Dan Martin sealed his second place overall in the Tour of Beijing today, ending the five day race just three seconds behind the winner Philippe Gilbert and showing that he has hit a rich run of form towards the end of the season.

Martin finished in the main bunch on the final stage from Tiananmen Square to Bird’s Nest Piazza, but, as expected, the sprinters were to the fore and prevented any chance of a final assault on Gilbert’s red jersey of race leader.

While time bonuses were on offer at the intermediate sprints and at the finish line, the former were mopped up by breakaway riders and the latter were taken by Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida), Greg Henderson (Lotto Belisol) and Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky), the three fastest sprinters on the day.

Both Gilbert and Martin finished further back, preserving the overnight situation and ending the race first and second overall. Martin’s fine result echoes his runner-up slot of last year, although this time round he went one better in pulling off a superb victory on Monday’s mountain top finish.

He was clearly strongest there, unleashing a 600 metre uphill sprint and opening up a two second gap over his closest rivals Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) and Gilbert.

That plus the resulting time bonus would normally have been enough to seal him the overall victory in the race, but a curtailed stage two due to air pollution meant that stage finished atop a short, steep ramp rather than on flatter roads, as was originally planned.

The modified finish played perfectly to Gilbert’s attributes; Martin is a better climber than the Belgian on longer inclines, but the former world champion was able to seize the opportunity on that shorter finish and race to a stage victory.

Martin also tried to go for the bonus seconds, but was blocked in the uphill sprint and rolled over the line in fifth. The time bonuses for that plus Monday’s stage pitched things slightly in Gilbert’s favour, giving him a three second advantage he was able to keep until the end.

Nevertheless, Martin’s run of form makes up for what was an at-times frustrating season. He crashed on the final bend of Liege-Bastogne-Liege in April, losing his chance of taking a second straight victory, and also fell on the opening stage of the Giro d’Italia, sustaining a fractured collarbone.

He missed the Tour de France but bounced back to take second on a stage and seventh overall in the Vuelta a Espana. Bad luck struck him again in the world road race championships when he was caught up in a crash and delayed, losing his chance.

However since then things have gone better for him; he put in a superbly-timed attack to win the Il Lombardia Classic earlier this month, then took that stage win plus second overall in the Tour of Beijing.

He will next contest the Japan Cup and, as a former winner of the race, will be one of the top favourites for that season-ending event.

Tour of Beijing (WorldTour) Stage 5, Tiananmen Square to Bird’s Nest Piazza: 1, Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) 117 kilometres in 2 hours 40 mins 10 secs; 2, G. Henderson (Lotto Belisol); 3, E. Boasson Hagen (Team Sky); 4, T. Farrar (Garmin Sharp); 5, M. Hofland (Belkin Pro Cycling Team); 6, L. Mezgec (Team Giant-Shimano) all same time Irish: 59, D. Martin (Garmin Sharp); 73, P. Deignan (Team Sky) each same time Teams: 1, AG2R La Mondiale, 8 hours 30 secs; 2, Team Giant-Shimano; 3, Orica GreenEdge, both same time Other: 4, Team Sky; 10, Garmin-Sharp, each same time

General classification: 1, Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing Team) 17 hours 59 mins 57 secs; 2, D. Martin (Garmin Sharp) at 3 secs; 3, J. Esteban Chaves Rubio (Orica-GreenEdge) at 9 secs; 4, R. Alberto Faria Da Costa (Lampre-Merida) at 11 secs; 5, S. Chernetski (Team Katusha) at 23 secs; 6, W. Barguil (Team Giant-Shimano) same time Other Irish: 18, P. Deignan (Team Sky) at 54 secs

Points classification: 1, Tyler Farrar (Garmin Sharp) 45 pts; 2, L. Mezgec (Team Giant-Shimano) 44; 3, M. Hofland (Belkin Pro Cycling Team) 33 Irish: 8, D. Martin (Garmin Sharp) 26

Mountains classification: 1, Michal Golas (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) 44 pts; 2, G. Boivin (Cannondale) 30; 3, J. Vermote (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) 25 Irish: 10, D. Martin (Garmin Sharp) 12

Teams: 1, Orica GreenEdge, 54 hours 1 min 16 secs; 2, Team Europcar, at 1 min 19 secs; 3, Team Sky, at 1 min 25 secs Other: 6, Garmin-Sharp, at 3 mins 52 secs