Colombia's Fernando Gaviria of UAE Team Emirates powered to victory in a tight sprint finish against Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) in Beihai to become the first leader of the 2019 UCI WorldTour Tour of Guangxi. Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott) rounded out the podium.

This is the first time Gaviria crossed a finishing line first since the UAE Tour in February. He also won stage 3 of the Giro d'Italia after Elia Viviani was relegated.

Early attackers Josef Cerny (CCC Team), Mikkel Honoré (Deceuninck-Quick Step) and Ryan Mullen (Trek-Segafredo) reached a maximum advantage of 2'45'' after 30km of racing. UAE Team Emirates and Bora-Hansgrohe were prompt to set the pace of the peloton to favor their respective sprinters Fernando Gaviria and Pascal Ackermann. Mullen forged on by himself with 46km remaining while Honoré and Cerny were reeled in with one lap to go. The Irish time trial specialist maintained a gap of 45'' over the bunch for 15km but it was all together again at the 30km to go mark. Julius Van den Berg (EF Education First) and Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Soudal) were the last riders to try their luck in the last 15 kilometers. Campenaerts was reeled in with 3km to and it was all set for a spectacular bunch sprint finish.