Tony Martin leading the Tour of Beijing 2012, stage 2 classifications
Tony Martin’s overall lead at the Tour of Beijing 2012 is nothing but an echo of his last year’s performance at the Chinese World Tour race.
He succeeded during the opening Individual Time Trial stage 1 of the race and managed to claim an overall victory at the first ever, Tour of Beijing in the 2011 season.
Tour of Beijing is the last World Tour race of the 2012 season and is an ideal opportunity for someone like Tony to secure some UCI points towards the end of the season.
The cyclist is enjoying a fine season with first place finishes at the World Time Trial, World Team Time Trial and National Time Trial Championships 2012.
He succeeded during the stage 4 of the Tour of Belgium and also managed to claim an overall victory at the Belgian race after his storming performance during the event.
The German finished second overall at the Volta ao Algarve and occupied the fifth overall position at the Tour of the Basque Country 2012.
While most of the teams are riding the Beijing race for the UCI points, it seems like Tony is keener towards defending his last year’s victory.
The 27-year-old finished 31st during the opening stage of the race but was soon, back on track with his heroic effort at the stage 2 of the race.
He finished the second stage in an impressive time of 2 hours, 53 minutes and 5 seconds and restricted Francesco Gavazzi of Team Astana and Eros Capecchi of Team Liquigas-Cannondale for the second and the third positions.
"If there is no time trial, you have to do your own one,” Martin said of his winning effort after the finish.
“I had a very, very small chance today but I took it and I am very happy and proud of this”.
Suddenly there was a gap behind me to the other guys. I knew there were only 20km to the finish so I decided to try and take my chance,” said Martin.
“As for me, I could just go full gas as I’m in really good shape and that’s why I could win today”.
Tony is currently leading the Tour of Beijing 2012 stage 2 classifications with a margin of 50 seconds on Francesco Gavazzi of Team Astana and further two seconds on Eros Capecchi of Team Liquigas-Cannondale.
Top 15 cyclists after the Tour of Beijing stage 2 classifications are as below,
1
Tony Martin (Ger) Omega Pharma-Quickstep
5:30:44
2
Francesco Gavazzi (Ita) Astana Pro Team
0:00:50
3
Eros Capecchi (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale
0:00:52
4
Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Procycling
0:00:56
5
Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale
6
Daniel Martin (Irl) Garmin - Sharp
7
Tomasz Marczynski (Pol) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team
8
Rafal Majka (Pol) Team Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank
9
Tim Wellens (Bel) Lotto Belisol Team
0:01:00
10
Rui Alberto Faria Da Costa (Por) Movistar Team
11
Jean-Christophe Peraud (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
12
Ivan Velasco Murillo (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi
13
Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team
14
Jan Bakelants (Bel) RadioShack-Nissan
15
Tanel Kangert (Est) Astana Pro Team
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