato at 53”
Right behind the domestic lead, we got Kinoshita 4th, Froome 5th, Ulissi 6th, Gerdemann 7th, Flügel 8th, Anuar Aziz 9th, Di Maggio 10th, Vogt 11th, Canola 12th, Reichenbach 13th Reinhardt 14th, Shirota 15th, Betancourt 16th position.
Further back we can spot Thièry having improved a lot, now in about 50th position.
2 km to the top, breakaway at 51”
We have started to see stronger riders no longer able to hold on to the front, Grmay, Hatsuyama, Mollema, Belmokhtar, Feillu have all dropped, now sitting in a group 1’32 behind the pack.
Visconti attacks the KoM from 1.5 km, opening an 11” gap.
From the pack Serry and a bit later also Zingle attack.
Visconti has used too much too early, getting passed first by Saggiorato and later also Serry before the KoM. The fact that Visconti gets only 2 points at the climb, opens the possibility that he could lose the KoM, to Olivier Le Gac (theoretically also Tomohiro Kinoshita)
KoM Saggiorato Serry Visconti
Distance over the top 1’11 from Saggiorato to the bunch.
Over the top GC 18th Schachmann and GC 20th Michely drop out of the peloton, paying the price for having worked for their team leaders earlier at the stage.
Visconti have used all he had, he is not able to join Saggiorato and Serry.
Zingle has accelerated and joins the stage lead.
19 km to the line Visconti at 20” peloton at 1’15.
We hit the final climb 9 km left, distance 41” that should be far from enough.
Peloton 51 riders now, further back Schachmann at 1’35, Michely at 2’27.
Position in front of the pack is, Khalilikhosroshani, Shirota, Kinoshita, Zielinski, Malacarne, Froome, Portela, Ulissi, Flügel, Anuar Aziz
Side by side Canola, Vogt, Di Maggio
Behind them also side by side, Gerdemann, McEvoy, Fumeaux and Kung
Also Kwiatkowski, Betancourt and Caruso placed between the first 25-30 riders.
Boily Levarlet, Lavery and Thièry sitting between 35 and 40th, but worst of all GC riders now GC 14th Mehr-Wenige hanging as one of the last in the group.
8 km to the top distance from leaders to the pack, 56”
First attack on the GC, it is Flügel accelerating, quick to take his wheel Di Maggio
Also Anuar Aziz accelerated from the favorite group.
7.5 km to the top
The accelerations initiated by Flügel have fragmented the favorites onto smaller groups.
At front still Saggiorato, Serry and Zingle
At 12” Flügel and Di Maggio
At 23” Anuar Aziz and Ulissi
At 39” Froome and Kinoshita
At 59” Vogt, Betancourt and Boily
At 1’17 peloton 54 riders
7 km to the top
Flügel and Di Maggio have caught and now overtake the breakaway.
Also Anuar Aziz and Ulissi is just about to reach Saggiorato, Serry and Zingle
Froome and Kinoshita is slowly closing in 21” behind.
6.5 km to the top Di Maggio dosent rest, as soon as Froome and Kinoshita makes contact to the group he attack again. Flügel counter attack both opening gaps.
The favorite group that was created just 600-700 meters back, is now disintegrated again. While Di Maggio seems to have the best legs so far, Kinoshita still in the group of breakaway riders moving slow enough for also Vogt to join from behind.
This is an overview of the situation.
Di Maggio in front he got 6km to the top
At 8” Flügel
At 17” Ulissi with Anuar Aziz at wheel has also attacked
At 30” Froome now also starting to lay distance to the race leader
At 37” Kinoshita leading the group with Saggiorato, Serry Zingle and Vogt
At 51” Boily
At 56” Betancourt
At 1’17 a large peloton of 53 riders, we can spot Kwiatkowski, Reichenbach, Caruso, Levarlet, Mehr-Wenige in this group.
5 km to the top Di Maggio have increesed the distance to Flügel 12”
Also Ulissi losing a little extra time to the stage leader now 19”
First Froome and then Anuar Aziz have been caught from behind by Kinoshita, also Vogt and very impressive Zingle able to hang in here. They are all at 34”
At 1’08 Saggiorato, Serry
At 1’17” Boily and Betancourt
At 1’28 Kwiatkowski, Sanchez Gil, McEvoy and Levarlet
At 1’39 Reichenbach, Scheit, Mehr-Wenige and Rovny
At 1’49 Tanovitchii
At 1’55 Peloton 44 riders, Caruso, Barrio Venter, Teklit and many others.
4 km to the top
Di Maggio holds the distance to Flügel at 12”, but now Ulissi has made contact to Flügel’s rear wheel.
Group Kinoshita is at 47”, which means that the virtual race leader is now Ulissi even if we do not count eventual bonus seconds, the distance after yesterday’s stage was 31”.
Behind this group 8 riders have now joined forces at 1’29 Saggiorato, Serry, Boily, Betancourt, Kwiatkowski, Sanchez Gil, McEvoy and Levarlet
2.5 km to the top for Di Maggio
Flügel and Ulissi have lost additional time, now 19”
Froome, Anuar Aziz, Kinoshita and Vogt at 51”
The pace set by Froome was finaly too much for Zingle now at 1’09
Kwiatkowski as attacked from a larger group, now at 1’23
Reichenbach, Scheit, Mehr-Wenige have caught group Betancourt, 10 riders at 1’48
Di Maggio first under the red kite.
Further increasing his lead now 23” in front of Flügel and Ulissi
Froome and Kinoshita another 32” further back, the GC lead is still wide open.
Anuar Aziz and Vogt at 1’05
Kwiatkowski and Zingle at 1’30
Di Maggio wins at Miaofeng Mountain
Ulissi beats Flügel for 2nd, they lose 29”
Kinoshita 4th, Froome 5th, they lose 53” enough for Ulissi to take the race lead.
Vogt 6th and Anuar Aziz 7th losing 1’26
Kwiatkowski 8th at 1’43
A very tired Zingle just hold 9th in front of Betancourt winning the sprint for 10th.
In GC Diego Ulissi takes the lead pushing Tomohiro Kinoshita down to 2nd.
Cesare Di Maggio not only wins the stage but also moves from 7th to 4th.
Mario Vogt not only hold the youth but also moves of from 15th to 10th.
After looking bad early at the stage Cyrile Thiery came back and moved up from 16th to 15th also Jonathan Fumeaux and Jonathan McEvoy improved the GC today
Losing positions in GC today besides Kinoshita: Mohamed Shawal Anuar Aziz, Carlos Betancourt, David Boily, Philip Lavery, Damiano Caruso, Maximillian Schachmann, Behnam Khalilikhosroshani and Kim Michely
In the points Tomohiro Kinoshita still leading and not likely to lose it.
Giovanni Visconti leads the KoM but Olivier Le Gac will be able to take it tomorrow if he takes most of the points.
Generali – EDF leads the teams classification and Mario Vogt the youth, that will probably not change.
[C1] Tour of Beijing 
