Paul Magnier may only be in his second year as a WorldTour pro, but the French sprinter proved on Sunday in the Tour of Guangxi in some ways he's already in a league of his own as he blasted his way to a fifth bunch sprint victory out of a possible five this week in China.
From stage 1 in Fangchenggang all the way through stage 6 in Nanning, the 21-year-old Soudal-QuickStep racer has been simply unbeatable in his own speciality.
The one victory to escape him was - logically - the summit finish in Nongla, and the overall, both of which went to Paul Double (Jayco-AIUla). But beyond that, on every other finish in the 2025 race, there was only one rider raising his arms in triumph each day.
It seems hard to believe that Magnier only claimed his first win at the WorldTour level as recently as the 2025 Tour de Pologne.
Yet thanks to his remarkably strong second half of the season, he's ended up with 19 victories in his palmares in 2025. All bar one - his first race of the season, the Etoile de Bessèges - taken from June onwards, and just one less than the most prolifically successful rider of the year, the all-conquering Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).
Where he has done better than even the Slovenian is Magnier is the only rider this year with five wins in a single WorldTour race of any category. He is also the only rider alongside Tom Boonen and Mark Cavendish to have won at least 19 races for QuickStep in a single season in the team's 22 years of existence. All this at 21.
"It's an amazing feeling," we came here with a team with a lot of ambition," Magnier told reporters afterwards.
"I was in good form the last two months, so yeah, the team wanted to do good, but I think I really didn't expect to be that good."
"I think we can be really proud of Soudal Quick-Step's job here in China, and I would like to come here next year to do it again."
Magnier said that the first win of the five stages was his favourite, given the pressure he had placed on himself.
"When you take the first one, you're like - yeah, OK, I want one, and then on, it [stage wins] are only bonuses. But it was a bonus every day, every day and every day."
Magnier had to fight hard for his successes, with neither stage 4 nor stage 6 favouring the sprinters in particular, given their hilly terrain that preceded the finish. He confirmed the last day, with multiple ascents of the Cat.2 Qingxiushan, even sparking a GC battle with an attack by overall runner-up Victor Lafay (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) before a small bunch sprint decided the stage, was particularly difficult.
Sprinting on the very broad boulevards that often featured in Guangxi is "something really special where the timing is super-important," he said, "But I was able to find the timing every day, so I think I can be really happy with that."
"Dries van Gestel" - teammate and leadout man - "did it super well, too, every day I could, show my strength on the sprint, and this is super nice."
"Even if it looks easy on the TV, it's super hard to be always in the front in the good moments because we are riding 70 km an hour. So if you go too early or too late, it can be a false dawn."
"So I'm super happy to find the right timing every day, and I'm excited, too, to race next year at a higher level and see what I can do."
Magnier, unsurprisingly, said that he thought he had more than met his objectives for the year, with a second place in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in the early season a very promising start. But it was in the second half of the year that he really put his foot down on the accelerator.
"Next year, I hope I can even do a bit better," he said, "but I'll take it step by step. At some point in my career, too, I hope I can win a Monument or a big Classic."
"Now, though, I will enjoy myself with the team here in China and then I will take off some time to be with my family and my girlfriend. After that, I will see what I will do."
