Double seals Tour of Guangxi GC as Magnier claims fifth stage win

Paul Double (Jayco AlUla) sealed the first WorldTour GC victory of his career at the Tour of Guangxi, defending his red jersey as Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep) sealed his 5th stage victory after a tough circuit stage in Nanning. 

The 29-year-old British rider had to navigate a tricky circuit featuring a steep climb, and alarm bells rang when Victor Lafay (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), who sat 15 seconds behind in 2nd overall at the start of the day, attacked and built up a handsome advantage that made him provisional leader.

However, Lafay was caught on the flat run-in by a reduced peloton, which later swelled as a group returned from behind featuring Magnier.

With the GC all but secured, barring incident or accident, Double could let the sprinters do their thing, and it was Magnier once more who was victorious, but was almost pipped to the line by Stanisław Aniolkowski (Cofidis) in 2nd, and Paul Penhoët (Groupama-FDJ) in 3rd.

For Magnier, it’s his 5th win in six stages, dominating each sprint and sealing a sensational 19th victory of 2025, ending the campaign, just one win behind the World Champion Tadej Pogačar.

Double's final winning margin was 15 seconds ahead of Lafay in 2nd, whilst Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) ended in 3rd at 16 seconds.

The final stage of the Tour of Guangxi saw Ryan Gibbons (Lidl-Trek) and Nans Peters (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) feted with a guard of honour before the start as they said their farewells to professional cycling. 

With places at a premium in the pro peloton in 2026, a number of the riders watching on may yet join them in retirement over the winter, but Gibbons, Peters and Dan McLay – who abandoned earlier in the week – are the only three riders in the Tour of Guangxi peloton to confirm that this was their final race.

Peters was clearly determined to mark his last day of competition, and the Frenchman was part of a group that forged clear on the first of five laps of the 27km circuit with Ewen Costiou, Léandre Lozouet (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Clément Davy (Groupama-FDJ) and Reuben Thompson (Lotto).

That quintet would stay clear until the final lap of the Nanning circuit, though the race was not without drama behind them. When the peloton split on the second lap, Jhonatan Narváez was surprisingly among those caught behind, though the Ecuadorian latched back on after his UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammates stitched the race back together on his behalf.

With one lap remaining, the peloton had closed to within 30 seconds of the five leaders, with the GC men behind braced for frissons on the final climb of the race. Victor Lafay (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), sitting 2nd in the GC, rolled the dice with an attack on the final climb of the 2025 Tour of Guangxi, with nobody able or willing to follow the Frenchman. Lafay had his retiring teammate Peters for support for a while before the 29-year-old went solo and built an advantage of 25 plus seconds, as Double had to react behind.

Following the descent and the flat run-in to the finish, the advantage was not with the solo escapee but rather with the reduced peloton of around 30 riders, leaving Lafay to be caught 12km from the finish.

A second chase group featuring Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep) returned to the front of the race with 10km remaining. Anthon Charmig (XDS Astana) tried to attack on the flat run-in, but the Dane was chased down by the peloton before the sprint commenced, which was won by Magnier.