Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep) made it a second victory in as many days, claiming stage 2 of the Gree-Tour of Guangxi on Wednesday by launching off Pavel Bittner’s (Picnic PostNL) wheel to claim an emphatic sprint win in Jingxiu.

Bittner held on for second while Stanisław Aniołkowski (Cofidis) completed the podium.

The bunch charge came to fruition on the hilly 177.3km stage from Chongzuo, which included 2,033m of elevation gain, after the sprinters’ teams hauled back in the remaining three riders from the earlier break – Peter Øxenberg (Ineos Grenadiers), Stan Dewulf (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Frank van den Broek (Picnic PostNL). Øxenberg sat up at just over 12km to go while Dewulf and Van den Broek persisted, with the Decathlon AG2R la Mondiale rider the last man standing, being swept up at around 5km to go.

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Jhonathan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) then had a dig, though that too was chased down to set up another sprint battle.

Bauke Mollema abandoned mid-way through the stage, but the rest of the peloton soldiered on through the rain and humidity.

The pace was kept at a fairly rapid pace for most of the opening phase, led by the teams interested in another sprint – Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, Soudal-QuickStep and XDS Astana, who all had a spot on stage 1’s podium.

The break led for all of the flat opening 138km, but soon had to tackle a climb up to a plateau, which led into another flat finale, with their gap down to just more than a minute with 36km still to race.

Three men from the six emerged as the strongest over the National Road KOM point, Øxenberg, Dewulf and Van den Broek, though they still only enjoyed a 20-second lead on the roads leading up into Jingxi. Øxenberg faded first and waited to be caught by the peloton.

Dewulf was the last man standing from the original six and kicked on into the final 6km, but he too had no real chance of making it. Once he was caught back, another bunch sprint looked certain, until Jhonatan Narváez set off on the attack in search of a 95th UAE Team Emirates-XRG win in 2025.

Narváez was moving well as the road gradually rose, but it wasn’t enough of an incline to show his punchy characteristics off best, allowing the sprinters’ teams to bring back the Ecuadorian national champion.

Groupama and Visma had momentary control, but the big, wide roads of the Jingxi finale allowed several sprint trains to burst up to the front of the peloton. Jayco had the front for a moment but ran out of steam, allowing Picnic PostNL to lead Casper van Uden into the finale.

However, race leader Magnier had been dropped off on his wheel by Van Gestel in perfect position and was set ready to strike as he did on stage 1. Once he came out of the Dutchman’s wheel, no one was any match for his turn of speed and he confirmed his 16th win of 2025.