NANNING, China, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- Gianni Moscon of Team Sky became the new leader of the 2018 Gree UCI WorldTour Tour of Guangxi as the Italian was the first to climb to the top of the mountainous Nongla Scenic Area on the fourth day of the Tour on Friday with a time of 3:38.2.
Moscon became the triple winner of red, polka dot and white jerseys and Fabio Jakobsen took the blue jersey.
The fourth stage is the most challenging one with 3 sprints, a level-3 climb and a 1.6-kilometer level-1 climb as the end point of the race.
"I'm very happy," Moscon said after the finish. "I had to do it this way to finish the season on a high note. I rode uphill above threshold. We went very strongly from the bottom. When I realized the others were struggling, I rode flat out. I got a nice advantage for myself and I gave it all to keep it till the end. It's been a long and difficult season on many points of views, starting with a broken scaphoid. It's nice to finish it with a victory."
After 10 kilometers and a few unsuccessful attacks, Stefan Kung, Pascal Eenkhoorn and Roger Kluge went clear off the peloton. It took less than 10 kilometers for Kluge to change his mind and return to the peloton, leaving the Swiss rider and the young Dutchman with an advantage of 1m30s over the bunch at km 20.
The leading duo reached a maximum advantage of 3:15 at km 40, but 5km further, it was down to 2m20s as leader Jakobsen was the fastest of the bunch again on the line of the first intermediate sprint while at the front, Kung was first and showed a determination that would later enable him to receive the most active rider price.
Halfway into stage 4, the time difference was still 2m15s. Kung won the second intermediate sprint and Eenkhoorn the third, while Jakobsen continued to score for the points classification. Kung was the last man to surrender, right at the bottom of the climb to the finish with 3km to go.
Forty riders rode strongly together until Moscon attacked 1km before the end. The Italian crossed the line 5 seconds before Grosschartner and 8 ahead of Chernetski, who was the winner of the Arctic Race of Norway in August this year, two years after Moscon.
The fifth and penultimate stage will be the longest race of 212.2km in the six-day event from Liuzhou to Guilin.
"Tomorrow it's a hard stage, a long one with some climbs. I'm sure it'll be a battle. But I'm confident to retain the lead. Today I showed my legs are good," Moscon said.
