Magnier, Double and Martinez, and even Visma | Lease a Bike, finish their Asian campaign on a high: "Best performance so far"

In Asia, the cycling competition was in full swing, while many people were still asleep. In the Japan Cup, Lenny Martinez was the strongest after a beautiful solo, before Paul Magnier claimed his fifth stage victory in the final stage of the Tour of Guangxi, and Paul Double secured the overall classification.

First, let's take a look at Japan, where Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) was the winner of Saturday's criterium. On Sunday, however, the ProTour race was more suited to the men with climbing legs. And Martinez clearly still had something left in his calves after a season full of ups and downs throughout the year.

Bahrain Victorious acquired the 22-year-old Frenchman from Groupama-FDJ with much fanfare as their new classification rider. In the first few months, however, he mainly proved himself to be a stage winner. He won stages in Paris-Nice, the Dauphiné, and the Tour de Romandie and finished fourth in the Flèche Wallonne. In the Tour de France, he fought briefly for the mountain jersey, but a sticky bottle caused controversy.

After the Tour, Martinez took a period of rest and training and then performed excellently in the fall. He finished third in the Giro dell'Emilia and ended Sunday with a win in the Japan Cup. “This result feels outstanding, given the good shape I'm in. It's a good end to this season, which gives me a lot of motivation for the winter.”

The sixth and final stage of the Tour of Guangxi was also scheduled for today. Magnier sprinted to victory for the fifth time, ending the 21-year-old Frenchman's season with 19 wins. 14 (!) of those came in the last five weeks. “We didn’t expect it to be such a fantastic week. I’ve been in top form for the past two months.”

Magnier said this in the flash interview with a sense of understatement, because he had already won four stages in Slovakia and the CRO Race, making a total of eight. “Still, I didn't expect to be able to win five stages here, especially because the sprints on wider roads were different from what I'm used to. The first victory made me relax, the rest was a bonus.”

Magnier shared the final podium with Double, who, just like in the Tour of Slovakia, won the only mountain stage and thus the overall classification. “I was happy yesterday, but to finish the job today is a bit emotional,” said the 29-year-old Briton from Jayco AlUla via his team's channels. “When Lafay went on the last lap, I panicked. The boys told me not to, but I was panicking. I tried to pull it back on my own and I was not doing a great job, but then Alan was there and he was super strong and then Jasha came back. It was all fine in the end.”

That was also the case for Jørgen Nordhagen, who finished fifth in the classification on behalf of Visma | Lease a Bike and thus won the youth classification. A boost for the 20-year-old Norwegian. “It’s been a great week. It was very special to be fighting for the top spots in such a strong field. This is a beautiful and, for me, the perfect way to end my first pro season. I finish the year with a really good feeling and I’m very motivated to build on this next year,” said Nordhagen after the race.