Benat Intxausti (Movistar) won the 2013 Tour of Beijing overall on Tuesday, finishing safely in the peloton to retain his position at the top of the general classification after the previous day's stage win.
Slovenian sprinter Luka Mezgec (Argos-Shimano) took the bunch sprint at the end of the short and sharp final stage in Beijing city, getting the best of double stage winner Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) and Moreno Hofland (Belkin). Bouhanni ends the race with the points classification win.
Intxausti finished 10 seconds ahead of Irishman Daniel Martin (Garmin-Sharp) in the overall classification, with David Lopez (Sky) in third at 13 seconds.
Damiano Caruso (Cannondale) won the King of the Mountains classification, with Romain Bardet (Ag2r) claiming the white jersey of best young rider.
Soon-to-be-retirees Juan Antonio Flecha (Vacansoleil-DCM) and Marco Pinotti (BMC Racing) both got themselves into the day's escape group alongside Olivier Kaisen (Lotto-Belisol), Christian Meier (Orica-GreenEdge) and Manuele Boaro (Saxo-Tinkoff). The quintent only gained a minute before being reeled in with around five kilometres to go but it was a fitting farewell for Flecha and Pinotti.
End of the WorldTour
The final stage of the 2013 Tour of Beijing also marked the end of the 2013 UCI WorldTour. Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) tops the WorldTour ranking with Briton Chris Froome (Sky) in second and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) in third. Dan Martin's second place in Beijing pushes him up to sixth overall in the WorldTour.
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The 2014 WorldTour kicks off in January with the Tour Down Under in Australia.
Results
Tour of Beijing 2013, stage five: Tiananmen Square to Bird's Nest Piazza, 117 km
Nigel Wynn worked as associate editor on CyclingWeekly.com, he worked almost single-handedly on the Cycling Weekly website in its early days. His passion for cycling, his writing and his creativity, as well as his hard work and dedication, were the original driving force behind the website’s success. Without him, CyclingWeekly.com would certainly not exist on the size and scale that it enjoys today. Nigel sadly passed away, following a brave battle with a cancer-related illness, in 2018. He was a highly valued colleague, and more importantly, an exceptional person to work with - his presence is sorely missed.
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