In the stage 5 sprint final of the Tour of Guangxi, Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNl-Jumbo) ended the supremacy of Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors) with his eighth win of the season. Groenewegen's bike throw over the line ultimately decided the outcome while Orica-Scott's Magnus Cort finished third, half a wheel back.
Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal) retained his red leader's jersey, adding two seconds to his advantage over Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo), and will start the final stage as the favourite to claim the overall title. BMC Racing's Nicolas Roche is third overall at 11 seconds to Wellens.
With Movistar launching a team attack in the mountains before the flat run into Guilin, Groenewegen was put into difficulty, but thanks to full team effort, he was able to recover the gap and repay them with the win.
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"On the final climb, Movistar was attacking with all its team. The speed was a little too hard, but I had the whole team waiting for me and they brought me back to the first 30 riders and then I could do the sprint and I did it," he said. "In the last kilometre, we had a headwind so I was thinking about going a little later than normal. With 150 metres to go, I went and it was enough. I can go into the winter with a good victory in China."
Having shown his late season form in the stage 4 finale, and again when picking up bonus seconds, Wellens needs to survive just 168.1 kilometres to ensure his overall win. The final stage of the race is again expected to suit the sprinters first taking the riders south then turning back into Guilin for the stage finish and completion of the 2017 WorldTour season.
How it unfolded
From Liuzhou, the Tour of Guangxi peloton clocked on and rolled out for the penultimate and longest stage of the race. The bunch was missing two riders for the stage with Janez Brajkovic (Bahrain-Merida) and Kazushige Kuboki (Nippo-Vini Fantini) both pulling out overnight.
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