Tony Martin Repeats as Winner of the Tour of Beijing

Tony Martin, fresh off a repeat victory in the UCI World Time Trial championship, followed up by winning the season-ending Tour of Beijing for a second time—despite the race having no time-trial stage.

The 27-year-old German showed he could climb, and was also adept at tactics: he joined a breakaway on the last climb of Stage Two, and attacked on the descent, creating his own time trial when the organizers wouldn’t oblige him. Martin and the Omega Pharma-Quickstep team then protected the 46-second lead Martin had earned.

“I am super happy—over the moon,” Martin said on the team’s website. “With this victory we rode technically really well as a team. We were always very clever. We never lost control of the race. It was a great day for us where everybody did their best.

“In the last weeks I was thinking about the World Championships and then this race. When you win two times in a row, like the TT World Championship or Tour of Beijing, it’s something special. It gives me a lot more trust in myself.”

Giro d’Italia winner Ryder Hesjedal of Garmin-Sharp made a huge effort in Stage Five determined to steal the stage and the overall win, but couldn’t overcome his 90-second deficit. In the end, he couldn’t even hold on for the stage win: Stephen Cummings of BMS beat Hesjedal to the line by two seconds.

Cummings was part of a 12-rider breakaway which formed 50 km into the 182.5-km stage. This group started to fragment on the day’s third climb, a short, steep cat 3 50 km from the finish. This is where Hesjedal made his move, bridging across to the breakaway as it shed riders.

Immediately after that climb came the Cat 1 climb to Si Zuo Lou, and it was here that Hesjedal and Cummings took off, dropping the rest of the break and riding the final 30 km alone.

Cummings wanted the stage win, Hesjedal, the overall. The two riders cooperated right to the line, when Cummings whipped past the Garmin rider to grab his goal.

“It was a big breakaway initially, so it was difficult for them [the peloton] to chase behind,” Cummings told Cyclingnews. “When you have a climb like that in the final, you only have so many people left to pull. After the descent, I was with Ryder and he was strong, and we did a good job together to hold them off.”

Hesjedal’s attempt was frustrated; Martin and the Omega-led peloton pushed on hard enough to keep the leader’s red jersey on the shoulders of the 2011 winner.

“We had a very little information about the gaps, and given that we had 35 seconds at the top of the last climb and a few seconds of time bonuses on offer at the finish line, I thought I was going for final victory,” Hesjedal said.

“I have no regret about the final sprint—Steve was going more for the stage victory and actually he was pretty strong and smooth on the flat.”

The Tour of Beijing closes out the UCI WorldTour cycling season. Fans now have watch track cycling while they wait for the Tour Down Under in January.