On October 19th, the 2024 Gree-Tour of Guangxi Road Cycling World Tour contested its fifth stage. The Lotto team's 23-year-old rider Lennert Van Eetvelt wins the Queen Stage of this year's edition.
The fifth stage of the 2024 Gree-Tour of Guangxi World Tour, Yizhou-Nongla, with the start and finish points located at the Central Square of Yizhou District, Hechi City, and the Nongla Mountain summit in Guling Town, Mashan County, respectively. The race distance is 165.8 kilometers, with two intermediate sprints set at 60.7 kilometers and 142.1 kilometers. The first 110 kilometers of the stage are flat, and at the 117.1 kilometre mark, there is a 5.9 kilometre-long climb (Category 3), with an average gradient of 5.5%. The most challenging part of today's stage is the final 1.2 kilometers. To the summit, with an average gradient of a staggering 14.8%.

The starting point of this stage is located in Yizhou District, Hechi City. Yizhou District is situated in the northern part of central Guangxi and serves as the administrative center of Hechi City. It is known as the hometown of the Zhuang song fairy Liu Sanjie and is a city with a cultural history of over 2,000 years. It is also renowned as a land of longevity in China, a hometown of sericulture, a hub of Chinese folk culture and art, a city of Chinese poetry, an excellent tourist city in China, the birthplace of China's first village committee, and a high-quality silk production base in China.

The route of this stage passes through Laibin City. Laibin City is located in central Guangxi, covering an area of 13,400 square kilometers with a total population of about 2.7 million, of which 78% are from 18 ethnic minorities including the Zhuang and Yao. It is a harmonious home for ethnic integration and development. Laibin has a long history and cultural heritage, being the birthplace of Pangu culture in China. It boasts excellent resource conditions and is known as "China's Sugar Capital." It has a remarkable ecological tourism advantage with natural attractions such as Shengtang Mountain and Baiya Grand Canyon. Its economy is continuously improving, making it the most comprehensive sugar industry recycling economy base in the country and the largest biodegradable material production base in southwestern China.
The finishing point of this stage, Nongla Scenic Area, is located in Guling Town, Mashan County, 20 kilometers from the county seat and 98 kilometers from Nanning, the capital of Guangxi, with convenient transportation. The scenic area has an average elevation of 500-700 meters and covers a total area of 2,555 acres. It features typical peak cluster karst landscapes and is a model for rocky desertification control in Guangxi. With a high forest coverage rate and rich flora and fauna, it is known as a "natural oxygen bar" and has multiple ecological and research bases. In recent years, the Nongla Scenic Area has consistently been the finishing point for stages of the Tour of Guangxi road cycling world tour, and its climbing sprint stage has been hailed as the "Queen Stage."

Today's first 100 kilometers are mostly flat, so the breakaway riders once again took the spotlight. Four riders participated in today's breakaway: Koen Bouwman from the Jumbo-Visma team, Warre Vangheluwe from the Soudal-Quickstep team, and Stefan Bissegger and Jonas Rutsch from the EF Education team. The four breakaway riders opened a gap of about three and a half minutes.

As the final climb approached, the peloton accelerated its chase. With 4 kilometers to go, the gap between the breakaway group and the chasers was only about 30 seconds and was rapidly closing. As the gradient became steeper, the breakaway riders gradually exhausted their strength and were eventually caught one by one.
At 1.8 kilometers from the finish, Tim Wellens from the UAE Emirates team launched an attack and took the Category 1 climb at 1.5 kilometers from the finish. This move by the 2017 Tour of Guangxi overall champion made everyone nervous.

Victor Lafay from the Decathlon Ag2r team seemed to sense that he was in good form and stepped up the pace to overtake Tim Wellens. However, with 1.2 kilometers to go and an average gradient of 14.8%, the outcome was still uncertain. Behind Victor Lafay, other general classification riders were eyeing the opportunity.
In the final 120 meters, Oscar Onley from the DSM team saw his chance and accelerated to overtake Victor Lafay, with the finish line in sight. At this moment, Lotto rider Lennert Van Eetvelt closely followed Oscar Onley.
In the last 50 meters, Lennert Van Eetvelt launched his final attack, standing and rocking his bike to overtake Oscar Onley, ultimately reaching the summit first! With his last ounce of strength, he raised his right fist to celebrate today’s hard-earned victory!

Stage winner, Lennert Van Eetvelt donned the Gree red leader's jersey and also put on the Li Ning white leader's jersey, representing the best young rider.


Israel-Premier Tech's Ethan Vernon retained the Wanda Hotels & Resorts blue jersey and still leads the points classification.

Soudal Quick-Step’s Pepijn Reinderink continued to hold onto the Baisuishan Mountain polka-dot jersey.

EF Education-EasyPost’s Stefan Bissegger won the combative award for this stage.
