Tour of Beijing - Stage 5 Guide

Stage Map: click here
Stage Profile: click here
Stage Itinerary: click here

As tends to be the case with stage races, the Tour winds up right in the heart of the capital city for the fifth and final stage; and with human habitation in the Beijing region stretching back a quarter of a million years (Homo erectus pekinensis - remember those chaps from Stage 2?) and the city having served as political and cultural centre of a country as vast as China for many centuries, there's a lot of history packed into the parcours.

A Polish monument to those murdered by the Chinese
Government in 1989 includes tank tracks on cobbles and,
representative of the Chinese people's lack of freedom,
a crushed bicycle.
(public domain image)

The roadbook once again gives a brief introduction, noting that when "tracing the history of Tiananmen Square, one cannot avoid mentioning the history and evolution of the ancient capital of Beijing." However, in this glossy  version of history, approved by a government that still bans all discussion of what happened, absolutely no mention is made of the year that made the Square infamous in the West: 1989 - when the government, afraid that peaceful, democratic protests were on the brink of becoming revolution, sent tanks and soldiers armed with assault rifles to attack unarmed civilians. 186 people are confirmed to have died - mostly on the streets nearby, rather than on the Square - but the true figure is still unknown. The Chinese government claims 241, but other estimates claim many more: according to Amnesty International, 1000; according to NATO, 7000; according to a document discovered following the fall of the Soviet Union, 10,000. The government in power in China today - the Communist Party of China - is still the same government that held power in 1989, and for all they now allow greater than ever before numbers of foreigners into the nation and make token nods towards democracy we should not forget that as recently as 2009, the 20th anniversary of the massacre, they still banned all protests, access by journalists to the Square and told all known dissidents in no uncertain terms to either leave Beijing or remain within their homes. Police shut down the Square and surrounding area during Stage 1, making fans pass through airport-style metal detectors and preventing large gatherings along the course, suggesting the security will be very tight during this stage. If protest disrupts proceedings, don't blame the protestors: some things are more important that a bike race.

The riders set out from the north-eastern corner of the Mao Zedong Memorial Hall (39°54'5.80"N 116°23'33.89"E), metres away from where the 10m tall, hastily-assembled Goddess of Democracy stood for five days before she was toppled by a tank and smashed to pieces by soldiers. It's a short neutral zone today, with the race well under way by the time the riders hit Chang An East Road after a loop around the Square and up to the southern approach to the Forbidden City. The Imperial Palace for almost five centures, the City covers 720,000 square metres and contains almost a thousand bstructures; many of them part of what UNESCO has declared the finest collection of preserved ancient wooden buildings in the world. Note that almost all of them having yellow roofs - yellow being the colour of the Emperor in ancient China, just as it is in cycling.

After passing by the grand hotels and Audi dealership that symbolise modern Beijing as much as the Forbidden City symbolises ancient Beijing, Chang An East crosses Dongdan North Street and becomes Jianguomen Inner Street before reaching the East 2nd Ring Road, then changes name again to Jianguomen Outer Street and runs for 2.28km to the East 3rd Ring Road. There are many very fine buildings - mostly modern but some old - on both sides of the road, one of the most imposing being the vast white edifice of the Beijing International Hotel topped by a revolving restaurant. A little further ahead on the right are the LG Twin Towers, the 20th tallest buildings in Beijing at 141m - stacked end on end, they'd still stop far short of the tip of the tallest, the China Central Television Tower which can be seen from the Forbidden City and stretches to 405m.

The Central Business District. The East 3rd Ring Road
heading north can be seen on the right and, under
construction, the China Central TV building.
(© CobbleCC CC3.0)

The race travels between the Central Business District skyscrapers, then underneath an elevated section of the East 3rd Ring Road and turns right to follow a slip road up onto the northbound lane. If you notice anything other than the China Central TV HQ building along the initial section of the road, you have excellent powers of observation - the structure is one of the most eye-catching buildings anywhere in the world and can easily distract attention from everything surrounding it. Rather than taking the standard vertical skyscraper shape, it features six vertical and horizontal sections and is one of the most ambitious architectural projects ever attempted. The shape seen from ground level has led to its nickname, first used by taxi drivers, of 大裤衩 - "the big boxer shorts."

After another 900m, the peloton pass to the left of the Solidify Lake Park with its traditional Chinese landscaping and temples looking somewhat at odds with the ultra-modern tall buildings surrounding it, then the Agricultural Museum a short while later before the route crosses the the wide Liangma River. The road bends to the left, passing over the Airport Expressway and a strangely, geometrically attractive interchange - at which point it becomes the North 3rd Ring Road East, soon bending left again and traveling underneath the Daguang Expressway. The peloton will continue for 2.9km, then arriving at a slip road leading up onto Beichen Road (39°58'2.46"N 116°23'28.63"E).

China Science and Technology Museum
(image courtesy of China-Tourist-Attractions.net)

On the left is a futuristic dome and a modern, spiral-shaped building, the two halls of the China Science and Technology Museum. A short way ahead, the race enters the Yuan Dynasty Capital City Wall Ruins Park, one of the very few places where Beijing's medieval defences can still be seen. Directly ahead, twin sculptures consisting of white marble bases with red top sections mark the entrance into the circuit 18km from the start on Beitucheng Road. It will be completed a total of twelve times with intermediate sprints beginning the second, sixth and ninth times the riders cross the finish line by the Water Cube.

Taking the road to the right of the sculptures, the riders continue north for 1.17km past the Yingdong Natatorium, more correctly known as the Ying Tung Natatorium after Henry Fok Ying Tung, a Beijing businessman who left a huge sum of cash so that the earlier buildings on the site - dating from the 1990 Asian Games - could be extended and developed to host some of the Olympics swimming events. They cross the North 4th Ring Road via the Beichen Bridge, then turn right onto the road immediately south of the Bird's Nest Stadium and follow part of the route used in the Stage 1 time trial in reverse, turning left after 390m for Hujing Road. 1.95km further on, they turn left onto Kehui South Road and continue for 520m west to another left onto Tianchen East Road. The finish line is in the same place as it was for Stage 1, 1.94km ahead at the East Gate of the Water Cube (39°59'26.97"N 116°23'7.86"E).

The Water Cube (public domain image)

For the first eleven circuits, the riders will continue straight over the finish line for 300m before turning left 82m later back onto Beichen Road, this time taking the carriageway to the west for 1.38km back over the North 4th Ring Road and as far as Beitucheng Road where they'll turn 180 degrees around the sculptures to begin a new circuit. Each complete circuit is 8km in length, which combined with the initial 18km section and final section to the finish line, the riders will have covered 118km at the end.

Tour of Beijing Preview, News and Guides

Tour of Beijing - Stage 4 Guide

Mutianyu (public domain image)

Stage Map: click here
Stage Profile: click here
Stage Itinerary: click here

The penultimate stage of this first ever Tour of Beijing is also the longest, covering 189.5km through the towns and countryside to the north of Beijing and makes two visits to the Great Wall - during the first, the riders will pass through the Wall at Huanghuacheng, where two stretches are joined by a dam; and at the second they'll leave the main route to complete a short circuit up to Mutianyu and back - the best-preserved, best-built and most spectacular of the several sections of defences forming the Wall as a whole. It ends at the Shunyi Rowing-Canoeing Centre with its several kilometres of lakes, rivers and white-water courses purpose-built for the Olympics.

The Guyaju Ruins in Yanqing County were once occupied
by the Kumo Xi, a tribe of fierce Mongolian warriors
(© pfctdayelise CC2.5)

The neutral zone begins at the Gui Chuan Square in Yanqing, capital town of Yanqing County - the exact route is, once again, not terribly clear from details in the roadbook. Having left the Square, the peloton travels east for a while along the Hubei Road before crossing the river and joining Binhe Road heading west at some unspecified point, we think most likely the Yongxi Highway crossing. Directions for the first 17km remain unclear - one road, the G101, doesn't seem to exist and is presumably a misprint for the G110. This, says the itinerary, should be followed until the beginning of a 1km section on Hubei Road again; but this appears to bear little correlation to either the road layout or what is shown on the official map. Since we need to get to Hunan Road, we think the most likely route would be to continue on Binhe Road as it crosses the G110, arriving at the S216 just over 0.5km later - the two roads are also known as the Jingyin and Old Jingyin Roads, making entirely feasible the idea of a route planner becoming confused. Turning right and then left 400m later brings the race onto Hunan East Road, with the stage's first intermediate sprint beginning some 500m later (40°27'15.67"N 115°59'33.15"E).

2km ahead, the route reaches what the roadbook states to be Yanqing Road but maps state is Yankang Road, turning left and then right at the next junction for Huanhu Road. We're now directed to find Kang Hang Road - trouble is, the road registered under that name is in Singapore - as we need to get to the S217, we assume the correct road is the one beginning at 40°26'58.84"N 115°57'34.54"E and ending at 40°26'33.87"N 115°52'42.83"E, where the peloton turn right towards another section of the G110 approximately 4km away followed by another unspecified route to find the X020 County Road (we think they'll turn left and travel west for a short way on the G110, then right and north on the X012 County Road and right again to continue east on the X020 - the official maps seem to support this). Somewhere along this road, with 51km covered since the end of the neutral zone, the second intermediate sprint begins. Towards the end of the road, we'll have excellent views of the mountains to the left, over 1000m high. Another not very clearly-pointed out section leads to the S232 road, apparently via the X026 - however, the X026 is a considerable distance away to the south in Beijing.

Mutianyu is 2.25km long and has 22 watchtowers. Whereas
other sections are built of bricks, earth and whatever was
available, here the structure is granite.
(© Fabian Dany CC2.5)

We then follow the S232 east, reaching the feed zone 97.5km from the start. Riders will want to take on board a decent amount of energy gels - attentive readers will have spotted the lack of climbs in the first half of this stage. The first, a Cat 3, starts 4.5km after the feed zone and, having already climbed for some distance, the riders will need to climb 132m in 2.5km to reach the top. The descent is long and fast.

We remain on the S232 as far as Sihaizhen where we turn right, right again and left to join Ansi Road, leading 20km to Huanghuachengcun (note that on the official Tour website, the village is misspelled Huang Hui Zhen). It's here that the race passes by the dam connecting two stretches of Great Wall. Since 2010, there have been numerous eyewitness reports made by people who claim to have seen a large, fiery object falling to Earth in the area on the night of October the 30th - this has, naturally, got UFO fans hot under to collar. Whatever the object was - indeed, if the object ever was - there have been no corresponding accounts of aircraft in trouble nor wreckage/craters on the mountainsides.

Now we join the X009, leading through Huanghuazhencun - the probable cause of the of the confusion a few kilometres previously). The second climb, 159m in 4km, is rated Cat 2 and begins 125km from the start - that category seems a little more than would be expected, suggesting that the road isn't of the best quality. It's also very twisty as it climbs and could potentially be dangerous if wet (or while being bombarded with mysterious fiery UFOs). The summit comes at the entrance to the Tuoling Tunnel (40°24'9.66"N 116°23'32.82"E) which, as tends to be the case with tunnels in rural China, is unlit - it's short, but the riders won't like it due to the hazard it presents.

Having emerged back into daylight, the race follows the road right and descends quickly through Sha Yu Village before arriving at Bohaizhen Bridge 3km later. The right turn onto it is tight, but the bridge is wide and of good quality so crashes are unlikely. Bohaizhen Town is around 1.6km ahead. The stage's final climb begins 3.5km later at a large roundabout (40°24'53.05"N 116°32'19.11"E) where the race turns left, entering the circuit up to Mutianyu (40°25'59.83"N 116°33'33.35"E) and back down again. It's remarkable that this section - which, as we mentioned earlier, is the best-preserved along the Wall's length - has survived so intact: in the years following the Cultural Revolution, the Maoist government declared the Wall to be a symbol of the nation's feudal past and encouraged the populace to help themselves to as much of the masonry as they could cart away, even demolishing some parts to assist them. Were it not for the craggy ridge followed by this section, its proximity to Beijing would almost certainly have ensured its destruction.

We at Cyclopunk do not believe in ghosts,
UFOs or any of that stuff. However, we
wouldn't hang around Mutianyu alone for
any length of time just in case.
(CC3.0)

As if the UFOs around the last section of wall weren't sufficient weirdness for one stage, this section is said to be haunted by the Mutianyu Phantom. A legend dating from just the late 1990s, the Phantom is said to be the ghost of a local woman killed by an explosion at the factory where she was employed making the trinkets still sold to tourists who visit the area. Her first victim was a German woman in 1997; her family reporting that the victim had mentioned seeing a woman dressed in black, with a black veil and white gloves, pointing at her several times throughout the day when they visited the Wall. Then, later in the day, the victim vanished and has  never been seen again. The next victim was another tourist named Benjamin Heffemburg - he too saw the mysterious woman in black, reporting his sightings to his family, and the next day was discovered dead in his hotel room - his body surrounded by shards of shattered glass. Several more disappearances have been blamed upon the Phantom, whom some locals now warn tourists to avoid at all costs. Since she only attacks foreigners, the locals are not afraid of her and as a result have been able to get close enough to have a better look (or have perhaps realised that there's nothing like a good ghost story to intrigue rich visitors), now explaining that her white gloves are in fact bandages and the veil hides a hideously deformed face.

The final intermediate sprint begins 13km after the summit, 167km into the race, then the peloton continue on the X009 as it becomes Huaisha Road and travels along the northern edge of Huairou Reservoir, arriving presently at a very large roundabout (40°20'7.79"N 116°37'28.62"E) where they'll turn right for Qingchun Road. Having followed it south to Nanhua Street, they turn left and follow the road around a bend to a wide bridge; taking the first left turn at the next roundabout for Huaichanglian Road and, after 1.73km, an interchange with a right turn onto Jingmi Road heading south - they'll follow this road for 13.27km through a number of further interchanges, rural areas and industrialised urban complexes until they reach the left-hand slip road leading down onto Baima Road (40°10'31.03"N 116°38'8.58"E), at which point they have 5km left.

Shunyi's entirely man-made white-water slalom course
is considered one of the most testing in the world
(© Gerry Boudens CC3.0)

Now traveling east, they soon cross Shun'an North Road with 3km left to go. The horse racing stadium passes by on the right, then Youdi Road and the Beijing Country Club golf course before the route crosses a wide bridge. The flamme rouge is on the bridge, marking the final kilometre, then the road bends very slightly right as we enter the final sprint - an last section for the sprint specialists up to the finish line by the plaza in front of the Shunyi Park (40°10'7.58"N 116°41'7.65"E).

All of our Tour of Beijing Stage Guides: click here

Concerns over Beijing air pollution ahead of Tour

It's a well-known fact that professional cyclists are paranoid about their health - they'll often use their elbows or a pen to press the buttons in a lift rather than get any sort of bacteria on their fingers and even the suggestion of a sneeze in a crowded room will have them running for an air-tight bunker. When even a minor infection can lead to poor results, sometimes enough to ruin an otherwise successful season, it's quite understandable.

Thus, it's no surprise that some have been getting more than a little worried about the condition of the air just ahead of the inaugural Tour of Beijing. The Chinese government, at great expense, arranged for factories upwind from the Olympic Stadium to be temporarily switched off and introduced measures to limit road traffic prior to the 2008 Games, thus creating the impression that they had done something about the country's notorious pollution problems. Some of those measures were retained after the Games, but satellite imagery and the still-limited numbers of foreigners who have been able to travel to areas usually off-limits have revealed that production is still considered very much more important than a healthy environment in those parts that the politicians prefer the rest of the world not to see. Prevailing winds from the south and south-east tend to create concentrations of air-borne toxins in the regions to the north of the city centre, prevented from dispersing by the mountains - right where much of the Tour is due to be held.

Beijing - a clear day and a smoggy day. Photographer Bobak Ha'Eri explains: "This is a pair of photos taken in Beijing (aka Peking) by me during a trip to the People's Republic of China in August 2005. I was in Beijing twice over a period of a week and a half, both times at the same hotel and in approximately the same room. The photo on the right was taken during a sunny, otherwise clear day on my first visit. The photo on the left was on my second visit, after it had rained for approximately 2 days. Both of these photos were taken in the morning around the 07:00-08:00 hour. The difference is staggering. I can say that during the day that I took the photo on the right, the air made walking around (and I did for miles) rather difficult." (© Bobak Ha'Eri CC2.5)

David Millar, in town with the Garmin-Cervelo team, reports via Twitter that he has "never seen smog like this. I'm reckoning just over 1km of visibility, kinda spooky. I actually like it, it's like a smoke-filled jazz club."

EarthTimes reported in March this year that air pollution levels in Beijing were literally off the scale - US Embassy staff, attempting to measure the scale of the problem using standard equipment capable of recording figures up to 500 API (Air Pollution Index, a simplified measure of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, suspended particulates, carbon monoxide and ozone in the air). However, the equipment used was unable to register the actual level, shown by subsequent investigation to be 595API. According to the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection, any figure of more than 300API rates as "severely polluted," warning that "healthy people will experience reduced endurance in activities. There may be strong irritations and symptoms and may trigger other illnesses. Elders and the sick should remain indoors and avoid exercise. Healthy individuals should avoid out door activities."

It's probably safe to say that, should conditions become that bad during the next week, the Tour will be disrupted by riders very sensibly refusing to race and insisting on staying indoors - or even going home.

Tour of Beijing - Stage 3

Stage Map: click here
Stage Profile: click here
Stage Itinerary: click here

After an initial stage so flat that wheel bearings from a broken hub wouldn't have rolled away and a Stage 2 that, with the exception of one small hill that was climbed four times, wasn't much different, thus far the inaugural Tour of Beijing hasn't really had much to offer for the climbing specialists. That changes today, because Stage 3 is the most mountainous in the race with one Category 2 and three Cat 1 climbs. Stage 4 briefly reaches higher altitude, but this is the one for the grimpeurs to grab the time they need for a respectable General Classification result - and, as is often the case with the most mountainous stage in any stage race, could prove the most important, perhaps even the stage on which the race is won. Due to the lack of information available on rural Chinese villages, we're unable to bring as a detailed a stage guide as we try to do for the European races - however, we've attempted to gather a much information about the course and points of interest along the route as possible.

The Western Hills

At 162km, it's also the second longest. It begins on  Men Tou Gou, where we'll be treated to a performance of traditional Taiping drumming and folk dance, then follows the final section of yesterday's stage in reverse to the end of the neutral zone Chengzhi Road ( 39°58'24.41"N 116° 5'31.48"E), continuing onward and past the Danli Tunnel to the G109 road. The Western Hills attract tourists from all across China and beyond, and as soon as we pass by the tunnel it becomes apparent why this should be - despite the industry down in the valley on the left, the route immediately feels rural as the urban sprawl of Beijing is obscured by a steep incline on the right. It becomes steeper still 2.2km ahead, the green flanks towering some 400m above the road.

Many of the roads along this stage are used frequently by trucks, making them potentially hazardous due to spilled diesel. This is especially true here, as the region still supplies large quantities of coal and other raw materials to the capital.The riders need to stay right, following the road as it leads by the village - note how densely packed the houses are, jammed in right up against one another with only narrow passageways between and the merest scraps for those that have any garden at all. It seems a strange and uncomfortable way to live to Western eyes, but it's the spacious luxury apartments in the skyscrapers of Beijing that seem strange to the vast majority of the Chinese population, most of whom live in villages like this.

We pass by more industrial units on the other side of the village, then turn a medium tight right-hander 600m later. The trees to the hillside to the right will have largely secured the topsoil and rock, but the scree on the left shows that landslides are not unknown here - there may be mud and gravel on the road, especially after rain. The road then sweeps left and arrives at a crossroads with a large slap of rock bearing Chinese characters erected on the right - the first climb, Cat 2, begins at this point (40° 0'26.26"N 115°59'24.87"E) as the race crosses the new, wide bridge just to the right of  much older and narrower one. The road narrows dramatically right after the right-hand bend on the other side of the bridge, possibly causing problems if the peloton is unable to spread out along the road sufficiently quickly - crashes are likely here, not helped by the steep slope on the left. There's a tight right bend 270m later, followed by a tighter left 168m after that. The final 384m section to the top of the climb at 415m (40° 0'23.85"N 115°57'56.53"E) becomes gradually steeper until it reaches the summit just before the road enters Dongfanghong Tunnel.

Dingfanghong Tunnel. Lovely!
(© Seektan CC2.0)

It's a well-known fact that cyclists tend to have a very great dislike of unlit tunnels - after all, riding through such a confined space in a peloton is pretty much the stuff of nightmares. Dongfanghong is lit, but in the rural China sense of the word. In other words, it's a dark and forbidding hole with a few dim lamps strung along the side that bears little resemblance to the clean, ventilated and brightly-lit tunnels that can be found in most of Europe, and the riders aren't going to like it in the slightest. Perhaps they'll consider what it's like when shared with thundering trucks, as it must be when the local cyclists use it on their mountain training rides, and think themselves fortunate in comparison.

The road on the other side of the tunnel is one of the best in the race, wriggling around the contours and forming eighteen tight bends on the way into Anjiazhuangcun. The second climb, a Cat 1, begins at 33km and is followed by an uphill sprint 17km after the summit at 60km before the route continues north into the Xi Mountains. The second sprint is 23km ahead, followed by a descent marked as hazardous due to steepness in the road book. Resulting high speeds will bring the riders rapidly to the feed zone at 87.5km on Shuinan Road, back in the northern reaches of the Beijing municipal area. Having passed through the urban area, they turn north again, completing the third intermediate sprint beginning at 100.5km by the Changping Stadium and then head towards the Ming Tomb Reservoir and The Thirteen Tombs of the Ming Dynasty.

One of the most striking features of the Tombs is the 7km Spirit Way, lined with statues of guardian animals both real and mythical. (© Richardelainechambers CC3.0)

The race joins the S212 Changchi Road, which it will now follow all the way to the finish line. The penultimate climb, another Cat 1, begins 10.5km along the twisty road. The summit comes at 133km after 332km of ascending, then we see the Great Wall for the first time.

The Badaling (public domain image)

As every school child can tell you, the Wall is 6259.6km long with sections comprising of ditches, natural features and suchlike making it up to 8851.8km of defences in total. It was begun in the 5th Century BC, with various enlargements, remodelings, partial demolitions and improvements taking place right up until the 16th Century. This section, dating from the Ming Dynasty and known as the Badaling, featured in the 2008 Olympics when the Road course passed through its gateways and is considered to be one of the most impressive stretches. It is believed that more than a million workers died during the construction of the various sections that make up the Wall, leading to its nickname "the longest cemetery on Earth." Guides often like to tell tourists that the mortar was made from the ground bones of those who died, but they're lying - it's rice flour. Some will also tell you that the Wall's proposed route was mapped out with the aid of a benevolent dragon - that, of course, is true.

And of course, as everyone knows, it's the only man-made structure that can be seen from the Moon... actually, it can't. It can't even be seen using Google Earth unless you zoom in closely, becoming just about discernible at an altitude of around 2.8km, though NASA claim it can be seen from 160km under absolutely perfect conditions - a claim questioned by many experts who state that to do so, an observer would require eyesight almost eight times better than average human eyesight. Either way, it's far short of the lunar surface. The myth, interestingly, seems to have started in a book by William Stukely, published in 1754 - two hundred and fifteen years before humans first set foot on the Moon.

The last climb, Cat 1 again, begins 13km later and requires 216m of climbing in 4km to top out at 758m, 150km from the start of the race in the Jundu Mountains. From this point, it's downhill all the way for the final 12km into Yongningzhen ("Yongning Town" in English). After crossing a river, the race arrives at the 5km to go point along a beautiful road lined with silver birches - though attractive, shed leaves on a wet road surface could be very slippery even thought the road is straight. The last 3km rise very slightly, not enough to slow things down to any noticeable degree, but sufficient to for a last test for tired legs. 2km to go comes as the Yongxi Highway joins from the left. The final bend - a sharp left-hander, throwing a serious spanner into the works of any team who had hoped to make use of a lead-out train to project their sprinters over the line, is 1500m ahead and leads into the final 670 straight metres to the finish line (40°31'38.08"N 116° 9'20.42"E).

Yongningzhen, it seems, is something rather special - an ancient city largely unknown even in China. There is very, very little information available on it - instead, we'll hand over to Sabine Hartmann who made a video of her motorcycle trip to the city in 2008.


have you ever been in Yongning Zhen, China? from Sabine Hartmann on Vimeo.

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Tour of Beijing - The Teams

1. AG2R-La Mondiale
2. Astana
3. BMC
4. Euskaltel-Euskadi 
5. Garmin-Cervelo
6. HTC-Highroad
7. Katusha
8. Lampre-ISD
9. Leopard Trek
10. Liquigas-Cannondale
11. Movistar 
12. Omega-Pharma-Lotto
13. Quick-Step
14. Rabobank   
15. RadioShack
16. Saxobank-Sungard 
17. Sky
18. Vacansoleil-DCM                           
        

Peraud and Roche are leading a strong
team to Beijing

(Peraud © Fanny Schertzer CC3.0Roche © Klever CC3.0)

1. AG2R-La Mondiale have decided to let two men shoulder the burden of team captaincy, and they've picked two very capable pairs of hands: ex-MTB star Jean-Christophe Peraud who - as French TT champ in 2009 and the owner of a palmares that lists impressive results in a variety of races - would appear to be very much the sort of talented all-rounder a team might need in a new race. Alongside him will be ex-Irish road and TT champ Nicholas Roche, a rider who has been a prominent feature in many of the Grand Tours of the last few seasons. Backing them up are Sébastien Hinault, a rider who was always going to have a lot to live up to even though he's no relation to Bernard and hasn't disappointed in a 14-year professional career; Christophe Riblon who has emerged as one of the greatest track riders the world has ever seen; Grand Tour veterans Lloyd Mondory and Biel Kadri; Mikael Cherel who finished this year's Tour de Romandie in second place and promising new rider Julien Berard who took 4th place in this year's French championships.

Astana are sending a strong team in
the hope of having a rider for each
stage - including the Iglinskiy
brothers Maxim (pictured) and
Valentin.
(© McSmit CC3.0)

2. Astana, realising that nobody really knows what to expect, are sending an experienced team with a view to selecting a rider for each stage according to what they find along the way. The brothers Iglinskiy will both be in attendance: Maxim has revealed himself as a superb all-rounder during his six-year professional career with notable results including top ten finishes in the Critérium du Dauphiné and Milan-San Remo as well as a King of the Mountains trophy in the 2008 Tour de Suisse, while younger brother Valentin won the Chinese Tour of Hainan last year. At 39, Andrey Mizurov is the oldest rider in the race and brings with him a wealth of experience in Asian races - he's achieved respectable success in the Asian Games, Asia Tour, Tour of China, Tour of Japan and Tour of Qinghai Lake. Andriy Grivko, four-time Ukrainian National TT champion, should have no problems delivering a good result on Stage 1, while recent stage race success suggests he may perform well in other parts of the race too - and if he's not got the legs, twice Estonian TT champ Tanel Kangert will be able to take care of business. Enrico Gasparotto, winner of the Sprints category at the Tour de Suisse in 2009, should be suitably qualified to pick up valuable points throughout the Tour, as should Australian Simon Clarke and Kazakh Sergey Renev.

BMC top dogs Moinard and
Bookwalter

(Moinard image public domain.
Bookwalter image © Fanny SchertzerCC3.0

3. BMC are going to be racing in Asia for the very first time this year, having never competed in any of the UCI events on the continent up until now. It seems to us that although they've elected not to send anyone from their top five, Cadel Evans' lieutenants Brent Bookwalter and Amaël Moinard are capable team captains. Norwegian road champ Alexander Kristoff , 2009 US National Crits champ John Murphy, Simon Zahner, Danilo Wyss and Chris Butler are backing them up to form a team more than able of completing the task set to them. However, it's a team notable for its lack of an obvious time trialist - can Tour of Romandie sprint champ Chad Beyer keep up the pace in the first stage?

Sanchez is the boss of the Basques

(© Matthieu Riegler CC3.0)

4. Other that Katusha, the professional team that knows the most about surviving under a repressive regime has to be Euskaltel-Euskadi, for all intents and purposes the national team of the Basque Country - a nation that faced harsh restrictions that were designed to destroy their culture. Those restrictions failed, of course, and it seems the team plan to add more glory to their resurgent land. The team leader is none other than Sammy Sanchez who blew the Olympics apart when he achieved an amazing triumph under horrendous conditions in the men's road race. Sanchez is known to have a great love for China and its people, and he'll be wanting to repay the welcome they gave him three years ago by putting on an impressive show. With him will be Amets Txurruka, winner of a Combativity award and a white jersey in the Tour de France; Grand Tour experts Igor Anton and Alan Perez; grimpeur Mikel Nieve; Mikel Astarloza, recently back from a two-year ban and hoping to add more good results to an impressive palmares; 2009 Under-23 road champion Romain Sicard; ever-able Pierre Cazaux and new hope Jon Izaguirre.

David Millar, winner of
multiple "The Cyclist who
Most Closely Resembles
David Bowie" category
at the Tour de France
(© PetitBrun CC2.0)

5. We've always considered David Millar, who spent much of his youth in Hong Kong before it was handed over to Chinese control, to be one of the brighter minds in the peloton - perhaps that's part of the reason that Garmin-Cervelo have elected him as team leader for the Tour. As the only British rider to have worn the leader's jersey in all three Grand Tours, Millar returned from a two-year ban after empty EPO phials were discovered during a police raid on his Paris apartment by becoming National Road and TT champion in 2007. With a fine selection of stage wins to choose from among his palmares, the new father undoubtedly has the legs to do well as well as the brain. Supporting him are Johan Vansummeren, a rider who eternally guaranteed his hardman status by winning Paris-Roubaix this year; Heinrich Haussler, winner of the points classification in both the Paris-Nice and Tour of Qatar this year - and two stages in the latter; Matthew Wilson, no longer as strong a rider as he once was but one of the most capable domestiques in the business; Michel Kreder, who has been adding repeated top 10 wins to his palmares consistently ever since his first year as a professional in 2004; current Australian TT and madison champ Cameron Meyer, who also took both the overall GC and Youth trophies in this year's Tour Down Under; Andrew Talansky who, having been the US U-23 TT champion last year and winner of the Youth classification in this year's Tour de Romandie is one of the most promising young riders of the moment and Jack Bobridge, this year's Australian National Road and World Individual Pursuit champion.

New TT champ and almost certain
to be Stage 1 winner Tony Martin

(public domain image)

6. However, sending two elite time trial experts may prove insufficient. In fact, sending a whole team of time trial experts may prove insufficient - because HTC-Highroad, who will be riding one of their very last races, are sending new World TT Champion Tony Martin: the 28-year-old German who has taken the sport to a new level, upping the bar so high that even the likes of Fabian Cancellara can't come within sight of beating him. Riding with him will be 2011 Belorussian National TT champ Kanstantsin Sivtsov, a rider with the notable distinction of also having been national road race champ in 2006; Caleb Fairly, in his first year as a professional after winning both the Colorado Springs Crit and the Tour of The Bahamas in the previous two years; two-time New Zealand road champ Hayden Riulston, who also took 10th place in Paris-Roubaix last year; three-time World Track champ Leigh Howard, who also finished in 3rd place on the opening stage of this year's Vuelta despite being just 21 years of age; Irish road champ 2010 Matt Brammeier, who earlier this year topped that victory by winning both the Irish road and TT champs; Peter Velits, twice U-23 road champ of Slovakia and once U-23 World road champ; and past winner of the Tours of Britain and Austria Matthew Albasini, a Grand Tour veteran who also counts a rare 1st place victory in both the Sprints and Mountains classifications at the 2006 Tour de Suisse among his many successes. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the definition of a strong team.

Galimzyanov will be in
charge of Katusha

(© Thomas Ducroquet CC3.0)

7. If there's a team who don't muck about, it's the mighty Katusha who send a gang of fully tooled-up hardmen to every race they enter. Denis Galimzyanov, who has already crushed the opposition at the Tour de Luxembourg and Paris-Brussels this year, leads a mean-looking pack consisting of TT specialist Artem Ovechkin, three-time Moldovan road race champion Alexandr Pliuschin - also no pushover in a TT, two-time junior world track champ Nikolay Trusov, Egor Silin who completed a Tour de France in his first year as a pro, Stijn Vandenbergh who won the Tour of Ireland in his first professional year, Grand Tour veteran Vladimir Isaychev and promising new boy Alexander Porsev. Galimzyanov also understands the importance of this race beyond cycling: "Let’s hope, for the Chinese, this will be a huge show," he says.

The Little Prince becomes
the big boss at Lampre

(© Rocco Pier Luigi CC2.5)

8. Lampre-ISD have announced they plan for Damiano Cunego, winner of the 2003 Tour of Qinghai Lake, to lead a grade-A team. Under-23 TT champs Adriano Malori and Alfredo Balloni will be hunting honours for the team in Stage 1 before providing the Little Prince with back-up alongside Vuelta stage winner Francesco Gavazzi, a rider with the ability to win multiple stages; Daniele Pietropolli, who has already racked up 11 top 10 finishes this year;  Manuele Mori, whose best result this year was a 6th place stage finish in the Vuelta a Espana; Matteo Bono, winner of a stage in this year's Eneco Tour of Benelux and Leonardo Bertagnolli, veteran of fifteen Grand Tours and a stage winner in the Vuelta, Giro and Tour of Austria.

Joost Posthuma,
seen at this year's
Dauphiné Libéré

(© Laurent Brun CC2.0)

9. Leopard Trek never send a B-Team to any race. In fact, with one of the most impressive multinational rosters of any team in the sport, Leopard Trek don't have a B-Team; and they treat every race as being as important as any other - whereas several teams sent their mini-coaches and a skeleton crew of support staff to the Tour of Britain this year, Leopard Trek sent their full-scale space shuttle bus and all full trappings of a successful Pro Team (your intrepid Cyclopunk photographer was very nearly run over by the bus, actually, and has never felt so proud in his miserable life). However, the team does seem peculiarly heavy on the climbers - a little odd in a race that features few big climbs. Though the team has announced its roster, it's not yet revealed the team leader - there are several potentials among the names, but the most likely must surely be Tour de France old hand Joost Posthuma, a rider who can perform well in a range of disciplines including time trial (1st '07 Sachsen Tour, '08 Three Days of De Panne, '10 Tour of Austria) and stage races (U-23 1st '03 Thüringen Rundfahrt, '08 Tour of Luxembourg, '09 Ruta del Sol). With him will be the current German road champion Robert Wagner; Thomas Rohregger, King of the Mountains in the Tours of Luxembourg, Austria and Down Under, later winning the Tour of Austria overall in 2008 - and having ridden for Austria in the 2008 Olympics, he'll have some idea what he's up against in this race. With them are Anders Lund, an excellent climber and talented all-rounder who has won both the Danish National and World road U-19 championships in the past; Danish U-23 road champ in 2004 and 2005 Martin Pedersen, who then went on to win the Tour of Britain in 2006; Danish Martin Mortensen, a powerful climber who also has a very unusual talent for time trialing, having won the 2008 Duo Normand alongside countryman Michael Tronberg; ever-consistent, occasional stage winner Tom Stamsnijder and the excellent Italian sprinter Giacomo Nizzolo who achieved his best victory with 1st place in Stage 5 of this year's Bayern-Rundfahrt.

Peter Sagan will lead Liquigas
(© RoxanneMK CC2.0)

10. Liquigas-Cannondale are another team who recognise that sprints may be the key to winning this race, sending a team of riders cleverly designed so as to be able to stay near the head of the course all the way throughout each day and have a rider capable of winning the stage waiting for the opportunity to do so. 21-year-old Peter Sagan - who, having won three stages of this year's Vuelta and two at the Tour de Suisse is widely considered the most promising rider of his generation and almost certainly a future Grand Tour winner will be joined by Cameron Wurf, Oceania TT champion in 2008 and 5th overall in this year's Tour of Turkey; Peter's older brother Juraj, 4th place in the Slovakian Road Championships this year; European track scratch race champion Davide Cimolai; Mauro da Dalto, a rider with a strangely empty trophy cabinet considering his near-superhuman ability to keep climbing for as long as a parcours requires; Elia Viviani, winner of three races and two stages of the USA ProCycling Challenge so far this year; Daniel Oss, another USA ProCycling stage winner in 2011, a year in which he also won a stage combativity award in the Tour de France and Tiziano Dall'Antonio, third overall and winner of the Youth category at the 2007 Tour of Luxembourg.

Experienced Pablo Lastras and
respected climber Beñat Intxausti
will be taking the reins at Movistar
(Lastras: © YellowMonkey/Blnguyen CC3.0
Intxausti:  © Petit Brun CC2.0)

11. Movistar are also sending two team leaders, Pablo Lastras and Beñat Intxausti. Team manager Eusebio Unzué agrees with those who claim that neither rider is a strong leader, but with a win in the Vuelta a Andalucia and more stage victories than most riders could ever hope for in the case of Lastras and an assortment of respectable top 5 finishes for Intxausti, neither man could be described as a weak cyclist. With them will be Sergio Pardilla, perhaps the rider most naturally suited to climbing in the world after Alberto Contador and Emma Pooley; super-strong Cantabrian Ángel Madrazo, a rider who is sure to repay the honours paid to him by fans at this year's Tour Down Under who chose him as the subject of the race's tradition of picking an unknown and treating him as the ultimate star of the event; Jesús Herrada, perhaps the most noted young time trialist among the current crop; Enrique Sanz, a young rider who defeated several older, more experienced sprint specialists to win a stage of this year's Vuelta a la Comunidad de Madrid - his first year as a professional; super-domestique Javier Iriarte, a rider who marked himself down as a future great when he came within metres of a breakaway stage in the five-day Tour Méditerranéen early this year and Rubén Plaza, one of the few riders to emerge unscathed and cleared of all charges from the infamous Operación Puerto - billed as one of Spain's greatest chances for Grand Tour success this year, he comes to the race hungry to salvage success from a season almost destroyed by a complicated leg injury in Spring.

Van den Broeck is often on good
form towards the end of the
season 

(© Kid for Today CC3.0)

12. After a sickening crash that left him with several broken ribs and a fracture injury to his shoulder, Jurgen Van den Broeck somehow managed to be in a fit state in time for the Vuelta a Espana and achieved a very respectable 8th place in the overall General Classification. He's a mountain specialist, but a look at  his palmares and track record reveals a very odd fact about the Omega-Pharma-Lotto leader - late in the season, when other riders are beginning to feel the strain after several months of hard racing, he tends to become stronger. That puts him in an ideal position to perform very well in this race even though the parcours doesn't feature any of the high, steep slopes upon which he excels. Alongside him will be ace sprinter Kenny Dehaes who, while seemingly not a potential stage winner, will almost certainly grab valuable points in the intermediate sprints; hardman Jens Debusschere who came second in the Junior Paris-Roubaix last year; Vicente Reynès, veteran of four Grand Tours and four top 5 appearances in them; Bart de Clerq, 5th place in the Giro's Young Rider classification this year and Maarten Neyens, a rider whose career seemed to have gone onto a back-burner since notable under Under-23 success but whom Omega-Pharma have spent the last year developing into a strong Elite contender. The team are evidently hoping to put on a good show in the time trial, too, as they're sending both Oliver Kaisen - a rider who has stood on the Belgian National Championships podium three times and, unusually for a TT specialist, can also climb with the best of them - and Adam Hansen; the latter being a man who is as comfortable riding an individual TT as he is elbowing his way through a teeth-and-nails sprint to the finish line.

Niki Terpstra seems the most likely
choice to lead a Quick-Step team
that is almost guaranteed success

(© Thomas Ducroquet CC3.0)

13. Quick-Step, meanwhile, are determined not to make the same potential mistake as LeopardTrek; so they're sending a team consisting of all-rounders, any one of them suited to winning a stage. They too are yet to announce their leader, but the most obvious candidate is Niki Terpstra, 2010 Dutch road champ and an ever-present face around the general classification leadership boards in every race he enters. Backing him up are Francesco Chicchi, a rider who has won stages in more races than most people will ever enter; Kristoff Vandewalle, in his first year with the team but approaching the end of his third as a professional and finishing off a season in which he rode in both the Giro and the Vuelta; Belgian Iljo Keisse who is eager to repeat the early success that saw him win 29 track medals prior to a very messy doping investigation that left him unable to race up until August this year; all-rounder Francesco Reda who at 28 will be keen to find his place in the sport; Dario Cataldo, a part of every Giro d'Italia since 2008 and 15th overall this year; Matteo Trentin, in his first year as a professional and already Italy's U-23 road champion and Marco Bandiera, a rider who has been steadily moving up the ranks ever since he was 8th over the line in the final stage of the 2009 Tour de France.

Boom or Bos?

(Boom © McSmit CC2.0
Bos © Tete de la Course CC3.0)

14. In these days when even the highest-profile teams with the best track records can face an untimely demise due to the widespread belief that cycling remains riddled with drugs (as has been the case with Highroad), it's great to see an organisation such as Rabobank who are not only very pleased to support the sport (support they're actually extending for next year, hence their new team centred around Marianne Vos) but have actually woven it into their corporate structure. Team Rabobank are apparently keen to show their appreciation - which is why they're sending a team that, on paper at least, seems perhaps the most likely to win the Tour. As of yet, directeur sportif Erik Dekker remains reticent when it comes to naming his team's leader. Meanwhile, the fact that Lars Boom's name appears on the list of selected riders would appear to make it a foregone conclusion - having been a World champion in cyclocross and road four times, National champion in cyclocross, road and TT an incredible thirteen times and with an assortment of stage race victories (including two stages and the overall General Classification at this year's Tour of Britain), he's undoubtedly one of the most successful and talented all-rounders ever to have donned a pair of lycra shorts. However, he's not the only candidate - and nobody would be at all surprised should Theo Bos, sixteen times world champ in various track disciplines and a multiple stage winner in several road races, be the boss instead. Riding with them will be Stef Clement, current Dutch TT champ (as he was in '06, '07 and '09); Jos van Emden, who took the Dutch TT champ trophy from Clement in '10 and came 5th overall in this year's Eneco Tour; Juan Manuel Garate, a Grand Tour veteran having first ridden in the Vuelta ten years ago and who beat the best climbers in the world - including Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador - in the climb to the summit finish on Mont Ventoux in Stage 20 of the '09 Tour de France; TT expert Luis León Sánchez who in recent years has developed his climbing abilities to such a level that he's now rated as one of the finest all-rounders and grimpeurs in the world and Dennis van Winden and Paul Martens, both highly accomplished time trialers.

Janez Brajkovic is the
likely leader for
RadioShack

(© Liorek CC3.0)

15. Team RadioShack as we know it is coming to the conclusion of its final season, after which they will merge with the Schleck's Leopard Trek to form a new superteam. That, combined with the links between the electrical retailer and the Chinese manufacturing base is the reason that RadioShack are sending a team of their top corporate executives in addition to a very strong team of cyclists. Like Rabobank, they've yet to announce the team leader, but the top man for the job is likely to be Janez Brajkovič, possibly the most successful cyclist to have ever pedaled out of Slovenia and a very strong time trialer who, in recent years, has been developing into a serious stage race talent beginning with an overall General Classification victory in the 2010 Critérium du Dauphiné. Joining him are Benjamin King who topped his US National Junior TT and Junior Road champion wins in 2007 by becoming U-23 Criterium, U-23 Road and Elite National Road champion in '10; Haimar Zubeldia, the type of climber his Basque homeland seems to specialise in producing, a noted time trialer and a veteran of ten Tours de France; Ireland's Philip Deignan, twice winner of Vuelta stages and a participant in three Giros d'Italia; Markel Irizar, another Basque and winner of this year's Vuelta a Andalucia; three time Kazakh TT champ and once Kazakh Road champ Dimitry Muravyev; current Portuguese TT champ Nelson Oliveira and Tiago Machado, Portuguese TT champ in 2009 and a successful finisher in several stage races since.

Nick Nuyens, seen here
in an earlier Rabobank
incarnation, will be taking
charge at Saxobank.

(© Thomas Ducroquet CC3.0)

16. One of the best things from a fan's point of view about the non-Grand Tour Pro Tours is that they form an opportunity to see potential future Grand Tour captains being tried out in team leadership positions. This has never been more true than at Saxobank-Sungard, who have put Nick Nuyens in the top job -  currently best known as a Classics specialist, a series of stage race successes - 3rd overall '04 Tour of Britain, 1st overall and two stage wins '05 Tour of Britain, stage wins in the Tours of Switzerland and Austria - over his nine year career suggests there's more then one string to his bow and a lot of potential in his legs. Supporting him are the Argentinian brothers Haedo: Juan José, after notable success as a track rider, built up an impressive palmares mostly in New World races during the early part of his career in road cycling, where he has become one of the most respected sprinters. He's been adding European wins ever since - most notably Stage 16 of this year's Vuelta a Espana. Younger brother Lucas Sebastián has not yet enjoyed quite such an illustrious career, but two stage wins in '09 and 2nd place in Stage 3 of the '10 Tour of Poland suggests he has the potential to achieve more. The always-consistent Chris Anker Sørensen is, perhaps, not an obvious candidate for stage wins - though he's the sort of rider that could easily create surprises if freed from domestique duties - but is a sold performer guaranteed to do what's required of him; Jonas Aaen Jørgensen won a series of 1st place prizes in 2009, then had a quiet year in '10 before a return to form saw him win the Grand Prix d'Isbergues in September this year; Luke Roberts is Saxobank's man for Stage 1 - he's won a range of time trial competitions since becoming individual and team U-17 TT Australian national champion in 1993. Also known as a pursuit cyclist, notable wins in the Tour Down Under, Tours de Normandi and Romandie, Critérium du Dauphiné, Tour of Britain and Tour de France suggest that 34, Roberts' career is entering a new chapter rather than drawing to a conclusion. David Tanner is new to Saxobank and new to the World Tour circuit - this is his first time riding in one; but a palmares with a string of top 5 results - including 2nd overall and a stage win in last year's Tour of China - make his a name that many people will be keeping tabs upon. Michael Mørkøv has been to China before too - he won Olympic silver in the team pursuit here in 2008, adding another result to a string of top three successes.

Chris Froome will lead
Team Sky, perhaps
early indication that
he'll be team captain
in the future
(© Rama CC2.0)

17. Team Sky have put together a roster that perfectly combines the wisdom that comes with age and the fiery passion of youth; a team made up of old hands and young bucks. Right in the middle of the age scale is Chris Froome, who at 26 has emerged as the most likely rider to take over when Bradley Wiggins calls it a day and will be acting as team leader during this race. Froome's most recent success was his brilliant, unexpected victory in Stage 17 of this year's Vuelta, when he used ninja-like cunning to sneak up the inside line past Juan José Cobo - a rider who made Alto de l'Angliru look easy - and won the stage before the Spaniard even knew what had happened. Riding support are Davide Appollonio, the 22-year-old sprinter who finished in the top ten five times during this year's Giro and then went on to win Stage 3 (and the points jersey for the stage) in the Tour of Luxembourg just a few days after the Giro finished; twice National road champ Jeremy Hunt now in his 15th year as a professional; 2010 European U-23 time trial champ and Commonwealth Games silver medalist Alex Dowsett; 2010 German road champ and winner of the 2008 Bayern-Rundfahrt Christian Knees; all-rounder and super-domestique Michael Barry who at 35 has a palmares boasting notable successes in both time trials and road races; Commonwealth Games gold medalist Steve Cummings, who also crossed the finish line in second place to complete this year's Tour of Britain and Dario Cioni, a professional for 11 years and an ex-Italian National TT champ who has also accounted very well for himself in a range of stage races.

Hoogerland's at the helm
for Vacansoleil

(© Petit Brun CC2.0)

18. Vacansoleil-DCM have put Johnny Hoogerland - the popular Dutch rider who took his place in the cycling hall of fame after fighting on and finishing a stage of the Tour de France earlier this year after being thrown off the road into a barbed wire fence, dripping blood as he crossed the line to a hero's welcome - but let's not forget he also took the polka dot jersey at the end of five stages during the race. He'll be supported through the climbs by Thomas de Gendt, winner of the Mountains and Sprint classiifications in the 2009 Tour of Britain and Wout Poels, second man up the Angliru in this year's Vuelta; while Lieuwe Westra, himself a handy rider in the climbs and Martijn Keizer, winner of this year's Boucles de l'Aulne take care of duty in Stage 1. Meanwhile, Tour of Luxembourg winner Matteo Carrara, Tour of Qatar winner Wouter Mol and Rob Ruijgh make up numbers to form a very handy crew indeed.