Gree-Tour of Guangxi

Twenty-four hours after Warre Vangheluwe captured his first World Tour thanks to a monster sprint in Jingxi, our team was again prominent at the Tour of Guangxi. Pepijn Reinderink, the man who animated last month’s Tour de Luxembourg on three separate occasions, winning the KOM jersey thanks to his effort, was again on the move, attacking from the start and forming a strong dup together with Dries De Bondt (Alpecin-Deceuninck).

The two opened up a gap of three minutes on the peloton, who had to lift the pace on the hilly part of this 214km stage in order to claw back time and reduce this margin to a minute for the final part of the day. Around twelve kilometers from the line, Pepijn dropped his companion and continued alone at the front of the race until six kilometers to go, when the sprinters’ teams pegged him back.

Going into the last kilometer, Vangheluwe helped Luke Lamperti navigate through the field, and the young American delivered another strong sprint that netted him sixth place behind winner Ethan Vernon (Israel-Premier Tech). In the general classification, Martin Svrcek continues to be Soudal Quick-Step’s best placed rider – just a couple of seconds off the podium – going into the hilly stage four to Jinchengjiang.

Photo credit: ©Dario Belingheri / Getty Images