Lennert Van Eetvelt surges to summit victory on stage 5 of Tour of Guangxi
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Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto-Dstny) surged to victory on stage 5 of the Gree-Tour of Guangxi, claiming the all-important summit victory on Saturday and within the course of capturing the general race lead.
Van Eetvelt put down the facility because the summit end drew ever nearer, claiming the win by taking off on Oscar Onley (dsm firmenich-PostNL). Onley got here second after the pair caught after which shortly blew previous Victor Lafay (Decathlon-AG2R-La Mondiale) when the road was tantalisingly shut. Lafay then pushed onto the road together with his teammate Alex Baudin, who was third, whereas Lafay needed to accept fourth.
Van Eetvelt’s win on the decisive GC stage put the 23-year-old within the purple leaders jersey with Onley 5 seconds again and Baudin 15 seconds behind with only one stage to go. In consequence it appears to be like like Van Eetvelt, who began the season with the general win on the UAE Tour, might bookend his 2024 season with WorldTour GC wins.
Pepijn Reinderink (Soudal-Quickstep) held onto his lead within the mountains classification whereas Ethan Vernon (Israel-Premier Tech) additionally maintained his prime factors spot and the race main Belgian Lotto-Dstny rider additionally changed Filip Maciejuk (Pink Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) on the prime of the youth classification.
The way it unfolded
Stage 5 of the Tour of Guangxi was at all times anticipated to be the day for the general contenders as whereas the sprinters dominated by the 4 opening levels a summit end on Saturday lastly gave the climbers their alternative to prosper and take the purple jersey which had to date been shared among the many quick finishers.
There was extra climbing on Friday’s stage 4, however the distinction on Saturday’s 165.8km stage from Yizhou to Nongla was the summit end. Actually, the overall elevation achieve sat at simply 1420m because it was a comparatively flat run by the biggest a part of the stage, with the primary categorised climb, a class 3, coming after 100km of the stage had already been accomplished.
After the race set out from Hechi Metropolis Heart Sq. the EF Training-EasyPost duo of Jonas Rutsch and Stefan Bissegger established a niche with Koen Bouwman (Visma-Lease a Bike) and stage 2 winner Warre Vangheluwe (Soudal-Quickstep), with the margin round 2:40 by 20km into the day of racing.
Not surprisingly the speedy Vangheluwe took the highest dash factors at 60.7km whereas Rutsch claimed the highest KOM factors on the moist roads at 117km into the day of racing and the stage 2 winner additionally claimed the highest spot within the second intermediate dash at 142km.
By this time the hole was getting nearer to a minute, with the dsm firmenich-PostNL workforce of Oscar Onley and Max Poole plus the Lidl-Trek squad of Quinn Simmons working up the entrance of the bunch. Nonetheless, the break continued to carry, although Rutsch in the end fell away. By the point he was swept again into the principle group at 10km to go the hole was nonetheless at round 1:20.
Into the ultimate 5 kilometres because the highway kicked up the margin shortly fell and Bouwman, in his final race with Visma-Lease a Bike, determined to go it alone. Bissegger and Vangheluwe have been shortly swept up whereas Bouwman remained out the entrance. Nonetheless as he handed the 4km to go marker, a fast look again over the shoulder confirmed that it wouldn’t be lengthy earlier than he too was swept up.
Lotto pushed the tempo on the entrance, making an attempt to arrange the ultimate transfer for Lennert Van Eetvelt, on the decisive class 1 ending climb to Nongla – a 3.2km ascent with a gradient averaging 6.3%. It was, nevertheless, Tim Wellens (UAE Crew Emirates) who first took benefit, launching at round 1.5km to go and Victor Lafay (Decathlon-AG2R-La Mondiale) shortly jumped on his wheel after which took off solo.
For some time it appeared like that might be the transfer of the day, however the chase ramped up behind and inside tons of of metres of the road Onley and Van Eetvelt caught the Decathlon-AG2R-La Mondiale rider and continued proper on by.
Van Eetvelt then jumped from Onley’s wheel and shortly carved out a decisive successful margin because the dsm firmenich-PostNL’s riders pursuit was shortly curtailed by the realisation that he simply couldn’t dig any deeper.
“The boys rode rather well right now controlling the break and positioning myself and Max into the climb,” Onley stated in a press release. “On the climb it simply got here all the way down to the legs for the each of us. I’m blissful to come back away with the second place and decide up one other constant consequence after a protracted season.”
There have been loads of ups and downs for winner Van Eetvelt this season, from successful the UAE Tour to being sidelined with knee points and being hit by a automotive whereas out coaching, however now he appears to be like set to complete the season on a excessive observe – simply Sunday’s 134km last stage stands between him and total victory.
Stage 6 is held on a circuit round Nanning, the place riders will tackle a class 2 climb every lap. KOM factors are up for grabs on the primary, third and fifth lap whereas the intermediate sprints will fall on laps two and 4. The ultimate end line will ship the final classification, stage and total winner of the WorldTour in 2024.
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