Magnier calls it "a good day at the office" after new win, as Visma gives young German a shot in the sprint

After Magnier claimed his fifteenth (!) victory of the season in the first stage on Tuesday, he did it again on Wednesday. In the streets of Jingxi, a sprint had to decide the outcome, which was once again a piece of cake for the Frenchman. “A good day at the office,” said the youngster from Laredo afterward.

“It was fast today and the breakaway was strong, but Warre (Vangheluwe, ed.) was incredibly strong and motivated to do well, especially because he won here last year and we wanted to take the victory again,” said the Frenchman, who was able to save energy in the peloton. “Then Dries positioned me perfectly for the straight and I did my best in the sprint.”

This is Magnier's sixteenth victory, bringing him one step closer to Tadej Pogacar. The Slovenian powerhouse, who ended his season last weekend with a victory in the Tour of Lombardy, has won no fewer than twenty times this year. “I'm happy with my two victories so far, and we'll see what we can achieve in the remaining stages,” said the Frenchman.

A few bike lengths behind Magnier, Bittner finished in a respectable second place. The 22-year-old Czech has not won yet this year, but with his fifth second place of 2025 (!) he was close again. This despite the fact that on day one he did not get further than 113th place. “I think after yesterday we had a good recap; we made some mistakes there and personally I was not at my best.” said Bittner in a press release.

“Today we went in with a clear plan again,,” the Czech continued. He saw that his team was active, with Frank van den Broek in the breakaway. “Frank went into the breakaway and did a good job there, and picked up a bonus second, and was really strong. While in the peloton we entered the final really well together.”

Bittner called “I don’t think I could have had a better lead-out from the guys so I think today Magnier was just the fastest and strongest.” Team coach Phil West added, “After yesterday’s stage where we didn’t quite join the dots, we wanted to make sure that we were more on point today. In the end one guy was faster, but we can be really happy with how the guys stepped up after yesterday, to get a nice podium result.”

In eleventh place in the day's results, we find the first rider from Visma | Lease a Bike. Somewhat surprisingly, that rider is Germany's Behrens. “Today Niklas was given the opportunity to try his luck in the sprint,” says sports director Jesper Mørkøv in a press release. “He was brought forward perfectly by his teammates in the final kilometres, but unfortunately got a bit boxed in amid the chaos.”

In the end, the 21-year-old rider from Bremen just missed out on a top-10 finish. “Because of that, he couldn’t quite show his full potential, but it was good to see him in the front,” said Mørkøv, who is already looking ahead to what is yet to come in the Chinese stage race. “Tomorrow’s stage will be another tough one, but another sprint certainly can’t be ruled out.”