Martin and Deignan look forward to climbs after Tour of Beijing opener

Dan Martin's hopes of winning the Tour of Beijing outright are still intact after he got through the opening stage won by Luka Mezgec of Giant-Shimano.

Recently crowned Tour of Lombardy winner, Dan Martin got back to business today in the Tour of Beijing’s opening stage where he finished in the belly of the bunch in the same time as stage winner Luka Mezgec (Team Giant-Shimano).

Martin crossed the line in 68^th place, as Slovenian rider Mezgec took the spoils from rising star Caleb Ewan of Orica-GreenEDGE.

Martin’s team-mate, Tyler Farrar rounded out the podium.

The only other Irishman in the race, Philip Deignan (Team Sky) was 45^th, also on the same time as the winner.

After a nightmare journey to China which saw his Garmin-SHARP team without bikes for a couple of days this week, Martin will have been glad to focus solely on a race where he starts as one of the hot favourites.

Last year he finished second overall, 10 seconds behind Benoit Intxausti (Movistar). In 2012, he finished fourth overall, while also taking the Mountains Classification jersey.

Today’s opener took the riders 167 kilometres from Chong Li to Zhangjiakou with three climbs to negotiate in the early part of the race.

Deignan was 2nd to Nicolas Roche on a stage of the Tour of Beijing three years ago. He's performing team duties this week, but he might just get a chance to go for a result himself.

There was a category climb two after 32kilometres and a couple of cat threes - at 38km and 64km. But with a mostly flat run-in to the finish from there, a bunch sprint was always the likely outcome.

Tomorrow’s 147 kilometre stage has two climbs - a cat 2 after 70km and a cat 3 after 111km. They look more difficult than today’s ramps and come later in the race, which could prove decisive.

Monday’s stage is where the race will most likely be won and lost with a mammoth 157 kilometre leg from Yanqing to the mountaintop summit finish at Mentougou Miaofeng.

Before that category 1 climb, however, there are five more along the route so it’s a stage that should be right up Martin’s street.