Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors) took his second successive stage win at the Tour of Guangxi as he out-sprinted Team Sunweb's Maximilian Walscheid in Nanning.
The Colombian sprinter went into the second stage of the final WorldTour race of the season in the race lead, and extended that lead with victory, although not by as much as he might have liked as Silvan Dillier (BMC Racing) went into the break for the second day on the trot to hoover up bonus seconds.
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Dillier was part of a three-man break with Jonathan Lastra (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Wang Meiyin (Bahrain-Merida) who never looked likely to stay clear of the well-organised bunch, but still stayed clear long enough to allow Dillier to pick up six bonus seconds at intermediate sprints, before being caught in the final five kilometres.
After taking victory on the opening day, Gaviria was always going to be the favourite heading towards another bunch sprint, and duly delivered the win ahead of Maximilian Walscheid (Team Sunweb) and Wouter Wipper (Cannondale-Drapac).
That result means that Gaviria now enjoys a five-second advantage over Dillier in the race for the leader's red jersey, with four stages, including an uphill finish on Saturday, still to come.
Results
Tour of Guangxi 2017, Qinzhou to Nanning, 156.7km
1. Fernando Gaviria Rendon (Col) Quick-Step Floors, in 3-43-54
2. Maximilian Richard Walscheid (Ger) Team Sunweb
3. Wouter Wippert (Ned) Cannondale-Drapac
4. Matteo Pelucchi (Ita) Bora-Hansgrohe
5. Mekseb Debesay (Eri) Dimension Data
6. Magnus Cort Nielsen (Den) Orica-Scott
7. Sonny Colbrelli (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
8. Federico Zurlo (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
9. Daniel Oss (Ita) BMC Racing
10. Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) Trek-Segafredo, all at same time
General classification after stage two
1. Fernando Gaviria Rendon (Col) Quick-Step Floors, in 6-03-35
2. Silvan Dillier (Sui) BMC Racing, at 5 secs
3. Maximilian Richard Walscheid (Ger) Team Sunweb, at 14 secs
4. Dylan Groenewegen (Ned) LottoNl-Jumbo, at same time
5. Wouter Wippert (Ned) Cannondale-Drapac, at 16 secs
6. Andrey Grivko (Ukr) Astana, at same time
7. Pascal Ackermann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe, at same time
8. Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb, at 17 secs
9. Rémi Cavagna (Fra) Quick-Step Floors, at same time
10. Jonathan Lastra Martinez (Esp) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, at same time
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