Tour of Guangxi: Gaviria doubles up on stage 5

Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) took his second stage win in this year’s Tour of Guangxi as he out-sprinted Pascal Ackermann (BORA-hansgrohe) and Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-SCOTT) in Guilin on stage 5. Enric Mas (Deceuninck - Quick-Step) still leads the race overall.

A group of four riders made up today’s main breakaway. Ryan Mullen (Trek-Segafredo), Jay Thomson (Team Dimension Data), Roy Goldstein (Israel Cycling Academy) and Taco Van der Hoorn (Team Jumbo-Visma) managed to build up a gap of around four minutes before the pack began to chase.

As the quartet took on the final two ascents, the gap to the peloton started to come down quickly. Mullen, who was on the attack for the third day in the race, was the last man to get caught, securing him the award for being the most aggressive rider for the second day in a row.

After catching the break, several riders tried to get away. Amongst them Daniel Martinez (EF Education First) who finished second yesterday. However, being just five seconds down on Mas in the general classification, the Colombian was quickly brought back by the Spaniard and his teammates.

The fast pace on the climb resulted in just a dozen of riders being able to stay in front. Still, the majority of the peloton managed to come back on final flat part of 25 km. A bunch sprint was now inevitable and for the second time in this race, Gaviria turned out to be the fastest rider on the day.

Tomorrow’s stage 6 is also the final stage of Tour of Guangxi. On paper, it should be another bunch sprint, leaving Mas in good position to take the overall victory.

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