Rainbow rings win in Beijing

Oct 6th, 11. In his first race in the World Champion's rainbow ringed jersey, Tony Martin took a decisive victory. He won the time trial opening stage of the inaugural Tour of Beijing by 17sec.

"It is my first time ever in China and it is a big honour to win the first ever stage in the Tour of Beijing," Martin said.

"I decided a long time before (I won the World Championship) to come here. I wanted to be one time in China. For me it is not about the victory, it's about being here for this nice race."

Martin won ahead of World Championship silver medallist David Millar (Garmin Cervelo). Alex Dowsett (Team Sky) was 3rd, +24sec. It was his 9th victory of the season, his 6th in the time trial discipline.

The time trial was raced on standard road bikes, something which took Martin, and the rest of the field, some adjustment.

"It is a different position and a different feeling. The time trial bike is also more stiff. But I was just trying to find a good way over a short distance," the first leader of the red jersey said.

With a 17sec lead, and only one stage expected to finish without a sprint, Martin has hopes of retaining the tour lead through to its conclusion on Sunday. 

"I have a lot of motivation for a good race and we will now try to defend the jersey. I hope tomorrow is not too hard. I should be okay. I think it is more for the sprinters."

This is a scenario that the other teams had feared pre-race – Tony Martin with a good lead in the time trial and a team determined to defend it from then on.

But at least one other team, Sky Pro Cycling, finds itself in a reasonable position, and with options, after the first day's racing.

One of the more impressive rides on Stage one came from one of its younger men. Alex Dowsett, who turned 23 just two days ago, turned in a time of 13:57 for the 11.3km circuit and held the lead for well over an hour until Millar bested him by 7sec, with just ten riders left on the course.

Dowsett consequently wears the white jersey for the best young rider but it is the presence of his team mates, Vuelta e Espana runner-up Chris Froome and Stephen Cummings in 4th and 5th spots on General Classification that provides Sky with the chance to attack Martin.

As for the the rest of the field, more than two thirds are already more than 1min behind. NZ's Hayden Roulston placed well, 23rd +54sec.

Dowsett was pleased with his own result and certainly open to the suggestion that his team may still have a big role to play in the Tour.

"Coming third to Tony Martin and David Millar is a pretty good result and I can be proud of that," Dowsett said.

"We will now sit down tonight and talk about it. We have three riders in the top five and obviously no other team has that. We will take it on and see what we can do.

It is widely recognised that Stages two, four and five are sprinters' stages, meaning HTC-Highroad only has to control the race on the much hillier Stage three. If they can keep the German within his 17sec buffer that day, he will win the tour.

Stage one proceeded largely without incident, except for Rabobank's Lars Boom receiving a 20sec penalty for a team car infraction, which will see him drop from sixth to 30th overall.

Today's Stage 2 takes the Tour's 147 remaining riders (Garmin Cervelo's Matt Wilson broke his hand in a training fall and withdrew prior to the start of today's racing) on a 137km  journey from the Bird's Nest in Beijing Olympic Park to Men Tou Gou.

The stage includes four gentle category four climbs and three intermediate sprints before the finish in Yond Ding River Cultural Square.

Tour of Beijing TT results ...

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