Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez riding the Tour of Beijing to earn UCI points
Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez of Team Euskaltel-Euskadi currently holds the ninth overall position after the UCI World Tour Teams rankings with a total number of 332 points to his credit.
The cyclist currently seen in action at the last World Tour race of the season, the Tour of Beijing and is anxious to improve his UCI ranking by securing some points in the Chinese race.
His best performance in the current season includes two stages, point’s classifications and an overall victory at the Tour of the Basque Country 2012.
Sanchez finished second overall at the Volta a Catalunya 2012 and bagged the sixth stage of the race along with a second place finish at the Giro di Lombardia 2012.
He occupied the seventh position at the Amstel Gold Race and the Liege-Bastogne-Liege which helped him with a ninth position at the UCI World Tour Individual rankings.
Joaquim Rodriguez Oliver (692 points) is leading the category with Bradley Wiggins (601 points), Tom Boonen (410 points) and Vincenzo Nibali (400 points) securing the next three positions.
Alejandro Valverde (394 points), Simon Gerrans (390 points), Chris Froome (376 points) and Peter Sagan (351points) achieved the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth positions respectively.
Samuel won the 2008 Beijing Olympic road race and he will be in a much familiar territory during the stage 3 of the Tour of Beijing.
"The race is very different from last year as there's no time trial and we have a hilly stage on part of the Olympic course and that might prove important," Sanchez said in the pre-race press conference in Beijing.
"Although this time we only go up the climb once, and not eight times, so the question is whether it will be hard enough to make a difference”.
“I know that there are teams who will be trying to keep it together, but that stage is one that we've marked out as a team".
The 34-year-old could not start the Chinese race the way he would have preferred, finishing at the 55th position with Elia Viviani of Team Liquigas-Cannondale claiming the top position.
Sanchez is now eyeing the 126 kilometre stage 2 of the Tour of Beijing and is certain to improve his overall position at the race.
Winner of the Tour of Beijing will be awarded with a 100 UCI points, the second and the third place finishers will receive 80 and 70 points respectively.
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