Haussler wins Tour of Beijing second stage in photo-finish
BEIJING: Australia’s Heinrich Haussler from the Garmin team snatched victory in the second stage of the inaugural Tour of Beijing Thursday after a tight sprint finish.
Heinrich Haussler
Haussler chased down Denis Galimzyanov in the final metres of the 137km ride to Mentougou, to the west of the Chinese capital, and eventually pipped the Russian in a photo-finish.
“I’ve had a year with a lot of lows,” said Haussler afterwards. “I hadn’t won since the Tour of Qatar (in February). I didn’t try and ride in the Tour de France because I was thinking about the world championships. But I’ve been looking for form, and I wasn’t in the right shape at the Tour of Spain. All I can do is take what I can at the end of the season, here and then at the Sun Tour (in Australia). Next year, I’ll do the whole start of the season up to the classics. But I think that I’ll ask to ride in the Tour.”
Germany’s Tony Martin (HTC) held on to the race leader’s red jersey, having won the opening time-trial on Wednesday.
The race was opened up by a breakaway led by China’s Jiang Kun but concluded in a sprint after the peloton regrouped with around 15 kilometres to go.
Behind Haussler and Galimzynov, Dutchman Theo Bos took third place after outsprinting Italy’s Francesco Chicchi to the finish line. The race concludes Sunday.
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