Roche & Deignan finish Tour of Beijing with renewed confidence

Philip Deignan (RadioShack) and Nicolas Roche (Ag2r) have finished their last stage race of the season, coming home in the peloton after the city centre circuit race that marked the end of the Tour of Beijing today.

Both will head into the winter – after the Tour of Lombardy - buoyed by their late good form in China after what has been a difficult year for Roche and an unspectacular, if consistent, season for Deignan.

Roche won the Tour of Beijing’s queen mountain stage on Friday, finished 11^th overall and was also fourth in the climbers’ classification.

Deignan was second on the stage won by Roche but looked to be riding with a renewed strength and confidence; forcing the winning breakaway on the final first category ascent of the day and pushing Roche very close in the sprint that settled the stage.

The Donegal man was 31^st on the final GC, with the opening stage time trial on Wednesday essentially dictating the final standings.

Time trial world champion Tony Martin took that stage and his HTC-Highroad team had little difficulty in controlling things for the five days.

Indeed, Friday’s breakaway by Roche and Deignan – who were joined by Vuelta runner-up and 2011 revelation Chris Froome (Sky) – was the most dangerous looking move of the week.

However, Martin’s team managed to close down that move to just one second on the line, meaning the three escapees made no progress up the overall standings.

Both Irishmen have expressed their satisfaction at being able to again perform well in a WorldTour event.

Deignan is particularly looking forward to his new team leader role with Unitedhealthcare next year, saying it should afford him the scope to try and get some results for himself.

“Hopefully in the races that suit me I can go for good GC results; just to try in every race from the start of the year,” he said.

Today’s closing stage in China, a 118km circuit race around Beijing, was won in a bunch sprint by Katusha’s Denis Galimzyanov from Juan José Haedo (Saxo), with yesterday’s stage winner Elia Viviani (Liquigas-Cannondale) in third.

The GC victory for Tony Martin tops and tails a stellar year for the 26-year-old German, having begun 2011 with another win on general classification in Paris-Nice in early March.

“It’s been a fantastic year and now a fantastic week for me,” he said

“It’s really nice to have a victory and makes me so proud to win the first race here.

“But we had a very strong team that was pulling the whole time and I have to thank them for the win. The whole team was magnificent.”