Picnic PostNL surprise Paul Magnier and bag a much needed win at the Tour of Guangxi

Paul Magnier won the opening stage on Tuesday for Soudal Quick-Step in the final WorldTour race of 2026. The Frenchman held off Sam Welsford (Netcompany INEOS) and Max Kanter (XDS-Astana) in the sprint and thus started day two in the leader’s jersey.

The opening phase of Stage 2 was a bit more chaotic than we might have expected from such a flat stage. In the first 40 kilometers, there were plenty of breakaway attempts, and we saw some big names up front, including Louis Barre (Visma | Lease a Bike) and several riders from UAE Emirates-XRG.

Julius Johansen, Florian Vermeersch, and Rune Herregodts tried to sneak into a breakaway, but in the end, the peloton wouldn’t let them get away. A different trio did manage to break away a short time later: Jonas Rickaert (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Dries De Bondt (Jayco Aula), and Chenglu Liu of the Chinese national team.

With 40 kilometers to go, the day’s only official climb was on the schedule, consisting of 8.5 kilometers at a 3.4 percent gradient. There, Jhonatan Narvaez (UAE) and Javier Romo (Movistar) launched an attack, which had an impact on the peloton. Several fast riders struggled to keep up with the pace needed to keep the attackers within striking distance.

Fabio Jakobsen and Arvid de Kleijn, among others, struggled for a moment, but ultimately managed to catch up again in the wake of the climb. In the final ten kilometers, the race heated up again with a few attacks. Riders including Kévin Vauquelin (Netcompany INEOS) and Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) made their presence felt.

Groupama-FDJ once again pulled out all the stops for their sprinter Matteo Milan, after which Daan Hoole led the train around Kooij for the final two kilometers. Niklas Behrens, riding for Visma | Lease a Bike, also got involved at that stage.

As the race entered the final kilometer, Soudal Quick-Step (Magnier) and Tudor (De Kleijn) began to close in, and Kooij seemed to get boxed in a bit. Magnier saw this coming from a distance, after which Biesterbos moved up alongside him. Then, like a jack-in-the-box, Kooij also made his move, and the three of them crossed the finish line in a row.