A fantastic four for Magnier at the 2025 Tour of Guangxi
It was another sprint and yet another victory at the Tour of Guangxi for Paul Magnier as he dominated to take his fourth victory at the WorldTour stage race.
Paul Magnier had to work a little harder for his fourth victory at the Tour of Guangxi as the young Frenchman had to do the majority of the positioning dirty work in the finale. There was no stress Magnier who remained calm and collected, gracefully making his way through towards the front of the peloton at a perfect timing.
His victory came from a sprint which was a demonstration of pure power, with Magnier setting a blistering seated sprint to take yet more glory.
How it unfolded
Stage 4 brought the race from Bama, famed for its residents’ notable longevity, to Jinchengjiang, by way of some rugged terrain through the greenery of the Duyang Mountains.
The early climbs allowed king of the mountains leader Simon Guglielmi (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) to extend his advantage in the classification. The Frenchman had Juan Pedro López (Lidl-Trek), Logan Currie (Lotto), Stan Dewulf (Decathlon-AG2R), Michael Leonard (Ineos) and Michael Valgren (EF Education-EasyPost) for company in the break and they built a maximum lead of 4:20 before Soudal-QuickStep, Cofidis and Picnic-PostNL set about pinning them back.
The category 3 ascent with a shade under 40km to go would prove the turning point. The high speed in the peloton saw the break’s advantage quickly wither, while a number of fast men, including Fernando Gaviria (Movistar) were jettisoned out the back.
Currie and Dewulf were the last men standing from the move, but they would be swept up as the race approached the second intermediate sprint. UAE Team Emirates-XRG were now to the fore, and they duly teed up Jhonatan Narváez to snare bonus seconds ahead of Saturday’s Nongla summit finish.
With 10 kilometres remaining, Niklas Behrens (Visma | Lease a Bike) tried his luck with a late solo attack. His teammates disrupted the chase for a while, but Soudal-QuickStep stayed calm and brought him back inside the final 5 kilometres.
From there, it was all too familiar. Jayco AlUla lined up for Max Walscheid, but when Magnier opened his sprint on a slightly downhill stretch, nobody could match his speed. He crossed the line clear, celebrating his fourth straight win in China.
Magnier will carry the leader’s jersey into Saturday’s summit finish at Nongla, where the climbers will hope to finally end his dominance.
Results: 2025 Tour of Guangxi stage 4
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