Together with Honoré and Ben Zwiehoff (Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe), Double had broken away from the field on the first few metres of the final climb. He then dropped his two companions on the last kilometre, but they were unable to keep ahead of the chasers. While Honoré only had to let Frenchman Lafay pass him and led a group of four to the finish in third place, eleven seconds behind, Zwiehoff ultimately had to settle for eighth place.

Double now has a 15-second lead over Lafay in the overall standings thanks to bonuses. Third is Jhonatan Narvaez (UAE Team Emirates - XRG), who crossed the finish line together with Honoré, but had also collected a bonus second here and there on the previous days. He is 16 seconds down on Double. Zwiehoff is ninth overall.

For Double, it was the fourth victory of his professional career. He has won all of them this season, most recently at the Tour of Slovakia in mid-September. "I say to the guys: 'We're going to win today', but given the level of competition here, I probably wouldn't have expected it," said Double at the finish after the award ceremony, adding: "I feel like I've become a real cyclist now."

Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step), whose winning streak in China was halted as expected, remains the leader of the points classification. Simon Guglielmi (Arkéa - B&B Hotels) defended the mountains jersey.

Tour of Guangxi - Results stage 5

>> Tour of Guangxi 2025: route, stages, TV coverage & live stream

>> Cycling transfers: The changes of the top teams

>> Tour of Guangxi 2025: Four out of four - Magnier continues to make his rounds

How the 5th stage of the Tour of Guangxi 2025 went

The picture on the first part of the stage was similar to the previous stages. Guglielmi and four other escapees, Ryan Gibbons (Lidl - Trek), Tom Paquot (Intermarché - Wanty), Mathias Norsgaard (Movistar Team), Enzo Leijnse (Team Picnic - PostNL) and Haoyu Su (XDS Astana Team) went clear shortly after the start and built up a lead of up to three minutes over the course of the day. While Paquot and Su secured the intermediate sprints, Guglielmi took three points for his mountains jersey on the way and then dropped back into the peloton.

The other four kept going and still had a lead of 2:45 minutes on the clock 20 kilometres before the finish. Over the next ten kilometres, however, the classification teams took some of this away. In the end, one minute remained for the final climb. And that wasn't going to be enough. At first Su and Gibbons were able to shake off their other companions, but then came Double, Honoré and Zwiehoff, who took the lead and always had a few metres advantage over the first chasers.

When Double broke away from his companions from behind under the devil's rag, Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates - XRG) initially came alongside Zwiehoff. However, the Swiss rider had obviously overextended himself in the breakaway and fell far behind afterwards. Double, on the other hand, could not be caught. Not even Lafay, who was the fastest over the last few metres, but was already too far behind and had to settle for second place.