One year ago Luka Mezgec won the final stage of the Tour of Beijing. Today he failed to repeat that feat as Giant-Shimano mistimed their chase and had to use too much energy in a final desperate attempt to set up a bunch sprint.

Luka Mezgec has raced to sixth place on the final stage of the Tour of Beijing, a fast, flat 117km sprinters stage starting in the famous Tiananmen Square and finishing at Bird’s Nest Piazza, by the old Olympic park. By the end of the stage Warren Barguil had safely defended his sixth place overall.

In finishing sixth Mezgec also relinquished his lead in the green jersey competition, but the team can still look back on a successful five days of racing, including a win and two second places on the first three day’s of racing.

With no mountain points on offer and a pan-flat sprinters stage ahead, the fight for the day’s break was very short-lived, with two riders pulling clear to spend the day out front. Their advantage grew to just over three minutes at its maximum but was under control of BMC in defence of race leader Philippe Gilbert, including a helping hand from Team Giant-Shimano.

During the stage, Reinardt Janse van Rensburg was out taking third place in the intermediate sprints to make sure that Mezgec could defend his green jersey and also so that no other riders gained bonus seconds on Barguil.

Despite the chase from the bunch behind, their advantage remained at over 2’20″ with 15km to go and their chances of staying away were looking more and more likely. The team at this point decided to add more fire-power to the chase but this then cost them for the lead out at the end.

The gap started to fall quickly towards the end of the stage and the break was finally swallowed up in the closing kilometre but it came down to the wire and as a result the sprint was very hectic, and Mezgec struggled to find clean air to launch his effort. In the run to the line the front riders were all grouped very close together and on the line Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) came through fastest, but only a matter of metres separated the lead six or seven riders in the blur of colour coming over the finish line.

The end of the race marks the end of the WorldTour racing calendar, and with the results secured by the team in Beijing, Team Giant-Shimano confirmed their eighth place finish in the WorldTour rankings.

Team Giant-Shimano coach Lionel Marie said after the stage: “We left the break out a little too long today and paid for the effort we had to put in with a lack of power in the lead-out for Luka at the end. Then at the finish it was a a chaotic run to the line and Luka couldn’t do a full sprint so ended up in the wheels unable to come through.

“Altogether though it was a good final race of the season here – one victory, a day in the leaders jersey and a day in green, and two second places, as well as sixth overall is not a bad report card for the week. I’m proud of the way the guys rode here and they can now have their well earned rest period before we start to refocus for 2015.”