Crowned European champion in August under the colours of the Italian national team, Matteo Trentin who rode the Vuelta a España in support of eventual overall winner Simon Yates had to wait till the very end of the season to deliver his first victory for his new team Mitchelton-Scott after transferring from Quick-Step Floors. He outsprinted stage 2 winner Pascal Ackermann of Bora-Hansgrohe and Jasper Stuyven from Trek-Segafredo at the end of the longest stage in Guilin. Gianni Moscon of Team Sky remains the overall leader on the eve of the grand finale, also in the historical city of the Guangxi province.

“I decided to sit behind the train of Bora-Hansgrohe because I was left with only Luka Mezgec and Carlos Verona who had to look after his [fifth] position in the general classification”, Trentin told Chinese reporters after the race. “Our two teams were side by side for sprinting when Ackermann tried to pass between Luka and myself. He took Luka down [Arnaud Démare and Rigoberto Uran also crashed but with no major consequences]. Otherwise, it’s been a very good sprint for me. I got a pretty good distance from the runner up, so I’m very happy. I came here to China to finally win at least one stage for Mitchelton-Scott. It’s been difficult, considering the high level of competition between the sprinters and the toughness of today’s course.”

Bahrain-Merida’s Wang Meiyin and Feng Chung Kai were among the initial attackers but it took ten kilometres of successive offensives for a four-man breakaway to take shape with King of the Mountains Silvan Dillier (AG2R-La Mondiale), Tony Martin (Katusha-Alpecin), Pascal Eenkhorn (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Ryan Mullen (Trek-Segafredo). Dillier was also the highest ranked rider on GC (at 1’39’’), so Team Sky seized the reins of the peloton. The maximum time gap was registered at half way into this 212.2km long stage: 4’35’’.

Dillier increased his lead in the KOM competition at every categorized climb. Mullen was dropped before the last one at km 175. In the downhill, 19 riders gathered at the front as the escapees were caught. The main peloton was reunited with 20km to go, but stage 1 and stage 3 winners Dylan Groenewegen and Fabio Jakobsen weren’t part of it. Therefore, Bora-Hansgrohe was highly motivated for bringing Pascal Ackermann to one more stage victory. The German champion came second for the second time and moved into the lead in the points competition. “I’ll defend this jersey tomorrow and I’d like to finish the season with one more victory”, the friendly sprinter from Bora-Hansgrohe said.

“The last stage will be another hard one for us although today’s went without any problem”, race leader Gianni Moscon declared. “Our team is strong and we’ll keep racing the same way.”