Telephone squad to compete from Wednesday on first-ever race in the continent as 1st Tour of Beijing kicks off, the World Tour event taking Blues on a long trip from today Movistar Team travel to Asia today for the very first time in their long history to take part in the maiden edition of the 2011 UCI World Tour's only stop in the continent. Featuring an all-Spanish roster, the telephone squad will land in the Chinese capital city with the coming of October to race the 1st Tour of Beijing, where they will compete with the other 17 squads in cycling's top tier through five stages conceeding equal chances for sprinters, puncheurs or climbers. Yvon Ledanois will direct the Movistar Team roster on Asian turf, the team composed by Pablo Lastras, Sergio Pardilla, Beñat Intxausti, Jesús Herrada, Rubén Plaza, Ángel Madrazo, Javier Iriarte and Enrique Sanz.

An 11-kilometer individual time trial to be completed with conventional road bike between two venues from the 2008 Olympics -the “Bird’s Nest” stadium and the “Water Cube” swimming center- will open way as the race will head into Men Tou Gou for a second stage mainly flat , yet containing a short, steep ascent to be tackled five times during the 137k route. The Queen stage, with four categorized climbs and 162k, will get the riders to Yong Ning, the race descending from that point for two presumably mass sprint finishes in Shunyi (Saturday 8th) and the final circuit in Beijing (Sunday 9th).