After a day in high altitudes, stage 1 of Tour of Beijing ended in a bunch sprint, where Luka Mezgec from Giant-Shimano proved to be the fastest with Tinkoff-Saxo’s Manuele Boaro finishing 17th.

The stage was characterized by high speed in altitudes above 1500 meters for most of the stage. Sport Director Fabrizio Guidi says:

“Since we don’t have any pure sprinters on the team, the most important aspect for us was to adapt to racing in these altitudes and getting back into the race rhythm after having traveled to China. We’re focusing on some of the hard stages, where we have a real chance to fight for the stage win”.

Tinkoff-Saxo had five out of seven riders in the first 89-rider group; Manuele Boaro, Rory Sutherland, Ivan Rovny, Chris Juul-Jensen and the Danish champion Michael Valgren. The 167 km stage was marked by high speeds chasing a breakaway consisting of three riders. With 20 kilometers to go, the break was brought back in and a thundering pace down to Zhangjiakou forced the peloton and the fight for positions into a deadlock.

“The sprinter’s teams took control throughout the day. In the final part of the stage with the descent down to the finish line, it was simply impossible to get a better position in the peloton because of the really high pace”, explains Fabrizio Guidi and adds:

“Tomorrow is another day for the sprinters. But the guys are feeling good, we didn’t waste too much energy today and we’ll be looking forward to stage 3 on Sunday”.