Warre Vangheluwe (Soudal-Quickstep) won stage 2 of the Gree-Tour of Guangxi in Jingxi, delivering a long and powerful sprint to capture his first WorldTour victory.
Another bunch sprint played out after the final six riders from the early break were swept up within the last kilometre. Soon after a crash in the middle of the peloton disrupted some just as they were winding up for the final acceleration on another wide finishing straight.
Vangheluwe, however, had a clear run to the line and better speed, celebrating the second win of his career and his 2024 season.
“I came to China with high expectations and it’s just incredible I got this victory," Vangheluwe said.
"My job was to lead out Luke Lamperti, but he got boxed in, and the moment the peloton caught Martin I launched my sprint and gave my all to finish it off. I am so happy with this victory."
Max Kanter (Astana-Qazaqstan) came off Vangheluwe's wheel to take second while Jake Stewart (Israel-Premier Tech) secured third in the 182km second stage of the six-day WorldTour race in China.
The second place for Kanter on the stage was also enough to put him in the red jersey of the race leader, on the same time as Gijs van Hoecke (Intermarché-Wanty) who was runner up on stage 1.
Former race leader Lionel Taminiaux (Lotto-Dstny) was dropped from the peloton so slid down the standings to 105th place.
How it unfolded
Tuesday’s stage 1 had played out as an archetypal sprint stage, with a two-person break that went early reeled in through the final kilometres, allowing the teams of the sprinters to deliver their contenders to the front so they could let the battle unfurl on the wide straight to the line in Fangchenggang. Taminiaux claimed the first tight-run sprint victory so lined up in Chongzuo with the red jersey of the race leader on his back.
The riders faced 182km of racing on stage 2, with two category 3 climbs, the last peaking about 30km from the finish line. It would make the day more challenging for the sprinters and their teams to control the break.
A breakaway group of eight soon formed at the front, including Chris Froome (Israel Premier Tech) Julien Vermote (Visma-Lease a Bike), Dries De Bondt (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Taco van der Hoorn (Intermarché - Wanty), Daan Hoole (Lidl-Trek), Thomas Champion (Cofidis), Filip Maciejuk (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Martin Svrček (Soudal Quickstep).
The gap was up to about three minutes after around 40km of racing and hovered thereabouts at the halfway mark.
At the intermediate sprint at the 94.3km mark, De Bondt, Maciejuk and Vermote swept up the top three spots.
The group held out the front, maintaining the gap at close to three minutes as they worked their way through the warm conditions, green landscape and waterfalls among the dramatic rock formations till they reached the final category 3 climb within 40km to go.
Froome fell away from the lead group as De Bondt, Champion and Hoole claimed the KOM points at the top.
It was at this point that the gap to the peloton began to drop rapidly and, with the pressure on, riders also began to fall out the back of the stretched out bunch, including the red jersey clad Taminiaux.
Champion also fell away from the leaders so by the second intermediate sprint at around 12km to go there were six riders in the lead and the gap was slipping to under a minute. Maciejuk, De Bondt and Svrček grabbed the points this time.
At five kilometres to go the gap was just 30 seconds but the break stayed away until the very last kilometre, only being swept up as the positioning for the sprint unfolded.
That last few hundred metres didn’t go to plan for some, however, with a crash in the middle of the road disrupting the final charge even with the wide roads of the finale – though not forVangheluwe of course.
Ineos Grenadiers said on social media that Jhonathan Narváez (Ineos Grenadiers) – who had come 11th on stage 1 and also grabbed a bonus second during the opening stage to set him in good standing among the key overall contenders – had been among those caught out by the crash so couldn’t contest the sprint. Still when he crossed the line Narváez was given the same time as the bunch, leaving him 12th overall and just five seconds back from red.
Results powered by FirstCycling
