Tour of Guangxi – Race Report

17th October – Stage 4: Bama – Jinchengjiang

Racing continued in Guangxi for the fourth day of action with another day that looked set for the sprinters, albeit once again with a few punchy climbs along the route. A strong break of six formed out front but Team Picnic PostNL remained in the peloton, and helped to contribute to the pace setting at the head of the bunch, slowing reeling in those ahead throughout the day.

Coming over the last hill with around ten kilometres to go the race was all together and the new late attacker was caught, setting up a fast finish. Biding their time, the team’s train moved forward late and positioned Pavel Bittner in Magnier’s wheel going into the final few hundred metres. Magnier delivered a strong sprint, as did Bittner who drew ever closer to the race leader on each pedal stroke, but the Frenchman held on with Bittner taking another strong second place.

Bittner expressed: “Today was another sprint day, but it was a bit more lumpy in the final. It was quite a good breakaway so Enzo did a strong job on the front helping to pull back the breakaway. Coming into the final the pace went up but we stayed relaxed, and together with Pat, Frank and Casper they brought me into the final in a good way and that I was fresh. This time we could apply the lessons from the previous days and could slide back a bit on Magnier’s wheel. That was the biggest chance to win the stage. I tried but was a bit exposed before I could launch and Paul was really strong again, so the best I could do was the second place. I hope that we can still have a chance on the last hard stage and go into the off-season in good style.”

Team Picnic PostNL coach Phil West added: “There was quite a tricky climb right from the start so we wanted to be sharp for that in case a dangerous break went with some potential GC guys. In the end it was much easier than that and only six riders went away. Then at a certain moment in the day we started to help control in the peloton and help bring it back for a sprint. We tried to react on how things went yesterday where we were a bit too early, and today we wanted to come later, and potentially take the wheel of another rider. The guys did that well and dropped Pavel off in a perfect spot, where he could do his sprint cleanly and did another good effort. It was good teamwork and nice commitment from everyone today so we can be pleased with that.”