After consistent top ten sprint finishes so far in the Tour of Guangxi, European champion Matteo Trentin got everything right on today’s penultimate stage to claim his first victory for Mitchelton-SCOTT and his first victory in the European jersey.
A first category climb with 25 kilometres remaining split the peloton, yet Trentin was able to arrive at the finish line in good condition to take the win the reduced sprint with Gianni Moscon (Team Sky) remaining as the race leader.
Like all four previous stages, a breakaway established with the peloton keeping control of the distance. Four riders, Silvan Dillier (AG2r), Tony Martin (Katusha-Alpecin), Pascal Eenkhorn (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Ryan Mullen (Trek-Segafredo) worked well together and rode out to a maximum advantage of over four minutes.
Race leading team, Team Sky led the chase for most of the stage and as the peloton approached the final section with three climbs in close succession of one another the leaders quickly drew closer to the bunch.
Over the final first category climb, with around 25 kilometres to go, the peloton split into two groups, with Trentin pacing himself, saving enough to be able to contest the finish.
With the effort of the climb zapping the legs of the pure sprinters, Trentin was able to show his late season form, powering down the finishing straight and to the stage victory ahead of Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Jasper Steven (Trek-Segafredo).
Matteo Trentin: “It was really good today we knew that if we did the climb hard then the top sprinters would be tired to do the sprint. Luka Mezgec did a great lead-out but unfortunately crashed but not from his fault.
“I am really happy because it is my first win with the team and my first win in the European kit before the end of the season. Let’s see tomorrow, because tomorrow is similar to today so if somebody wants to go super hard on the climb again then we are going to be there again.”
Tour of Guangxi stage 5 results:
1. Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-SCOTT) 4:54:34
2. Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) ST
3. Jasper Steven (Trek-Segafredo) ST
General classification after stage 5:
1. Gianni Moscon (Team Sky) 16:57
2. Felix Grosschartner (Bora-Hansgrohe) +0:09
3. Sergei Chernetski (Astana) +0:14
