Samuel Sanchez returns to his happy hunting ground at the 2014 Tour of Beijing, the Spaniard part of a strong BMC Racing Team at the final event of the UCI WorldTour.

Sanchez rode to victory at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in the road race, and then requested to wear dossard ‘lucky’ number eight when he returned to China and the Tour of Beijing at the inaugural edition in 2011. 

Joining the former Tour de France runner-up will be 2012 Tour of Beijing stage winner Stephen Cummings, Belgian classics specialist and 2012 world champion Philippe Gilbert, former Swiss national champion Martin Kohler, American Tejay van Garderen, young German speedster Rick Zabel. Along with domestiques Yannick Eijssen (BEL) and Dominik Nerz(GER).

Beijing has also been good to Cummings throughout his previous three appearances at the event, fourth overall in 2011 and then trumping Edvald Boasson Hagen and Ryder Hesjedal to win the final stage in Ping Gu in 2012.

"I have good memories of China and always enjoy going there,” said Cummings. “It is a good race. I especially recall the time trial around the Bird's Nest in the first edition of the race and winning a stage in 2012 on the last day of the race,” Cummings said.

2014 USA Pro Challenge winner, van Garderen will look to close out his season on a high, and should be in contention when Beijing sorts its overall contenders out on the Queen stage mountain top finish at the summit of Mentougou Miaofeng Mountain.

Gilbert, who added to his career Classics haul this year at De Brabantse Pijl and Amstel GoldRace, will no doubt enjoy some of the punchier stages on offer in Beijing.

Currently third in the UCI teams rakings for the year, BMC Racing will also look to close in on second-placed Tinkoff-Saxo who are just 82 points ahead.

"The Tour of Beijing is going to be very important for us. We have a good chance to do a strong result in the general classification while we also look for stage wins,” said Sport Director Yvon Ledanois.

“I am hopeful we can finish the season well after a good month of September that was highlighted by our win in the team time trial at the world championships. The Tour of Beijing is also important for us to help keep our good ranking in the team standings of the WorldTour."

The 2014 Tour of Beijing begins this Friday 10th and runs to Tuesday 14th October as the last event on the UCI WorldTour calendar. The five day, 764.5 kilometre route provides for opportunistic racing and takes in breathtaking views of the Great Wall, Beijing’s mountain terrain and embraces key tourism attractions such as Tiananmen Square and the Bird’s Nest.