Cycling: Viviani wins Tour of Beijing fourth stage

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Cycling: Viviani wins Tour of Beijing fourth stage

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Italian Elia Viviani of Liquigas dominated a bunch sprint to win fourth stage of Tour of Beijing.

09 October,2011 04:01 am

Viviani finished the 189.5 km ride ahead of Slovakian teammate Peter Sagan, with Argentinas Juan Jose Haedo of Saxo Bank in third place.Germanys Tony Martin (HTC) retained the race leaders red jersey going into Sundays final stage of the race, which is appearing on the elite WorldTour calendar for the first time.Liquigas had worked tirelessly on the opening stage of the race, but in vain as a late surge by Australian Heinrich Haussler (Garmin) left Viviani in sixth place.On Saturday the Italian outfit made similar efforts, but got their timing right in placing both Sagan and Viviani among the four men they had driving the peloton over the final kilometres.Liquigass pace-setting went unrivalled, and in the end 22-year-old Viviani came off Sagans wheel to claim a deserved win.Wed agreed that Peter would set me up for the sprint, and I came off his wheel with 150 metres to go, said Viviani, who thus claimed his eighth victory of the season.Amid a season which has been largely fruitless for many compatriots, Vivianis win gives a much needed boost to the Italians.It also underlined the fact he could be their sole Olympic representative at the velodrome in London next year, if he decides to compete in the omnium event.