The Tour of Guangxi through the south of China continues to see a new overall leader after each day. Even after stage 3 from Jingxi to Bama, the longest stage of the tour at 214 kilometres, there is a new man in the red jersey. Unfortunately for Max Kanter (Astana Qazqastan Team), who had to relinquish the overall lead after just one day. This was to Ethan Vernon (Israel-Premier Tech), who was crowned the day's winner after a photo finish. Juan Sebastian Molano (UAE Team Emirates), who ultimately finished second, had been in front for a long time. Vernon only overtook the Colombian in the very last few metres.

Mass crash causes race to be interrupted

Vernon's Canadian team-mate Riley Pickrell finished third, while Kanter only managed eighth place. However, the German was also one of the victims of a mass crash in the early stages of the race, as a result of which the race even had to be interrupted for several minutes because the ambulances had not yet caught up with the field again. In addition to last year's winner Milan Vader (Visma | Lease a Bike), Jhonatan Narvaez (Ineos Grenadiers) and this season's Australian champion Luke Plapp (Team Jayco AlUla) also had to end the race prematurely.

The year has not been ideal for Vernon either. Although the 24-year-old Briton won his first race after switching from Soudal - Quick Step to Israel in February, he was unable to build on his successes from the previous year. After his premature withdrawal in the middle of the Giro, he only returned to racing at the beginning of September for the Tour of Britain. After finishing fourth and seventh in China, he was now able to claim his second win of the season, the tenth of his career.

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Tour of Guangxi 2024 - Results at a glance

Tour of Guangxi 2024 - How the 3rd stage went

The first ten kilometres of the day were dominated by attacks. Several small groups, in which Jonas Rutsch (EF Education Esaypost) also took part, tried to break away from the peloton before the mass crash with more than 20 riders involved initially thwarted all efforts. Although the race was initially continued, the race was stopped 14 kilometres later after not all the riders and, above all, the ambulances had caught up again despite the greatly reduced pace in the peloton.

After the restart, Dries De Bondt (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Pepijn Reinderink (Soudal - Quick Step) went on the offensive and formed the breakaway group of the day. The duo took all of the day's intermediate classifications between them, allowing De Bondt to extend his lead in the mountains classification and close to within two seconds of Vernon and Molano in the overall standings. In the hilly second part of the day, however, the breakaway's lead shrank further and further until it was finally used up on the last climb twelve kilometres before the finish.