Having only joined cycling's top division in 2025 at the relatively late age of 29, Paul Double (Jayco AlUla) was left emotional after surviving late attacks to hold onto his GC lead at the Tour of Guangxi and claim his first WorldTour stage race win.
Victor Lafay (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) left Double panicking as he attacked solo on the final lap of the main climb featured on the final stage in Nanning, having started the day in second at only a 15-second deficit.
Though Double tried to chase on his own and with one other GC hopeful to help him at times, his teammates Alan Hatherly and Jasha Sutterlin returned on the flat run for home, meaning he had company, and with the help of other teams, Lafay was caught.
As Paul Magnier (Souda-QuickStep) won yet another sprint, Double could come to the line safely and confirm the biggest result of his career so far.
"I'm very happy, and I've been emotional, for sure, at the finish line," Double told reporters after being presented with his red jersey on the final podium. "The boys were so good today, and I was happy yesterday, but to finish the job today, it's pretty emotional.
"When Lafay went on the last lap, I panicked. The boys told me not to, but I was panicking. I tried to pull it back on my own and was not doing a great job, then Alan was there, super strong, and Jasha came back, but also the groups came back together.
"So it was all fine in the end. And here we are, I've got the red jersey."
After winning the Queen stage to Nongla on Saturday, Double credited his newfound confidence in the back end of the season to the GC win he took at the Tour of Slovakia a month prior, but couldn't yet pin down just what a WorldTour GC win would do for his own self-belief.
"I don't know, it's all new for me. I'm just super happy with it, and I'll speak to the people, but I don't know cycling," he said.
"We'll see what this looks like next year when we go into pre-season and take it from there. I'll let it sink in first. We'll probably have a bit of a party tonight, and then, when we're thinking about next year, I can definitely remember this."
Double did arrive in China with the ambition of performing well overall, with Hatherly as the team's second option, but actually taking red ahead of the likes of Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), who started as the favourites, wasn't exactly what he'd predicted.
"I mean, the form was good, but there's a lot of really good bike riders here," said Double. "I think I said this yesterday, that I wanted to do well, but I didn't expect this."
His immediate future will involve a move from Andorra to San Marino, so more logistics than time off, but Double can nonetheless take time to reflect on his GC win throughout November and December and set new goals for his second WT season with Jayco AlUla in 2026.
"I will probably be moving, so actually, no holidays," he said. "This life is a holiday, it feels like a holiday. So I'll just try to relax and take time to let the body recover from the season, enjoy time with friends and family."
The British rider now joins Lennert Van Eetvelt, Milan Vader, Tim Wellens, Enric Mas and Gianni Moscon on the list of Tour of Guangxi winners, and will now be hoping this kicks off his GC career into the higher-level races.
