Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep) claimed victory in the opening stage of the Tour of Guangxi in Fanchenggang, China, after a crash near the front in the final 500m split the field.
Magnier surged past his remaining rivals on the left-hand side of the road with a pace that couldn't be matched while others who had been caught up in the mayhem behind picked themselves up off the tarmac and wondered what could have been.
Max Kanter (XDS Astana) claimed second, and Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) was third on stage 1 of the closing event of the men's WorldTour racing for 2025.
The 148.8km stage with 1,144m of vertical gain always looked set to come down to a sprint, particularly when the two riders out front, Mathis Le Berre (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and Attila Valter (Visma-Lease a Bike), were caught with over 20km to go.
"It was the first time I really had the opportunity to sprint on the straight and big roads like this," Magnier told reporters after collecting several leaders' jerseys on the podium.
"I was a bit nervous in the last few kilometres because I was scared to find the space, but my teammates did a super nice job to find me the space to sprint, and in the last 200 metres I was still feeling strong and fresh, so I made it to the line."
How it unfolded
It was a typically humid start to the opening stage of the Tour of Guangxi in Fangchenggang, with the largely European peloton that had made the long trip over to southwest China eyeing up a likely sprint finish and just shy of 150 kilometres made up of four laps around the city.
Aurélien Paret-Peintre (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Remy Rochas (Groupama-FDJ) and Julius Johansen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) made up the first meaningful break after an attacking start on Tuesday.
Although they enjoyed around a two-minute lead for some time, the two Frenchmen soon sat up and waited to be brought back, as the pace was kept high by sprint favourites Soudal-QuickStep and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, riding for Magnier and Meeus respectively.
The peloton split momentarily before the halfway point, with around 40 riders finding themselves in front, but order was quickly restored, allowing a new two-man breakaway to form: Mathis le Berre (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and Attila Valter (Visma-Lease a Bike).
Le Berre and Valter were caught during the final lap with 22km to go, allowing the build-up to the inevitable bunch sprint to begin, with Red Bull, Soudal and Cofidis continuing to lead things on the front.
Wide roads meant for an incredibly active peloton, with lots of room to move up on either side. This ended in disaster for some in the final kilometre, as UAE's Rui Oliveira came down after a touch of wheels, causing several others to crash behind him. Niklas Behrens and Dan McLay (Visma-Lease a Bike) were among those taken out of the sprint, alongside Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious) and Stefen De Schuyteneer (Lotto).
This happened right near the front of the bunch, allowing only a select few to battle out the finale, however, this did include pre-race favourite, Magnier, who sprinted past a faltering Fernando Gaviria (Movistar) and Oded Kogut (Israel-Premier Tech), after they found themselves on the front too early.
Magnier had timed his move perfectly, with neither Kanter or Meeus able to come out of his wheel and deny him a 15th win of the season.
