Widar once again proves to be Pidcock's nemesis, claiming his first WorldTour stage win and overall victory

There were five sprints in China. Five sprints: two won by Paul Magnier, two by Milan Fretin, and one by Frits Biesterbos. The general classification contenders, who had come to Guangxi hoping for a good chance, had to wait a long time. But they were rewarded with Sunday’s queen stage. The climb to Nongla has become famous, and it was definitely tough enough to make a difference.

As a result, the five early breakaway riders had little chance of staying ahead of the peloton. Jonas Rickaert (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Laurenz Rex (Soudal Quick-Step), Martin Urianstad (Uno-X Mobility), Arjen Livyns (XDS Astana), and Yutao Shen (Chinese national team) never really had much room to work with. Incidentally, the Norwegian from Uno-X, along with Alexey Lutsenko (NSN), received a guard of honor: for them, it was their final race.

What a great way to ride your final race, right there in the lead group. Once they entered the final 30 kilometers of the race, Shen and Rex were dropped, but the other front-runners kept pushing bravely ahead. They did so with gusto. Visma | Lease a Bike, Pinarello - Q36.5, and UAE Team Emirates-XRG gave it their all, but they couldn’t quite catch up before the final climb began.

Urianstad, who was slowing down, was caught last, about 3.5 kilometers from the finish. Breakaways followed immediately. Rémy Rochas (Groupama-FDJ) was the first to attack, while the rest kept an eye on top favorite Tom Pidcock. Rochas was caught by Peter Oxenberg (Netcompany INEOS), and the Dane began the difficult final kilometer on his own.

That’s when Louis Barré picked up the pace. The Frenchman from Visma | Lease a Bike proved to be strong—very strong. Widar and Pidcock were able to keep up, while the rest had to close the gap. Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) did just that. Barré accelerated once more on the toughest sections, just before the finish. He, Pidcock, and Widar proved to be the strongest. Pidcock was the first to launch his sprint, but Widar beat him in the final sprint.

It was the second time Widar had beaten Pidcock in a short period of time. He had previously claimed his first professional victory at Tre Valli Varesine by outpacing the Brit. Now he secured his second and third career victories, as he also won the overall classification.