After three sprint stages on the opening three days, today’s stage at the Tour of Guangxi offered room for a few more scenarios. Four categorised climbs and a bonus sprint on an uncategorised climb in the finale could have resulted in either another sprint finish or a strong group breaking away for the win. Once again, the break of the day got away soon after the start, with the peloton keeping the group at a controlled distance throughout the race. As the peloton closed the gap to less than a minute, things became tactical, with several teams launching attacks to try gain time in the GC. Team dsm-firmenich PostNL remained alert towards the front, covering the moves and even securing one bonus second with Oscar Onley behind the two remaining breakaway riders.
The race then settled down a bit, and it seemed likely that everything would come down to a reduced bunch sprint, with some of the fast men being dropped throughout the day. Niklas Märkl, who had to fight back from a late mechanical issue, was brought into position nicely by his teammates and sprinted to a solid eighth place for the team, who also kept their GC cards safe for tomorrow’s Queen stage and the climb at the finish.
Märkl said: “It was a really tough day today. We expected some action on the first climb, but things stayed calm and four strong riders formed the breakaway, which kept the pace in the peloton quite high all day. The race really kicked off in the final 35 kilometres. I had good legs today but had to ride my own pace over the top of the last long climb. I knew that I could make it back if I didn’t allow the gap to grow too much. I made it back, but had a bit of bad luck with a mechanical issue 12 kilometres from the finish and had to fight back again. The boys did a really good job setting me up for the finish, and I managed a solid sprint. I think we can be quite happy with the eighth place in the end. Now we are looking forward to two days that should decide the GC and where we have some nice cards to play, so we are motivated to play our part in that.”