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Published on Monday, 14 October 2013 23:30

Tour of Beijing Stage 5 Preview

Tian An Men Square to Bird's Nest Piazza, 117Km 

Well, it's all over bar the shouting as Benat Intxausti's audacious move and great team-work by none other than the World Champion Rui Costa saw the Spaniard take the stage and the leader's jersey with just the race around Beijing to come. Dan Martin tried valiantly to reel him in, and for a while it looked he would, but ultimately just came up short.  

Intxausti launched his attack from a reduced peloton with just over 2km to go. The pace had been extremely fast for most of the climb, but the lack of really steep ramps meant that a lot of riders were still in contention with about 4km to go. It was only when the sharp accelerations and attacks came at the front that things started to break up. Intxausti said after that the plan was to have him and Costa in the mix coming in to the final kilometres so they had options. As it turned out, it was his attack that turned out to be the decisive one, and behind Dan Martin was left to do all the chasing as Costa rode a team game for Intxausti. With 400m to go Martin was closing fast and it looked for a while like he would catch the tiring Movistar man, but he held on to win and put himself 10" ahead of Martin. 

So I'm glad I didn't back Martin, 9/5 was too short with the climbs not being as steep as he would like. I was spot on with Costa, he was indeed in that group of 5 or 6 that fought out the finish. Gesink rode well and was teed up by his Belkin team-mates on the lower slopes of the final climb, but just didn't have that kick when the final attacks came. He finished 8th just 10" down on a podium spot. Nocentini had a day off it seems, rolled in 16 minutes down.  No idea what price Intxausti was for yesterday but I am guessing 40/1 or bigger, must have been  a similar price for the overall pre-race.

So on to the final stage and the final big race of 2013, one that is surely going to end in a sprint finish. They ride 23.5km from Tian An Men Square towards the Bird's Nest Stadium and then start on the 8km finishing circuit, of which they do 12 laps. There are a couple of tight bends and a hairpin turn on the circuit but the roads are wide and flat and shouldn't cause any problems really.

Contenders and Favourites:  

It looks like there can only be one winner based on the sprint finishes so far and that is Bouhanni the Bullet. He is priced accordingly though, as short as 17/20 with Bet365! There is 11/8 available with Paddy Power though so if you want to back him do it there. Use this link to open an account if you need to, take advantage of their £50 free bet offer!

But I'm going to look elsewhere and see if we can pick out a better value each way bet. Roberto Ferrari came the closest to Bouhanni on Stage 2 after hitching a ride brilliantly on the FDJ train inside the last 600m. It was chaotic all around him but he threaded a path with an experienced head and was in the best possible position when Bouhanni took it up. It will be a scrap tomorrow for that wheel I think and Ferrari is one of the best at fighting his corner, so at 11/1 I am backing him each way. With a bit of luck he may turn the tables. 

Ferrari is evens in a match bet versus Mezgec with Bet365 and I think that is a pretty good bet. I have backed that, but also added in Bouhanni to beat Viviani (1/3), Van Hoff to beat Hutarovich (9/20) and Gesink to beat Brajkovic (11/20) - the four-fold pays 5/1.