The young American took his best result of the year in a World Tour event.
The final World Tour race of the season, the Tour of Guangxi got underway Tuesday morning with a 149.4km flat stage starting and finishing in Fangchenggang. As soon as the peloton rolled out of the neutral zone, two men jumped clear and formed a breakaway that at one point enjoyed a three-minute maximum advantage.
Soudal Quick-Step’s Josef Cerny quickly came to the front of the bunch to set the tempo, and the multiple ITT Czech Champion worked hard to keep the escapees’ gap in check for the first part of the stage before ramping up the pace and reducing it to around one minute for the last 20 kilometers.
Other teams joined the effort and made sure the day would come down to a mass gallop on the wide boulevards of Fangchenggang, where Lionel Taminiaux (Lotto-Dstny) took the win after a tight finish. Despite being boxed in with just 100 meters to go, Luke Lamperti found some space and scored a solid top ten result – his third of the month after the ones in Binche-Chimay-Binche and the Münsterland Giro.
Photo credit: ©Dario Belingheri / Getty Images
Luke Lamperti 