Elia Viviani didn’t have an easy time in recent years, but today he achieved a significant victory. For the first time since 2019, he won a World Tour race, securing both the first-place finish and the leader’s jersey at the Tour of Guangxi in China.
The opening day of the race began with a breakaway of four riders, Omer Goldstein (Israel – Premier Tech), Dries de Bondt (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Louis Barré (Arkéa Samsic), and Frederik Wandahl (BORA – hansgrohe).
The quartet turned into a trio with 44 kilometers to go, but the pace was never very high. The peloton comfortably controlled the breakaway and caught them with 15 kilometers remaining. Initially, the following kilometers were quite calm, but the pace started to increase with 5 kilometers to go.
Jonathan Milan started his sprint ahead of everyone to avoid being surrounded, and Elia Viviani was in the wheel of his compatriot and then accelerated to victory. He defeated Milan and Sam Bennett, who completed the podium.
Watch the finish:
Results of the 1st stage of the Tour of Guangxi:
