Tour of Guangxi: Fernando Gaviria wins stage 5

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Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) won stage 5 of the Tour of Guangxi thanks to a well-timed sprint along the barriers, while his rivals wasted energy and lost speed fighting for position.

The Colombian sprinter went down the right of the road, beating Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott), who opted to fight for the wheels down the centre of the road. Trentin placed third for the fourth time on this race.

Gaviria's season has been derailed by a knee injury that forced him to abandon the Giro d'Italia and miss the Tour de France, but he rebuilt his form by riding the Vuelta a Espana. This was his sixth victory of the 2019 season.

"I had good legs today," a happy Gaviria said after his second sprint win in this year's race. "I was really à bloc on the climbs but came back early to the front group and then we did the sprint. In the last fifty metres the job was almost over because I started the sprint with 250 metres to go."

Stage 4 winner Enric Mas (Deceuninck-QuickStep) was well protected by his teammates in the hills and chased down an attack by overall rival Daniel Martinez (EF Education First). He finished safely in the front group and so retained his overall race leads before Tuesday's final stage around Guilin.

How it unfolded

The 212.2km stage headed into the hills for the long ride north to Guilin, offering a final chance to shake up the overall classification and test the end of season form and climbing skills of the sprinters.

Jay Thomson (Dimension Data), Taco van der Horn (Jumbo-Visma), Ryan Mullen (Trek-Segafredo) and Roy Goldstein (Israel Cycling Academy) tried to shake up the race by going in the early break. They opened a five-minute lead but Deceuninck-QuickStep and then Mitchelton-Scott and Bora-Hansgrohe led the chase as the key climb approached.

The gap was down to a minute as the series of three twisting climbs began with 50km to race. Van der Hoorn tried to go solo but Thomson and Mullen then fought for the most aggressive rider prize, with the Irishman ensuring he was the last to be caught.

Martinez made a strong attack as the summit of the final climb approached but Mas was soon on his wheel and closed down the attack. Guillaume Martin (Wanty-Gobert) and Tomasz Marczyński (Lotto Soudal) fought for the King of the Mountain points and so kept the pace high, with the Polish rider taking the sprint and the jersey from the young Frenchman.

A select front group formed over the top but the fast descent and then flat road favoured the chase from behind. Pete Stetina (Trek-Segafredo) and others slipped out due to oil on the road but the front group swelled to 15, then 30 and eventually to 90 riders, with Gaviria, Ackermann, Trentin and others sprinters getting back on with a number of teammates.

Deceuninck-QuickStep dragged the riders towards Guilin, with the sprinters' teams taking over the final kilometre for the long, straight dash to the line. While the different lead-out trains tussled for position down the centre of the road, Gaviria emerged down the barriers on the right and had a clean, powerful run to the line and victory.