Paul Magnier (Soudal-Quickstep) continued to rule the sprint on stage 3 of the Gree-Tour of Guangxi, crossing the line in Bama with a celebration of his third victory in a row.
It was another perfectly played out sprint for the unchallenged race leader. Magnier crossed the line ahead of Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) and Max Kanter (XDS Astana) on the 213.5km stage 3, the longest of the race.
Thursday's hilly stage from Jingxi to Bama included 2,330m of elevation gain, with three categorised climbs peaking in the final 60km of the race, a category 2 topping out at 59km to go a category 3 with 41km remaining and finally another category 3 ascent at 20km to go before the downhill run toward the line.
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There was no spoiling the sprint, however, with the attacks reeled in and while stage 2's runner-up Pavel Bittner (Picnic PostNL) launched the sprint, Magnier once again finished it.
How it unfolded
Stage 3 of the Tour of Guangxi kicked off from Jingxi under the coolest temperatures of the race so far, close to the Vietnam border, but with the longest stage of the race ahead of the remaining riders – 214km up to Bama.
An attacking start saw several moves launched by the likes of KOM leader Peter Øxenberg (Ineos Grenadiers), but he was unable to make it into the eventual group of five that enjoyed an advantage off the front.
That breakaway was made up of Ryan Mullen (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Ryan Gibbons (Lidl-Trek), Simon Guglielmi (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Liam Slock (Lotto) and Li Zhen (China). After 150km of racing, three of them still remained out in front after a long holding period, with Mullen and Zhen dropping back to the peloton.
Soudal-QuickStep continued to pace as they'd done for much of the third stage, alongside XDS Astana and Picnic PostNL, hoping to make it a hat-trick of wins in just three days for Magnier.
Slock and Guglielmi eventually got dropped, leaving the soon-to-retire Gibbons alone in front until the 20km to go marker, where he was eventually caught back too. The South African was awarded the most combative rider of the day for his efforts.
Despite three categorised climbs arriving in the final 50km of the stage, none really provided enough of a launchpad for the punchers to challenge the pure sprinters, with the pace being kept too high.
Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) tried as he did on stage 2 to launch a late attack and upset the sprinters, this time joined by a Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale rider, but the pair only made it into the final kilometre before being caught.
With the sprint unfolding, Pavel Bittner (Picnic PostNL) found himself on the front too early and started the sprint. He had Magnier sat perfectly in his wheel, though, and would've have needed a miracle to hold him off.
The Frenchman hit the front and as he did on stages 1 and 2, was too fast for all of his competitors. Meeus put up a good fight to finish second, with Max Kanter (XDS Astana) closing quickly but running out of road to finish third.
Results
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