Roche & Deignan off to good start in Tour of Beijing TT opener

Nicolas Roche has shown his form is good following last month’s Vuelta and World Championships, taking 14^th in the opening time trial (TT) stage of the Tour of Beijing today.

The Ag2r joint team leader for the five-day inaugural event finished today’s 11.4km TT around the Olympic Park some 49 seconds down on stage winner Tony Martin (HTC-Highroad).

Ireland’s Philip Deignan was a little further back, but still posted a very decent time in a discipline that is far from his speciality. The RadioShack rider was 64^th of the 147 starters, losing 1:09 to Martin.

The German, new TT world champion, was in blistering form today posting a time of 13:34, some 17 seconds faster than runner up David Millar (Garmin-Cervelo).

Millar was one of four British riders in the top five, with British TT champion Alex Dowsett (Sky) third, Chris Froome (Sky) fourth, and Steve Cummings (Sky) completing the top five.

The flat course saw the riders take in a route from the iconic Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium to the Water Cube aquatic centre used in the 2008 Games. Conditions in the city were smoggy for today’s short test.

Tony Martin said the decision by the UCI – which is running the race – to insist the riders use their road bikes in the TT had not hampered him to any great extent.

“It’s a different position and a different feeling. The time trial bike is also more stiff. But I was just trying to find a good way over a short distance.”

“I have a lot of motivation for a good race and we will now try to defend the jersey.”

Sky’s Alex Dowsett said his team was now well placed for an assault on the general classification.

“Coming third to Tony Martin and David Millar is a pretty good result and I can be proud of that. We will now sit down tonight and talk about it. We have three riders in the top five and obviously no other team has that. We will take it on and see what we can do.”

Tomorrow’s stage takes the riders on a 137km journey from the Bird’s Nest to Men Tou Gou.

The stage includes four, fourth category, climbs and three intermediate sprints before the finish in Yond Ding River Cultural Square. While most stages will suit the sprinters, Friday is the queen stage, with the mountainous route likely to offer Deignan and Roche an opportunity to get a big result as the season nears a close.

Tour of Beijing Stage 1 - 11.4km TT

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