A well timed and executed attack from Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal) inside the final few hundred metres of stage 4 at the Tour of Guangxi landed the Belgian the win and the overall lead. Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) trailed home on the same time, with BMC’s Nico Roche third at four seconds.
The explosive climb witnessed the first shake up of the general classification and major time gaps emerge after the opening three stages were all won by sprinter Fernando Gaviria. The Colombian was unable to hold the pace, with Quick-Step Floors teammate Julian Alaphilippe taking over team leadership and riding to fourth place on the stage. Ben Hermans (BMC) rounded out the top five.
“Of course I am super happy. I was very good in front thanks to my teammates at the bottom of the climb and then I had a lot of power in the legs and I attacked together with Bauke Mollema,” Wellens said after the podium ceremony. “We stayed in front with three and then it was just in the final that I attacked one final time.”
In the battle for the overall, Wellens now leads Mollema by four seconds, while Roche is at nine seconds. An early attacker on the climb, Roche tipped his hat to Wellens as he explained that, while disappointed to miss the win, he remains focused on securing his overall podium result.
“Obviously it would have been great for me to win and I did think about it with two kilometres to go but I think I am happy enough with third and it will be hard to fight for third on GC,” he said.
With bonus seconds on the road at the intermediate sprints and finish lines, the GC battle is yet to be confirmed before Tuesday’s finale. Wellens holds the strongest hand in the battle for the inaugural Tour of Guangxi but is sure to be challenged by Trek-Segafredo and BMC.
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How it unfolded
After a stage finish and city circuit the following day, the Tour of Guangxi waved goodbye to Nanning on the morning of stage 4. Tour de France green jersey winner Michael Matthews was a DNS, due to sickness, as the peloton rolled out for the queen stage of the race to Nongla scenic resort.
A frenetic start saw a number of riders try to establish a breakaway before the quartet of Pavel Kotchekov (Katusha), Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Jumbo), Lennard Hofstede (Sunweb) and Antonio Molina (Caja Rural) made it clear. The leaders were quickly given the green light and enjoyed a seven-minute advantage by the 32km mark.
The break and peloton rolled through the Guangxi landside with little change to the time difference until the half way mark of the 151km stage. From there, the BMC and Quick-Step Floors-led bunch slowly started to reduce the advantage. At the 100km mark, the lead had dropped to four minutes and continued to fall on the approach to the summit finish.
Sky’s pace on the front of the bunch further cut the lead, dropping the advantage to one minute with 20km to race. With the GC teams moving their leaders toward the front, a tense and fast finale saw a crash with five kilometres to go. The causalities included Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) and Wilco Kelderman, with the latter a DNF.
On the climb, the steeper early slopes saw the first major attacks with Roche’s move looking like the winning move. The Dutch and Belgian alliance, though, brought Roche under control before Wellens dispatched the duo and gave himself time to celebrate his win.
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