Elia Viviani breaks 4-year World Tour winless streak at Tour of Guangxi: "Today I showed that I can still triumph at the highest level"

Elia Viviani had recently won at the Cro Race and that was a warm-up for what's to come. The INEOS Grenadiers rider has won in the World Tour for the first time since the 2019 BEMER Cyclassics, a very important win.

“I have always believed that I can still win at WorldTour level. Even though I had to wait a long time for another victory at the highest level," the Italian said in a post-race interview. Over recent years he had tried quite a lot, but as a new generation of sprinters emerged, he could not contest for wins in the same way. He's won a few smaller races in recent years with INEOS but outside of the track the expectations hadn't been matched.

Today however Viviani hit out strongly. He was in the perfect place at the right time, following the early sprint of fellow track specialist Jonathan Milan, and then overtaking him in the final meters to take a strong and convincing win on the opening day of the Tour of Guangxi.

“It hasn't really been going well for me lately, but today I showed that I can still triumph at the highest level," he said. Viviani hence also takes with him the first lead of the race, carries less weight on his shoulders and will still likely have three opportunities to go for stage wins throughout the week.