Good luck Beijing Invitational - 2.2

China, August 18-19, 2007

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Stage 1 - August 18: Road Race, 174.0km

Italian Gabriele Bosisio won the 174km road race that served as a test event for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in a time of 4:27:14. He was followed by Alexandr Dyachenko (Kazakhstan), there seconds back and Vincenzo Nibali leading a group of three 47 seconds back.

The race began at Yongdingmen Gate at the southern end of Beijing's north-south central axis and travelled past several Beijing landmarks including the Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square, Yonghegong Palace, Temple of Earth Park, and the Yuan Dynasty City Wall Relics Palace to the Juyongguan section of the Great Wall where the riders faced four laps of a brutal 23.8km circuit.

Bosisio launched an attack on the final lap after Australian Michael Rogers had reeled in another Italian escapee.

"The Italians had a really good team here and were really motivated to win," said fifth placed Cadel Evans. "When we had two riders left (he and Rogers) they still had four so they were twice as strong and deserved to win."

Both Rogers and Evans said the course was harder than they expected. "It goes up, goes up some more and comes down then you go up again," said Evans after the race. "It's ten kilometres of climbing with some steep sections in it and not much recovery and then one big long downhill but even then it was a headwind all the way down and not so easy."

"It (the climb) was a little bit harder than I'd expected," said Rogers. "It's not super steep but it's quite constant and there is no actual recovery.

Looking ahead to next year, the Olympic road race will tackle the circuit three additional times for a total distance of 245km.

Teams like Australia were on hand to gather intelligence on the course. "I was nowhere near my best but that's the way it is and it is still good to get through to the finish," said Rogers. "The result is not so important for us because it's more about getting to know the course and we made a big step forward today with that.

"We gained valuable information and we know for certain the course is for good mountain climbers but apart from that we'll sit down with the scientists who can hopefully put all the data into English and give us even more detailed information."

Despite predictions the Beijing air quality would have a significant impact the riders said it was today's 70 percent humidity and 30 degrees Celsius temperature that really affected them.

"My lungs hurt to breathe but it's not the dirtiest place I've raced," said Evans. "Racing in an Italian city you get dirtier from diesel fumes but it's the humidity here that surprised me and the combination of pollution and humidity makes it a bit harder."

Tomorrow, riders will contest a 23.65 kilometre individual time trial along the Juyongguan and Badaling Great Wall. The road race and time trial make up ap two stage event. Leader Bosisio has opted not to ride tomorrow, leaving Evans amongst the favourites for victory.

Photography

For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here

Images by AFP Photo

The start of the race led past Mao Zedong.
The riders took off from Tiananmen Square.

Images by Francis Cerny

Discovery Channel Marco Polo Team rider Xing Yan Dong rides through a gate in the Great Wall in the Good Luck Beijing, Olympic test event.
The peloton riding through the centre of Beijing, entering the Tiananmen Square.
The peloton riding past the entrance of the Forbidden City in Beijing.
The podium of the road race of the Good Luck Beijing, Olympic test event with in the background the Great Wall.
The Discovery Channel Marco Polo Team riders go to the start of the Good Luck Beijing Olympic test event road race.
Italian Gabriele Bosisio sprints to his victory in the Good Luck Beijing, Olympic test event road race.
The Italian national team training before the Good Luck Beijing, Olympic test event.

Results

1 Gabriele Bosisio (Italy)                          4:27:14 (39.066 km/h)
2 Alexandr Dyachenko (Kazakhstan)                      0.03
3 Vincenzo Nibali (Italy)                              0.47
4 Jacek Morajko (Poland)                                   
5 Cadel Evans (Australia)                                  
6 Enrico Gasparotto (Italy)                            1.46
7 Tomasz Marczynski (Poland)                           1.49
8 Francisco Torrella Gomez (Spain)                     1.52
9 Jon Garcia (United States Of America)                    
10 Hossein Askari (Chinese Taipei)                     1.56
11 Chun Hing Chan (Hong Kong, China)                   2.03
12 Scott Nydam (United States Of America)              4.27
13 Raffaele Ferrara (Italy)                            9.35
14 Thijs Zonneveld (People's Republic of China 3)      9.40
15 Andriy Suravlov (Ukraine)                           9.49
16 Wout Poels (Netherlands)                            9.52
17 Michael Rogers (Australia)                          9.55
18 Maurice Schreurs (Netherlands)                      9.58
19 Jose Luis Ruiz Cubillo (Spain)                     11.28
20 Diego Milan Jimenez (Spain)                             
21 Carrasco Ramirez J. (Spain)                             
22 Roman Koltsov (Russian Federation)                      
23 Haijun Ma (People's Republic of China)                  
24 Jamsran Ulzii-Orshikh (People's Republic of China 3)    
25 Valentin Iglinskiy (Kazakhstan)                    11.32
26 Tomasz Kiendys (Poland)                                 
27 Jai Crawford (Chinese Taipei)                           
28 Fabio Sabatini (Italy)                                  
29 Andy Guptill (United States Of America)                 
30 Kin San Wu (Hong Kong, China)                           
31 Pol Nabben (People's Republic of China 3)          11.35
32 Roman Klimov (Russian Federation)                  11.37
33 Ahad Kazemisarai (Chinese Taipei)                  11.49
34 Ghader Mizbani Iranagh (Chinese Taipei)                 
35 Jaroslaw Rebiewski (Poland)                             
36 Robert Radosz (Poland)                             11.52
37 Alexey Kunshin (Russian Federation)                12.02
38 Dmitriy Gruzdev (Kazakhstan)                       12.14
39 Peter Schulting (Netherlands)                      13.40
40 Hyo Suk Gong (Korea)                               18.20
41 Hossein Eslami (Islamic Republic of Iran)          18.56
42 Tuguldur Tuulkhangai (Mongolia)                         
43 Remko Kramer (Netherlands)                         21.42
44 Peng Liu (People's Republic of China)                   
45 Mohammas Jebraeilis (Islamic Republic of Iran)          
46 Robin Reid (People's Republic of China 3)               
47 Wang Yip Tang (Hong Kong, China)                   27.18
48 Sergio Dominguez Munoz (Spain)                     31.56
49 Bo Liu (People's Republic of China)                31.58
50 Alireza Zeinali (Islamic Republic of Iran)         32.07
51 Ulziibaatar Jamsran (Mongolia)                     32.12
52 Saeid Chehrzad (Islamic Republic of Iran)          32.24
53 Kai Tsun Lam (Hong Kong, China)                         
54 Yue Qi (People's Republic of China 2)                   
DNF Cameron Meyer (Australia)                              
DNF Phillip Thuaux (Australia)                             
DNF Baoqin Song (People's Republic of China)               
DNF Xitao Ji (People's Republic of China)                  
DNF Xiaohai Zheng (People's Republic of China 2)           
DNF Shuaijun Chang (People's Republic of China 2)          
DNF Zhenchao Ye (People's Republic of China 2)             
DNF Jinlong Zhang (People's Republic of China 2)           
DNF Long Yin (People's Republic of China 2)                
DNF Yan Dong Xing (People's Republic of China 3)           
DNF Zhong Li (People's Republic of China 3)                
DNF Chun Woh Cheung (Hong Kong, China)                     
DNF Ying Hon Yeung (Hong Kong, China)                      
DNF Fabio Baldato (Italy)                                  
DNF Sung Baek Park (Korea)                                 
DNF Chul Soo Kim (Korea)                                   
DNF Ki Hong Yoo (Korea)                                    
DNF Cyrille Heymans (Luxembourg)                           
DNF Khangarid Naran (Mongolia)                             
DNF Khayankhirvaa U. (Mongolia)                            
DNF Erdenebayar Dashpuntsag (Mongolia)                     
DNF Ochirbaatar Tumurbaatar (Mongolia)                     
DNF Alexander Bespalov (Russian Federation)                
DNF Danil Komkov (Russian Federation)                      
DNF Alexander Lebedev (Russian Federation)                 
DNF Serrano Fernandez R. (Spain)                           
DNF Dmytro Krivtsov (Ukraine)                              
DNF Yuriy Agarkov (Ukraine)                                
DNF Rostislav Mykhailov (Ukraine)                          
DNF Vitaliy Kondrut (Ukraine)                              
DNF Zach Grabowski (United States Of America)              
DNF Sheldon Deeny (United States Of America)               
DNF Nathan Miller (United States Of America)