Tomorrow, on 5 October 2011, the first edition of the Tour of Beijing will start. The Tour of Beijing is a race which was created from scratch and which has right from the first year been promoted to UCI WorldTour level.

The Tour will be made up of 5 stages: one time trial and 4 stages in line of which the last one is mainly based on 12 laps of a circuit. In this article you'll be able to find all details of the Tour of Beijing 2011 race course, based on Google Maps!

Please keep in mind that there's a time difference with Beijing: 7 hours ahead of the UK and for example 15 hours on the east coast of the USA. If you see for example in the time- and route schedule that the first rider will start the time trial at 1PM, this means 6AM in London and 10PM in Boston for example!

It all starts with a 11.3 kilometers long time trial, followed by stages which are mainly made for sprinters. Only the 3rd stage is a bit more mountaineous and even this stage seems to be easy compared to those of many other stage races ...

1/ Wednesday 5 October 2011 - Bird's Nest Piazza > Water Cube, Olympic Campus, Beijing - individual time trial, 11.3 km

The Tour of Beijing starts with an individual time trial over a distance of 11.3 kilometers which will take place in the Olympic Park of Beijing. The start podium will be built up in front of the Bird's Nest, the famous stadium (see photo by dperstin, creative commons) which was especially built for the 2008 Olympic Games.
From there, a windy race course will bring the riders in their individual effort to the finish line which is not far from there, at the Water Cube where the swimming races were held during those same Olympic Games.

Hereunder you'll find the time- and route schedule, the stage profile and the race course on Google Maps for this stage. Click on each of the images to open them.

The list with participating riders and the start order for the individual time trial of the Tour of Beijing 2011

147 riders will come to the start of the time trial tomorrow morning, with Tony Martin (Team HTC-Highroad) starting last, at 3.26PM, in his brand new World Champion kit. The story of the day today was that Samuel Sanchez refused to wear the number 1 the organising committee suggested him to wear as the winner of the Olympic race in Beijing. The Spanish rider however preferred to wear number 8, the number with which he won the race in 2008!

Hereunder you'll find the start order and times and the list of participating riders for the Tour of Beijing 2011:   

2/ Thursday 6 October 2011 - Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium > Men Tou Gou - 137 km

The second stage of the Tour of Beijing 2011 is a stage in line which will also start at the Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium and which will go towards Men Tou Gou, west of Beijing. The riders will ride 55.5 kilometers before they get on a local circuit around the finish city which they will do 4 times before heading south towards the finish line. In this circuit they will climb a short 3rd category climb in each lap and during the first lap, they'll be able to get something to eat in the feeding zone just after this climb. 3 intermediate prints will be battled for during this stage, of which 2 in the different laps on the final circuit.

Hereunder you'll find the time- and route schedule, the stage profile and the race course on Google Maps for this stage. Click on each of the images to open them.

3/ Friday 7 October 2011 - Men Tou Gou > Yong Ning - 162 km

Yet another stage in line for this third stage but this time it's the most mountaineous stage of this Tour of Beijing ... Quickly after the start, the riders will start to climb a 2nd category climb, in Dong Fang, which will almost immediately continue in the first climb of a first category mountain in this Tour of Beijing, Gao Qin, of which they'll reach the top after 43 kilometers in the race. Before they can start the descent, the riders will battle for the first intermediate sprint of this stage which will be slightly uphill and a quick descent will than bring them to the vallee where they'll find two other intermediate sprints and the feeding zone. In the last third part of this stage they'll have two more first category climbs, one at the Chinese Wall, in Xiezishi, and the other in Erpuliang.

Hereunder you'll find the time- and route schedule, the stage profile and the race course on Google Maps for this stage. Click on each of the images to open them.

4/ Saturday 8 October 2011 - Yanqing (Gui Chuan Square) > Shunyi Olympic Rowing and Canoeing Centre - 189,5 km

This 4th stage of the Tour of Beijing 2011 is most probably another stage for sprinters. The riders will leave eastwards, but they'll come back to the start city where they'll battle for the first intermediate sprint and than continue on the west- and north side of the city to get around it and get to the sprint in Jiuxiao. After the feeding zone and halfway the stage they'll do a short 3rd category climb before, after the descent of that climb, they go on on a 2nd category climb (Tuo Ling) and another 3rd category climb at the Chinese Wall. For this last climb, they turn left at one point, do the climb up to the Chinese Wall and go back down the same road to turn left again and follow their road ... If there are any time gaps and if they are big enough during this stage, the leading group could thus run into the peloton ... The end of this stage is downhill up to the finish where a bunch sprint will most probably decide who will be the winner of this stage. Before that, the riders will battle for another intermediate sprint at about twenty kilometers from the finish.

The finish line will again be drawn at a place which is known because of the Olympic Games of Beijing in 2008, the water centre of Shunyi which was used for rowing and canoeing races.

Hereunder you'll find the time- and route schedule, the stage profile and the race course on Google Maps for this stage. Click on each of the images to open them.

5/ Sunday 9 October 2011 - Tian An Men Square > Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium - 118 km

The fifth and last stage of the Tour of Beijing 2011 will completely take place in the center of Beijing plaats, over a 118 kilometer long distance.

After the start from a touristical and historical place in the city, the Tian An Men Square, the riders will go east parallel to the city center, before they turn right and go north up to the Silver Tower where the race course slightly bends north east wards and than completely east, before turning right to get to the local circuit at the Olympic Park on which they'll do 12 laps up to the finish at the Water Cube.

Hereunder you'll find the time- and route schedule, the stage profile and the race course on Google Maps for this stage. Click on each of the images to open them.

The Tour of Beijing 2011 race course in Google Earth

Exceptionally I don't offer you a KML file for download so you could see the race course in Google Earth. Indeed, in Europe the "map" and "satellite" views differ just a little bit, but not enough to make that a really disturbing problem ... in China the difference is that big that you wouldn't be able to follow the race course anymore since I draw these stages in map view ...

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Tour of Beijing | OpenStreetMap/Google Maps/Google Earth | UCI ProTour

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