Tim Wellens has claimed the overall victory of the inaugural edition of the Tour of Guangxi. The Lotto Soudal rider won the fourth stage on Sunday, he then conquered the leader jersey and didn’t give it away anymore.
With the stage win and overall victory of Tim Wellens Lotto Soudal successfully finished the season with a total of 25 victories!
The last stage of the Tour of Guangxi was 168 kilometres long and also today it was impossible to avoid a bunch sprint. Unlike yesterday the break of the day was quickly established. Again it consisted of three riders: Wang Meiyin, Jon Irisarri and Daniel Oss. The bunch, led by Lotto Soudal, gave them four and a half minutes advantage. The escapees were reeled in within the last ten kilometres. Fernando Gaviria won the sprint, ahead of Niccolo Bonifazio and Dylan Groenewegen. Tosh Van der Sande got eleventh.
Tim Wellens won the overall classification with a lead of six seconds over Bauke Mollema and eleven seconds over Nicolas Roche.
Tim Wellens: “The past two days went well. On Sunday I had conquered the leader jersey, but the gaps were small so the support of my team in the last two stages was crucial. Yesterday, it took a long time before a breakaway was established and my teammates controlled the race very well, they were all really strong. Thanks to them I was able to win this WorldTour race. And this means a lot to me. Even though it was the end of the season, there were a lot of strong and motivated riders at the start here. I had to fight for this win.”
“It’s wonderful to finish the season with a victory, just like I started it. Tomorrow we head home. First we fly to Hong Kong where we have to wait twelve hours for our next flight. Adam Hansen has lived there and will give us a tour. We are all looking forward to that. Soon, I will be going on a holiday. I will be off the bike for two weeks. Then I will start running and swimming, go to the fitness and ride on my mountain bike. First I will enjoy this victory and then the preparation for 2018 can begin!”
