It was an emphatic victory from Paul Double (Jayco-AlUla) on stage 5's summit finish of the Gree-Tour of Guangxi in Nongla on Saturday, which traditionally crowns the overall winner of the six-stage WorldTour race.
He flew the coop on the slopes of the category 1 finishing climb that capped the stage which started in Yizhou and crossed the line solo, with a nine-second gap to second-placed Victor Lafay (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale). Mikkel Honoré (EF Education-EasyPost), who finished a further two seconds back, rounded out the stage podium.
The 165.8km stage with 1,718m of climbing was the day the non-sprinters in the field had been waiting for, even though the total elevation gain may have actually dropped compared to recent stages. As expected, after fastman Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep) had won the first four stages, the brutally steep uphill finish finally broke the stranglehold of the sprinters.
The category 1 climb to Nongla, 3.1km at 6.3%, was always going to be the crucial point of the race, for the stage and the overall battle, with the break quickly swept up on the lower slopes and the favourites flying.
Prior to Saturday, Magnier had led the general classification through the four opening stages, building his margin to 26 seconds on his nearest rival, Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe), by the end of stage 4. After stage 5, however, Double became the clear new leader with a 15-second gap on the overall to Lafay, while Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates) moved into third on GC, a second further back.
How it unfolded
Saturday brought the Queen stage at the Tour of Guangxi, with the uphill finish at the Nongla Scenic Area set to all but decide the overall general classification and red jersey winner up the final 3.3-kilometre ascent, which averages a 6.3% gradient.
Several riders tried their luck once racing got underway properly past big crowds in Yizhou, with a big split even forming off the front at one point. But things eventually came back together, ready for the next moves to go.
The lead-up to the final climb was mostly flat, except for a category 3 climb that came with just under 50km to go, and before then, a solid breakaway of five had formed: Ryan Gibbons (Lidl-Trek), Tom Paquot (Intermarché-Wanty), Mathias Norsgaard (Movistar), Haoyu Su (XDS-Astana) and King of the Mountains Simon Guglielmi (Arkéa-B&B Hotels).
Guglielmi stopped his effort after taking maximum KOM points, leaving just four to continue the journey southwards down to Gulingzhen, where the final climb would begin. At this point, UAE Team Emirates-XRG were at the front of the peloton, but Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale soon moved up to offer up their train.
As racing hit the final climb to the line, the break began to splinter, with Paquot, Norsgaard and Gibbons quickly struggling on the steep lower slopes. This left Chinese rider Su as the last man standing, which would earn him the Combativity Prize at the end of the stage and the biggest cheers of the afternoon on the podium.
Honoré (EF Education-EasyPost) kicked things off with the attacks in the group behind, but he brought Double (Jayco AlUla) and Ben Zwiehoff (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) with him.
Double moved to the front as his confidence grew and the cooperation disintegrated, not wanting to give up the advantage he'd gained on the UAE-led peloton behind. The British rider then left the Dane and German behind to go solo in the final kilometre.
UAE failed to get a concerted effort going behind, as neither Johnatan Narváez nor Jan Christen had the legs to go with the accelerations. Meanwhile Double continued his solo through the section of hairpins at the end, a finale he later described as "horrible", to capture a maiden WorldTour win.
Lafay (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) led the chasers in for a solid result, with Honoré taking third and the Visma-Lease a Bike duo of Jørgen Nordhagen and Cian Uijtdebroeks rounding out the top five on the Queen stage.
