JINGXI — Frits Biesterbos surprised the favourites on stage 2 of the Tour of Guangxi to deliver Picnic PostNL their first WorldTour victory of the 2026 season in Jingxi. The Dutchman stopped the clock at 3:45:19 to beat race leader Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep) into second, with Olav Kooij (Decathlon CMA CGM) charging from deep to finish third, while Magnier retains the red jersey heading into stage 3.
Racing on day two in southwest China centred on the National Road climb, 8.5km at 3.4% with 35km to go. Two riders from the early four-man breakaway survived onto the climb — Martin Tjøtta (Uno-X Mobility) and Dries De Bondt (Jayco AlUla) — before Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Javier Romo (Movistar) bridged across to make it four in front. The move was well controlled by Soudal-QuickStep and Tudor and was reeled back in 1.5km before the summit.
The bunch stayed active towards the intermediate sprint in Huadong, where Narváez, Pau Miquel (Bahrain Victorious) and Tom Pidcock (Pinarello Q36.5) collected three, two and one bonus seconds respectively. Late attacks could not hold off the charging peloton on the flatter run to the line, where Groupama-FDJ United and Decathlon dominated the lead-out into the final 2km before being overhauled. Magnier was piloted well into the final corner but hit the front too early on the drag to the finish, allowing Biesterbos to launch from his wheel and take the win.
The victory spares Picnic PostNL's blushes as they had looked set to finish the season as the only of the 18 WorldTour teams without a win at the highest level. It is only their third victory at any level this season but lands vital UCI points, with Biesterbos now six seconds behind Magnier overall and Sam Welsford (Netcompany Ineos) staying third despite being boxed out of the final sprint. Racing resumes on Thursday with an undulating 212.3km stage 3 from Jingxi to Bama, where Pidcock and Narváez are expected to come to the fore in the battle for the red jersey.