Paul strikes Double in China! UAE finally beaten uphill, Visma | Lease a Bike youngster finishes close behind

Anyone who looked at the profiles of the stages before the Tour of Guangxi would have expected a little more diversity in the winners. But Magnier has been riding so well these past few weeks that he became the big winner of the first four days. Flat, uphill, downhill, small hills... It made little difference to the great sprint talent.

In the red leader's jersey, he started the fifth stage with a big smile, knowing that it would really be over for him. And so we saw other teams at the front of the peloton after a leading group of five had broken away almost from the start. UAE Emirates-XRG put Julius Johansen at the front for a long day's work. He was allowed to control the race.

With mountain king Simon Guglielmi (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and Ryan Gibbons (Lidl-Trek), who is retiring after this season, at the front, there was still quite a bit of power in the breakaway group. However, they stood no chance against the peloton, where Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale and Jayco AlUla also made their ambitions known alongside UAE. In a virtually flat run-up to the final climb, the pace was fast.

After conquering the only 2.7-kilometer hill at 4.6 percent, we settled in for the ride. At the start of the last 10 kilometers, the leading group—without Guglielmi, who had fallen behind—still had a lead of just under two minutes. However, with more than 3 kilometers at an average gradient of 7 percent and a final 1.5 kilometers at an average gradient of 15 percent, the peloton had nothing to worry about.

Without two riders from Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, who inexplicably collided with each other in the middle of the peloton in the run-up to the final climb, only Gibbons and Haoyu Su of XDS Astana were still in front at the foot of the Great Wall of China. Su then went solo in front of his home crowd, but only defended his lead for a minute.

That disappeared like snow in the sun when they started in the peloton. Tour of Slovakia winner Paul Double stood on the pedals on behalf of Jayco AlUla and got two riders on his wheel, plus Gibbons. UAE had to pull out all the stops to close the gap, but Double rode full throttle towards the final kilometer. Mikkel Honoré (EF) and Ben Zwiehoff (Red Bull) struggled to keep up.

When the steepest part began, Double broke away solo, with Jan Christen riding away from the peloton on behalf of UAE in an attempt to catch up with the Brit. However, Double didn't have a weak moment and was rewarded for his early attack with the stage win and the leader's jersey. Victor Lafay (Decathlon) finished second with a punch; Jørgen Nordhagen and Cian Uijtdebroeks (Visma | Lease a Bike) finished fourth and fifth, just behind Honoré.