Intro:

Italian Sacha Modolo of Lampre-Merida won the fifth and final stage of the UCI's last-ever Tour of Beijing on Tuesday from Tiananmen Square to the Bird's Nest Piazza in the Chinese capital - but the overall honours went to Belgian Philippe Gilbert of BMC Racing, who kept the 'red jersey' as he finished three seconds ahead of stage four winner Dan Martin (Garmin-Sharp), and nine seconds ahead of Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge).

Script:

The omnipresent Tour of Beijing mascot was again keeping a watchful eye on the two lone breakaways during the fifth and final stage of the UCI's last-ever Tour of Beijing on Tuesday - a 117-kilometre circuit race.

The panda was travelling in style from Tiananmen Square to the Bird's Nest in the Chinese capital - but the brave challenge of Laurent Mangel (FDJ) and Tosh Van der Sande (Lotto-Belisol) was to end in heartbreak just 500 metres from the finish line.

The bunch sprint for stage honours almost didn't happen - as the two escapees managed to evade the clutches of the peloton until the line was nearly in sight around the final corner.

However, the exhausted duo were enveloped and swallowed up by the chasing pack as the sprinters moved up a gear.

Italian Sacha Modolo took the stage win, ahead of Kiwi Greg Henderson (Lotto-Belisol) in second and Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky) in third.
Tyler Farrar's fourth place on the final day netted the Garmin-Sharp sprinter the points classification after he won stage three.

However, there was no change to the overall classification on the final day: Belgian Philippe Gilbert of BMC ended the race three seconds ahead of stage four winner Dan Martin of the Republic of Ireland (Garmin-Sharp), and nine seconds ahead of Colombian Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge).

Not only is that the end of the 2014 UCI WorldTour, but it is also the end of the Tour of Beijing.

The race will not return next season after UCI president Brian Cookson decided not to continue with the event.