Viviani leads Liquigas-Cannondale 1-2

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Elia Viviani added another win to his 2011 tally with victory in stage four of the Tour of Beijing, beating teammate Peter Sagan, with Saxo Bank's Juan Jose Haedo in third.

After a fast, testing day in the saddle - the 189km was raced in just over four hours - Liquigas-Cannondale played its sprint cards to perfection as Davide Cimolai and Sagan set up their Italian colleague for the win, his eighth of the season.

"Today was very very fast on big roads. The team was fantastic to me," said Viviani. "Peter Sagan [who finished second], [Davide] Cimolai, all the team rode for me. We agreed that Peter would set me up for the sprint, and I came off his wheel with 150m to go."

It came after a break containing Damiano Cunego (Lampre-ISD), Tiago Machado (RadioShack), Quick Step's Iljo Keisse, Frederik Veuchelen (Vacansoleil), Julien Berard (AG2R-La Mondiale) and Chinese rider Meiyin Wang had established a lead in excess of five minutes before being reeled in with 10km remaining.

With the anticipated sprint, the likes of Team Sky, Saxo Bank and Katusha were busy getting their men into position but it was Liquigas-Cannondale with the best hand, taking a one-two finish outside the Shunyi Olympic Centre.

Tony Martin's overall lead was never threatened and the HTC-Highroad rider goes into tomorrow's final stage the likely candidate for inaugural Tour of Beijing champion. He maintains a lead of 17 seconds over David Millar (Garmin-Cervelo), with Team Sky's Chris Froome in third, a further nine seconds back.

Fourth place in today's finish, Katusha's Denis Galimzyanov retains the points classification lead and tomorrow he too will be aiming to hold onto his advantage in that competition. "Today, the team did great work," said Galimzyanov. "My teammates first neutralized today's breakaway, then put me in the best position for the final sprint.

"I did my best, but today someone was faster than me; maybe in this period I'm a bit tired after a long season. I'm happy anyways to wear the green jersey: tomorrow, in the last stage, I'll do my best to keep it."

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