Gree-Tour of Guangxi stage 1: Elia Viviani sprints to victory

Elia Viviani (Ineos Grenadiers) continued his rich vein of form and picked up his first WorldTour win since 2019 with victory on stage 1 of the Gree-Tour of Guangxi.

The veteran sprinter came around Jonathan Milan (Bahrain Victorious) with the finish line in sight to take the win and the first leader’s jersey of this year’s race.

Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) finished third on the stage but it was the 34-year-old Viviani who had the most to celebrate.

The Italian enjoyed a near-perfect leadout from teammate Jhonatan Narváez who brought Viviani onto the rear wheel of Milan inside the last 200m. Vivani then used his experience and turn of speed to time his sprint to the line. 

The victory is Viviani’s second win in just a few weeks after the Ineos sprinter picked up stage 1 of the Cro Race.

Breakaway stands no chance in the face of dedicated sprint teams

The early phase of the 135.6km stage around Beihai was dominated by a five-rider break with Frederik Wandahl (Bora-Hansgrohe), Louis Barré (Arkéa Samsic), Dries De Bondt (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Omer Goldstein (Israel-Premier Tech), and Julius Johansen (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) going clear.

The quintet built up a lead of around a minute with 65km to go but with so many sprint teams interested in the finale, the chances of staying clear were minimal.

Thomas De Gendt brought the gap down to less than 30 seconds for his Lotto-Dstny team and with 15.8km to go the remaining three riders out front were reeled in.

Movistar and Cofidis did the majority of the pace-setting ahead of the sprint, with Lotto and Bora also in attendance. In the end, it was Ineos who timed their effort perfectly, delivering Viviani to the win.