Eli Viviani won the opening stage of the Tour Of Beijing UCI World Tour Event this morning.
This was a flat 117km stage from Tiananmen Square to Bird’s Nest Olympic Piazza and saw five riders break away for most of the stage.
They were still a minute ahead with 39kms and five laps of this twelve 7.8km lapper left as the peloton which featured a reasonably strong field including Brits Team Sky Luke Dowsett, BMC's Steve Cummings and World Time Trial Champion Tony Martin started to move up.
With the riders swept up on lap ten, Craig Lewis of Champion Systems made a break for it.
His time at the front was soon over and the big guns including Tyler Phinney and Edvald Boason-Hagen came to the front of the peloton,
Under the flam rouge, it was anybody's stage. and on the left, Liquigas's Eli Viviani took the win beating Brit Andy Fenn.and Boason-Hagen.in a time of 2.37.49.
Tomorrow's second stage is 126kms long and from Bird’s Nest Piazza to Men Tou Gou Yong Ding River Cultural Square.