Paul Double (Jayco-AIUla) resisted a dangerous late attack by Victor Lafay (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) to win the overall classification of the Tour of Guangxi on Sunday, with Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep) scorching to a remarkable full house of five bunch sprint wins out of a possible five on the 2025 WorldTour's final day of racing.
Timing his move perfectly with a late blast up the right-hand side of the barriers, Magnier crossed the line just ahead of Stanislaw Aniolkowski (Cofidis) and Paul Penhoet (Groupama-FDJ)
After taking the lead on Guangxi's one summit finish stage at Nongla on Saturday, Double and the remnants of his squad in the lead group were forced to chase hard when Lafay, just 15 seconds back, charged away on the last ascent of the Qingxiushan climb.
However, as the road dropped back down through the forest to a broad highway, the Frenchman was reeled in at around 12 kilometres from the line. Then with the stage subsequently decided in a reduced bunch sprint, Double was finally able to celebrate his first overall victory at WorldTour level, in what constitutes a major late breakthrough for the 29-year-old Briton.
Second on GC in the final WorldTour race of the season was Lafay, 15 seconds back. Showing notable season-long consistency, Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) - the winner of the first event of the series, the Santos Tour Down Under back in January - came home in third, 16 seconds behind.
How it unfolded
Multiple attacks early on created a lively opening half of the stage, raced over five long laps round the southern city of Nanning and even briefly a split in the peloton with 75 kilometres to go, although race leader Double was not caught out and remained safely in the front group. A five-rider group did carve its way clear, though, containing New Zealand's Reuben Thompson (Lotto), Arkéa-B&B Hotels duo Ewen Costiou, Léandre Lozouet, Nans Peter (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) - set to retire after the race - and fellow-Frenchman Clément Davy (Groupama-FDJ). Thompson at 1:16 overall was the most dangerous threat to Double, but the gap never really rose over 80 seconds, meaning the Briton's lead was not really challenged.
EF Education-Easy Post were the most keen of the major squads to keep the five ahead under control, squeezing the gap to 45 seconds on the third last of the multiple ascents Cat.2 climb of Qingxiushan climb. However, as they roared over the Yongjiang river on a broad highway for almost the last time, the five were still very much a force to be reckoned with. Meanwhile, there was a bad crash in the middle of the speeding peloton, with up to a dozen riders then forced to chase. One of those badly affected was Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe's Frederik Wandahl, who hit his face hard as he came down and Diego Pescador (Movistar) was also in trouble after smashing his saddle in one of the rare crashes thankfully to affect Guangxi this week.
On the final ascent of the Qingxiushan, with around 20 kilometres to go, Costiou was the first to make a concerted effort, but the big news was a more determined GC move behind as Lafay zipped away. Peters then took over on the front as they reached Costiou to provide his teammate with some brief support, and then Lafay pushed on alone on the second, tougher segment of the climb.
Forced on the defensive, race leader Double had to react behind and he duly did, causing the peloton to split but - crucially - not shatter completely. Lafay already had a gap of 20 seconds on a group of some 30 riders at the summit of the Qingxiushan, making him virtual leader on the road as he tore down through the forest and setting up a dramatic finale.
Lafay was clearly on a roll, and with nothing to lose, yet the support from UAE Team Emirates behind was making it a very tough challenge for the French Giro d'Italia and Tour de France stage winner. 12 kilometres from the line as the road flattened notably and the race returned to broad highways again, the Frenchman was reeled in. The addition of more groups catching the front, one of them including top sprint favourite Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep), rendered another bunch sprint, albeit a reduced one, increasingly certain.
Jayco-AlUla tried to keep the bunch together for Double, setting as strong a pace as they could, yet they could not stop Fausto Masnada (XDS-Astana) from attacking on the wide highway and once he was caught, Masnada's teammate Anthon Charmig. With two kilometres to go, the Dane still had a couple of hundred metres advantage, forcing Soudal-QuickStep to work their finger to the bone to bring him back in.
Within sight of the finishing gantry and clearly aggressive to the last, Decathlon AG2R made a final throw of the dice with a brief late dig by Stan Dewulf, only for Magnier to come blasting up the right for his fifth win in six days and 19th victory of the season: a remarkable achievement for the young Frenchman, and one which augers very well for 2026.
Results
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