‘It feels like I've turned into a proper bike rider now' – Paul Double vindicates years of perseverance with maiden WorldTour win on Tour of Guangxi Queen stage

After four days of Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep) winning at the Tour of Guangxi, there was a fifth success for a rider named Paul in the race on the Queen stage 5 to Nongla - but this time it was Great Britain's Paul Double, with the 29-year-old soloing to his first WorldTour win.

Unlike the vast majority of the riders currently taking part in China's only men's WorldTour race, Double has had a far-from-typical path of junior success to established professional.

Rather, there have been moments of zero job security, financing his own career and low confidence, prior to Saturday's breakthrough success.

But Double never gave up, first switching between club and Continental teams, and with his perseverance then paying off big time when he got a chance to race for ProTeams Human Powered Health and Polti Kometa. After that, there was another big step up when he got an opportunity in 2025 with Jayco-AlUla, making it into the WorldTour at 28.

Paul Double's career has been a lesson in patience, and with his confidence at an all-time high after winning the Tour of Slovakia last month, Double - whether he quite believed it himself or not - found himself telling his teammates that a result such as this was incoming.

"I say amongst the boys, 'We're going to win today', but the reality is with the level of the field here, I probably didn't expect it," Double told reporters after putting on the red leader’s jersey on the winner’s podium.

"To pull it off is really special and this season has turned out to be super good for me – it feels like I've turned into a proper bike rider now."

Even just before the Giro d'Italia, his Grand Tour debut, earlier this year, Double was very modest and only willing to call himself "An OK rider" as he explained his long path to becoming a professional to Cyclingnews.

Not only does he feel like a "proper rider" now, but he knows he is a good one, with a stage and GC at Slovakia providing just the right boost of self-belief that helped him pull off his solo move into Nongla.

"Probably now it's the confidence [I've gained]. After Slovakia, I know – I knew I was a good bike rider, and I was kind of waiting for the win to come," said Double. "I think now that it has, it's given me that extra confidence and I've done it again here today."

The emotion hadn't quite set in yet for the Briton, but it was beginning to as he debriefed with the media: "Probably now speaking to you guys, it gets emotional. At the finish, we're all so cooked that you just need to sit down. You can't take it in up there, but now on the podium as well with this spectacular scenery, it's super-special."

Speaking back in May, Double had described some of his time racing as a U23 as "like getting his head kicked in", after getting his initial shot in cycling thanks to Flavio Zappi, whose British development team also contributed to the starts of the road careers of Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) and Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost).

Double also said that "others along the way, who I've been on teams with, they've called it quits, and I carried on". That relentless perseverance has now seen him step on top of a WorldTour podium today and likely again Sunday, if he can successfully defend the red jersey.

"There was a lot of getting my head kicked in, and there still is you know. This year I had a real low period, after the Giro, it turns out I was cooked and Austria was really bad. But we just rebuilt steadily and I've come back to a good level, so I'm really happy," said Double.

"I think most years [I've thought I might not make it], apart from signing with Jayco this year and then a few years ago, there's never really been security, especially in the Continental teams trying to progress.

"Only three out of the seven or eight years I've been confident to continue, so it's nice to be here now."

On the attack

While it's patience and perseverance that have been essential to Double finally making it to his first WorldTour win, it was instinct and quick reactions that actually earned him it on the road.

"Everyone says to wait and wait, but in my head, I always like to go early," he admitted.

"Honoré went on the first steep section, and I followed. Then it was just him and me rolling on the flat. Back onto the steep, no one would pull with me, so I rode hard, knowing you're not getting much benefit in the wheels, then I had a gap and just time trialled to the finish.

"I looked back a few times and I saw UAE pulling which scared me a little bit. But it worked out."

Double has 15 seconds over Victor Lafay (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and 16 on Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) to defend red and turn a first WorldTour stage win into a first WorldTour stage race win, which would be quite the achievement in only his maiden season at the top level.

An undulating stage with laps around Nanning on Sunday is what separates him from what would be the biggest victory of his career so far: but Saturday’s success is already a major landmark.