Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep) kept his winning streak alive on stage 4 of the Gree-Tour of Guangxi, continuing his clean sweep of the sprints with a tight battle to the line in Jinchengjiang.
As Magnier triumphed, he shook his head in happy disbelief after he crossed the line first for a fourth time in a row, this time ahead of Pavel Bittner (Picnic PostNL), who was also second on stage 2. Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) took third.
The hilly 176.3km stage with 2,676m of elevation gain and two category 2 and 3 climbs ended in a sprint after a late attack was swept up within 5km of the line, setting Magnier up for another triumph. After sweeping up the sprint victories from stage 1 through to stage 3, he had a 20-second lead in the General Classification standings heading into stage 4. At the end of the day, he had bumped that up to 26 seconds, with three-time podium placer Meeus now in second on the overall.
The climbing continues to ramp up through to the stage from Bama to Jinchengjiang, but it hasn't been enough to curtail the sprinters or Magnier's run so far; that's likely to change on Saturday as the race heads into the dramatic scenery and karst peaks of Nongla for a summit finish.
