Tour of Beijing: Vermote in day`s breakaway, Uran 8th

OPQS keeps playing an important role in the Tour of Beijing. Julien Vermote was in the day`s breakaway during the 4th stage. He was caught on the final climb. Rigoberto Uran finished 8th, 10 seconds behind stage winner Daniel Martin.

Vermote and 3 other riders attacked early in the stage. The 4 leaders stayed together for a long time, but just beofore Mentougou Miaofeng Mountain Vermote dropped his breakway mates and went on alone. The Belgian OPQS rider had a small gap on the peloton however and was caught on the final climb. Vermote was rewarded with the prize of most aggressive rider after the stage.

Daniel Martin (Garmin-Sharp) attacked in the final kilometre. Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEDGE) marked his attack, but had to leave the stage win to Martin. Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing Team) finished 3rd and secured his overall lead. OPQS riders Rigoberto Uran and Pieter Serry both finished in the first chase group. In the general classification Uran and Serry are in 9th and 10th place.

Michal Golas kept the lead in the mountain classification. He received another polka dot jersey on the podium after the stage. Tomorrow Golas only has to finish the final stage to win the final mountain classification.

"Today we tried to be protagonists in the race," OPQS Sport Director Davide Bramati said. "We put Vermote in the breakaway and tried to shake things up a little bit. But the peloton controlled the gap well. On the second to last climb we tried put the tempo a bit higher, but nothing really happened. So, on the last climb, once they caught Vermote, we rode for Uran amd Serry. As a collective we did a good race, but probably we missed a little bit the individual actions of one of our two leaders. But overall we did well. Tomorrow is an easy stage on paper, but we can try again to go for a stage win and see if there is an opportunity to gain a few seconds for the GC."