NANNING, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- German Pascal Ackermann of Bora-Hansgrohe claimed his first stage victory Saturday in the third 2019 Gree Tour of Guangxi in 3 hours, 19 minutes and 11 seconds.
The third stage of the Tour of Guangxi was a 143km level-road race with two sprints and three climbs around Nanning, capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Ackermann managed to overcome the climb newly added on the circuit to clock the victory of the stage. Aleksandr Riabushenko of UAE Team Emirates and Matteo Trentin of Mitchelton-Scott rounded out the podium. Having passed the climb in the top 10, Ackermann was in an ideal situation to outsprint his main rival Trentin ahead of the queen stage to Nongla Temple.
Brian Van Goethem (Lotto-Soudal), Jacopo Mosca (Trek-Segafredo) and Nic Dlamini (Dimension Data) successfully made the second breakaway after the flag off and got an one-minute advantage after 6km. The Bora-Hansgrohe team, later helped by Mitchelton-Scott, kept them on a leash with a maximum time difference of 2 minutes 55 seconds recorded at 63km after the second passage on top of the hill.
Astana upped the tempo at the head of the peloton to catch the leading trio with 35km remaining. Guillaume Martin of Wanty-Groupe Gobert was first at the top of the climb with 5km to go but rode cautiously in the following downhill to miss the victory.
After the third stage, Ackermann took the red, blue and white jerseys again, as the overall individual leader, best sprinter and the best young rider respectively, while Mosca won polka dot jerseys as the best climber and was awarded the "most active rider".
The fourth stage is a 161.4km mountain race from Nanning to Nongla scenic area in Guangxi's Mashan County.