Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto Dstny) took control of the Tour de Guangxi cyclist after winning the queen stage of this final WorldTour event of the season on Saturday. Van Eetvelt was the best in the final climb of Nongla, ahead of the Briton Oscar Onley (dsm-firmenich PostNL), 2nd at 2 seconds, and the Frenchman Alex Baudin (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) 3rd at 9 seconds.
The Flemish Brabançon, who won his 5th success at the age of 23, seizes the leader’s jersey held by German sprinter Max Kanter (Astana Qazaqstan). He is ahead of Onley by 5 seconds and Baudin by 15.
A breakaway of four riders composed of Warre Vangheluwe, Koen Bouwman, Jonas Rutsch and Stefan Bissegger animated the start of the 165.8 km course which began in Yizhou. There were still three of them when the race approached the final climb of 4.3 km whose final gradient of 1200 meters is 14.8%. They didn’t last long.
Lotto Dstny clearly had confidence in his leader Van Eetvelt and placed his train of climbers at the head of the peloton. A kilometer and a half before the summit, former winner Tim Wellens was the first to attack in the group of favorites. He was opposed by the Frenchman Victor Lafay, Van Eetvelt was the most active rider in the pursuit.
In the very high percentages of the last part of the climb, the leader Lafay was again overtaken by three riders. Van Eetvelt, who during the last Vuelta had narrowly missed a stage victory on a similar finish, measured his acceleration perfectly this time and arrived detached.
The event ends on Sunday in Nanning with a 134.3 km loop. The Dutchman Milan Vader will then know his successor on the list.
Swiss
