16/04/2023

PREVIEW | Tour of Guangxi 2024 stage 3

The Tour of Guangxi will be the final World Tour event of the season; taking place between the 15th and 20th of October. The peloton will be in China for what is the final stage-race of the season, but one that will still be important to many. We preview stage 3.

The third day of racing is a bit more open. In reality, taking into consideration the climbing capacity of most modern sprinters, it's safe to say many or most will survive the explosive finale into Bama. But the day features 215 kilometers of racing and the roller-coaster finale may prove to be quite difficult to control if the race explodes.

There are a few rolling climbs but the most important will be a 1.4-kilometer long ascent at 7.4% that comes with 35 kilometers to go. I reckon it's hard enough for serious attacks and right after comes a descent which has another small climb in the middle. It's possible to create and extend a gap here whilst there is another small ascent that summits with only 13 kilometers to go.

Here it is possible to hold off the peloton as we have got twisty roads without many straight sections and its not too flat either. The final kilometer, if a sprint is to happen, should also see a ferocious leadout battle as we've got several corners.