Intro:

Race leader Philippe Gilbert called it a "big step in our sport" after organisers, the UCI and riders came together and agreed to shorten stage two of the Tour of Beijing due to poor air quality on Saturday (11 October).

Script:

SOUNDBITE: (English) Philippe Gilbert, Stage 2 winner:

(Q: Philippe an interesting day to say the least?)

"Yeah it was a very strange day because this morning it was raining, then it was a lot of pollution in the air and we spoke together with the organisation, the UCI and everyone agreed that we should cancel the last thirty kilometres and I think it was a good decision. And of course the final was good for me because I'm able to finish better than flat, but I think it's the circumstance. I didn't choose it, I was just lucky to have a finish like this and to finish the job, so I'm pretty happy today."

(Q: It's a little bit ironic because we arrived in Yanqing and the conditions look a lot better than we thought that they were earlier this morning?)

"Yeah but this you never know, I mean it's always good to take a decision like this before, organise everything and for me it's the first time that I've seen that we take a decision together with the different parts of cycling and this means a lot because a lot of times in the past the riders were not, they didn't listen to us and today we did a big step in our sport I think."