Gree-Tour of Guangxi 2025 Stage 2

October 15, 2025 There will be some sore bodies in the peloton after the mass crash in yesterday's finale but today is another day and another chance at taking a World Tour stage win. Starting in Chongzuo, the race heads Northwest through the Encheng National Nature Reserve, very slowly gaining elevation the entire time. Once in the town of Hurun at 35KM to go, the riders start an 8KM climb at an average of just over 4%. A bonus sprint will be contested in Huadong with around 10KM to go but the bonuses on the line will likely go to a sprinter because this one should finish in Jingxi for another bunch kick. The atmosphere couldn't hold the humidity any longer and let loose in the form of heavy rain. It had stopped for the neutral roll out but the roads were soaked. Rain jackets weren't necessary however because the temperature was still 27C (81F) so getting cold was unlikely. Interest in the break was limited at best. Kevin Geniets of Groupama-FDJ was the first attacker and he was begging for others to come with him. One by one, riders did come up and in the end, there was a group of six riders including Geniets, Michael Valgren of EF-Education EasyPost, Frank van den Broek of Picnic-PostNL, Stan Dewulf of Decathlon AG2R, Peter Øxenberg of Ineos, and Simon Guglielmi of Arkéa-B&B Hotels. XDS-Astana and Soudal Quickstep set up the chase as the riders moved through the stage surrounded by the Karst mountains and vast agricultural areas. The gap got out to about 2 minutes but the group was held in check for much of the day. On the climb out of Hurun, the break split up and with 32KM to go, only Øxenberg, Dewulf, and van den Broek were still in the lead. Øxenberg took maximum points at the top but we were not getting time gaps to the peloton. UAE-XRG were drilling it on the front over the top which suggested that maybe the gap was coming down but there was no way of confirming that. It took a few more kilometers but when the bunch were in the same camera shot at 23KM to go, we could see the gap was no more than 15 seconds. The three leaders hung out for another 10KM where Øxenberg was able to win the bonus sprint which meant nothing was available for the peloton when they came through a few moments later. Dewulf was the last man caught at 5KM to go and a few moments later, Jhonatan Narváez of UAE-XRG went on the attack. He pulled out a handful of seconds but the peloton was almost completely intact with plenty of resources to chase. Groupama-FDJ did most of the work to chase Narváez down and the catch was made at 3KM to go. Picnic-PostNL, EF-Education EasyPost, and Intermarché-Wanty each had solid lead out trains all in a line. The road was three lanes wide so just like yesterday, there was more than enough room to move up. Jayco AlUla did just that with five riders all together and hit the front with 1KM to go. Jayco AlUla seemed to just disintegrate which left Max Walscheid stuck out in the wind. By the time he tucked in, Picnic-PostNL was in full sprint mode for Pavel Bittner. Bittner launched at 175M but once again, Paul Magnier of Soudal Quickstep popped out at just the right time and stormed passed Bittner to take his second stage in a row. Bittner was a comfortable second with Stanisław Aniołkowski of Cofidis in third.