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Haller sprints to Beijing win

Beijing - Marco Haller won the fourth stage of the Tour of Beijing on Friday in his first professional victory, though 2011 champion Tony Martin retained the overall lead with just one leg to go.

Haller, a 21-year-old Austrian racing for the Katusha Team, had a late burst to overtake Italian Alessandro Petacchi of Lampre-ISD Team, who had sprinted toward the finish line.

Behind them in third was Stage One winner Italian Elia Viviani for Liquigas-Cannondale team.

"With a final like this it's also like a casino. You have to be in the right moment in the right spot," Haller said. "Today I had the luck, I had good legs, everything came together."

Haller and Petacchi both moved up one place after Thursday's round to 87th and 77th, respectively.

Martin, who races for Omega Pharma-QuickStep, remains in a strong position to defend the title he won last year at China's first World Tour calendar event.

With overall rankings and timings unchanged on Thursday, the 27-year-old German enters the final leg on Saturday with a 40-second lead over Italian Francesco Gavazzi, who races for the Astana team and won Stage 3 on Thursday.

Martin won the second phase on Wednesday after dominating for most of the tour and cruising across the finishing line with a strong lead of 46 seconds.

He took silver in the men's individual time trial at the Olympics this year.

Friday's race started at Yanqing near the Great Wall northwest of the capital and finished 165.5km later at Changping Stadium north of the city centre.

The tour of Beijing is the final event of the season.

Results from the fourth stage of the Tour of Beijing on Friday:

1. Marco Haller (AUT/Katusha Team) 3hr 35min 39secs
2. Alessandro Petacchi (ITA/Lampre-ISD) same time
3. Elia Viviani (ITA/Liquigas-Cannondale) same time
4. Lucas Sebastian Haedo (ARG/Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank) same time
5. Daniele Bennati (ITA/RadioShack-Nissan) same time
6. Francesco Chicchi (ITA/Omega Pharma-Quick Step) same time
7. Klaas Lodewyck (BEL/BMC Racing Team) same time
8. Allan Davis (AUS/Orica-GreenEdge) same time
9. Edvald Boasson Hagen (NOR/Team Sky) same time
10. Dominique Rollin (CAN/FDJ-BigMat) same time

Overall classification after Stage 4:

1. Tony Martin (GER/Omega Pharma-Quick Step) 13hr 11min 31secs
2. Francesco Gavazzi (ITA/Astana Pro Team) at 40 secs
3. Daniel Martin (IRL/Garmin-Sharp) at 50 secs
4. Edvald Boasson-Hagen (NOR/Sky Procycling) at 52 secs
5. Eros Capecchi (ITA/Liquigas-Cannondale) at 52 secs
6. Rinaldo Nocentini (ITA/AG2R La Mondiale) at 56 secs
7. Tomasz Marczynski (POL/Vacansoleil-DCM Procycling) at 56 secs
8. Rafal Majka (POL/Team Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Team) at 56 secs
9. Rui Alberto Costa (POR/Movistar Team) at 1:00
10. Tim Wellens (BEL/Lotto-Belisol Team) at 1:00
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