Tour of Guangxi preview

Last week Wout Poels told TeamSky.com how much he was looking forward to the final race of the campaign: “Tim [Kerrison] asked me a few weeks ago and because I haven’t raced so much this season it’s good to get a few more race days in my legs and stop a little later.

 

“And once we knew about the tough parcours, I thought ‘why not’? I hope I can do a good ride on the GC there. It depends on how tough the climbs are but we will try.”

Sport Director Brett Lancaster explained that the team have been doing all they can to learn as much as possible about the race route.

He said: “We’ve been taking a look at the stages and trying to get as much information as we can on the route. It’s very sprint-based, and from our point of view I think Danny [van Poppel] is pretty keen and raring to go – so to potentially pick up a stage win or two would be nice.

 

“Stage four is the mountain day. I say mountain, it’s more of a two or three kilometre climb which is pretty steep. That is where the GC will be decided and that should sort things out. If [Mikel] Landa is going OK he could certainly get up that and Wout will be our man for GC.”

The aim, says Lancaster, is to try and ‘win some bike races’, but the Australian admits the action will be hard to predict.

 

“It will be interesting to see how it plays out, especially as it’s so late in the season,” he continued. “Quite a few of the guys were racing with the team back in January like Danny and Owain [Doull]. Now it’s late October.

 

“There are a lot of unknowns as obviously it’s a new race, in a different part of the world and a proper challenge. We’re just going to get out there take it as it comes. The aim is to have a good time and to try to win some bike races.”

The opening stage is a short blast around one of the fastest-growing cities in the world: Beihai. Two 53.7km laps combine to create a punchy 107.4km opening stage, almost certain to be decided by the sprinters.

It could be more of the same on day two, although a slight uphill finish to the 156.7km stage might entice some late attacks. Day three is another short one, at 125.4km, with four category-three climbs to contend with. The sprinters will fancy their chances though, before the GC action kicks off on stage four.

The one and only first-category climb of the race lies in wait at the end of the fourth stage, where the race lead is likely to change hands.

Stage five is the longest of the race and, with four categorised climbs to contend with, it won’t be easy. The sprinters could survive to contest the win, but it may prove too tough for them.

They will certainly battle for the win on the final day though - a final blast around Guilin.

Timings

Guangxi is seven hours ahead of the UK, meaning stages are due to finish around 8am UK time. Onboard GoPro highlights will be available through Velon.