Italian Elia Viviani of Liquigas dominated a bunch sprint to win the fourth stage of the Tour of Beijing Saturday.
Viviani finished the 189.5 km ride ahead of Slovakian teammate Peter Sagan, with Argentina's Juan Jose Haedo of Saxo Bank in third place.
Germany's Tony Martin (HTC) retained the race leader's red jersey going into Sunday's final stage of the race, which is appearing on the elite WorldTour calendar for the first time.
Liquigas had worked tirelessly on the opening stage of the race, but in vain as a late surge by Australian Heinrich Haussler (Garmin) left Viviani in sixth place.
On Saturday the Italian outfit made similar efforts, but got their timing right in placing both Sagan and Viviani among the four men they had driving the peloton over the final kilometres.
Nicolas Roche, who won the third stage, finshed well down the field in 87th and is now in 11th overall, 48 seconds behind the leader.
Philip Deignan finshed in 70th position today and is back in 31st in the general classification 1 minute and 8 seconds off Tony Martin.
Liquigas's pace-setting went unrivalled, and in the end 22-year-old Viviani came off Sagan's wheel to claim a deserved win.
"We'd agreed that Peter would set me up for the sprint, and I came off his wheel with 150 metres to go," said Viviani, who thus claimed his eighth victory of the season.
Amid a season which has been largely fruitless for many compatriots, Viviani's win gives a much needed boost to the Italians.
It also underlined the fact he could be their sole Olympic representative at the velodrome in London next year, if he decides to compete in the omnium event.
"I don't know what I'll do at the Games because the road race still interests me," said the Italian.
"But I may decide to give priority to the track."
Martin, who took the overall lead thanks to victory in the opening time trial on Wednesday, now has Sunday's 118 km ride from Tiananmen Square to Olympic Park -- via 12 laps of a circuit -- to get through before sealing the red jersey.
