Tour of Beijing (st. 4)

Herrada struggles against GC contenders in Beijing's Queen stage, loses 3' to finish his overall chances; Movistar Team set to confirm double 2014 WorldTour success tomorrow

Despite all good work done by his Movistar team-mates -especially Intxausti, Sütterlin and Sanz with the leadout before the Mentougou Miaofeng climb and later Lastras and Dayer Quintana until halfway through that ascent-, Jesús Herrada could not keep up with the pace of the favourites during stage four of the Tour of Beijing. The 157km, five-hill Queen stage leading to the long finishing hill saw Dan Martin (GRS) taking victory ahead of the favourites’ group, which the young Spaniard lost contact with at the 7km-to-go banner.

Herrada finished 2’52” back, stepping off the overall top-ten and losing his Young Riders’ competition jersey to Chaves (OGE) -3rd GC, behind Gilbert (BMC) and Martin-. Sort of consolation for the lads directed by Jaimerena and Laguía will come on Tuesday after the 110km circuit race in the Olympic Park: both WorldTour individual (Valverde) and team rankings are all but certain to be confirmed after Contador (absent in China) and Tinkoff-Saxo did not dispute the Blues’ place during the last week.