Tour of Guangxi: Paul Magnier claims victory and the race lead as sprinters survive hilly stage 4

A day after losing the race lead to a mechanical incident in the sprint, Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep) reclaimed the Tour of Guangxi red jersey with a fine sprint victory in Tian'e as the fast men survived the hilly day and a late crash.

The Frenchman – who won every single sprint stage at this race last year for a five-victory haul – has had his supremacy challenged this year, winning on the opening day but then beaten twice in a row, but he was back to his best on Friday.

He outpowered Decathlon CMA CGM's Cees Bol to the line, sprinting in place of Olav Kooij, with Max Kanter (XDS Astana) coming up in third.

A big crash on one of the late corners saw a lot of riders taken out of contention, with only a reduced group coming to the line. Magnier took to the front of the sprint early and had a long effort to the line, but kept his speed and power for a good 150 metres to hold off his rivals and claim the win.

With his victory, Magnier goes back into the race lead, leapfrogging stage 2 winner Frits Biesterbos (Picnic PostNL) who finished fourth on the day.

Featuring over 2,700m of climbing, stage 4 from Bama to Tian'e was not a nailed-on sprint, with plenty of opportunities for attacks, but whilst those attacks did come and plenty of riders tried to catch the sprinters out, the sprint squads worked hard to keep things together and bring a big bunch to the line in Tian'e.

A similar parcours is on the menu on Saturday, a day that is hilly early on but survivable for the sprinters, before the hilltop finish on Sunday should decide the general classification at this edition of the Tour of Guangxi.

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