| 2014 UCI World Tour, race 29 of 29 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Race details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dates | 10–14 October 2014 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Stages | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Results | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 2014 Tour of Beijing was the fourth and final running of the Tour of Beijing stage race. It started on 10 October in Hebei's Chongli County and ended on 14 October at the Bird's Nest Piazza after five stages. It was the 29th and final race of the 2014 UCI World Tour season.
At the 2014 UCI Road World Championships in September, cycling's governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), decided that its race-organising subsidiary, Global Cycling Promotion, would not continue to organise the Tour of Beijing; the 2014 edition would be the final edition. UCI President Brian Cookson had criticised the subsidiary body during his election campaign,[1] and the Tour of Beijing was not seen as being well-liked by cyclists. According to Cycling Weekly, "Dull routes and an absence of roadside spectators meant the race failed to exhibit much of an atmosphere, and its position at the very end of the calendar made it even less appealing – a long flight eastwards after a whole season's racing is a very tough sell to exhausted cyclists dreaming of the winter off."[2]
Some issues presented themselves before and during the race. On September 10 it emerged that Valentin Iglinsky of Astana Pro Team had returned a positive test for EPO[3] at the Eneco Tour. He confessed to doping to the team and was immediately sacked,[4] three weeks later Valentin's brother, Maxim Iglinsky was provisionally suspended by the UCI for an EPO positive on August 1.[5] It was later announced that Astana withdrew themselves from the Tour of Beijing in line with the Mouvement pour un cyclisme crédible rules, which state that a team with two positives in a short period of time must not participate in the next World Tour event.[6] There was also the prospect of two Grand Tour winners – Alberto Contador and Alejandro Valverde attending the race with serious winning intentions – with Contador bidding to overhaul his fellow Spaniard Valverde's lead at the top of the overall points standings of the World Tour. However, the combination of Valverde's success and Contador's injury at the Giro di Lombardia, the previous race on the calendar, meant that in the end neither cyclist attended the Tour of Beijing. During the race, Beijing was hit with particularly strong pollution problems,[7] and after complaints from cyclists, stage 2 of the Tour was shortened.
- ^ "Brian Cookson: 'New and exciting era' does not have place for Tour of Beijing – Cycling Weekly". Cycling Weekly. 24 September 2014.
- ^ "Tour of Beijing 2014 preview". Cycling Weekly. 9 October 2014.
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-05-09. Retrieved 2014-10-12.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Valentin Iglinskiy sacked by Astana after positive test". Cyclingnews.com. 10 September 2014.
- ^ "Maxim Iglinskiy provisionally suspended for EPO". Cyclingnews.com. October 2014.
- ^ "Astana withdraws from Tour of Beijing following Maxim Iglinskiy positive". Cyclingnews.com. 6 October 2014. Retrieved 7 October 2014.
- ^ "China pollution levels hit 20 times safe limit". the Guardian. 10 October 2014.