At the end of the first day of racing, Taminio, a rider from the ProTeam Lotto Dstny, beat all his rivals to claim the first victory of this year's Tour of Guangxi.
The result seemed a little surprising, but it was hardly extraordinary.
Although UAE Team Emirates had brought sprinter Juan Sebastián Molano and Team dsm-firmenich had brought sprinter Jakobsen, neither had been in particularly good form over the season.
That was how competitive sport worked. On paper, they were the biggest favorites to win every sprint stage in this year's Tour of Guangxi.
But once the racing began, nothing was certain until they reached the finish arch.
Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe was certainly satisfied with Huang Chong taking it easy throughout the stage and simply finishing safely.
The early stages had never been their target. For now, they only needed to preserve Huang Chong's form so he could pour all his energy into the climb up Nongla Mountain.
Still, fans who had only recently started following professional road racing were somewhat disappointed to see Huang Chong settle for an unremarkable finish without doing anything noteworthy along the way.
At the finish after the race, for instance, a few less knowledgeable VIP fans could not help complaining. "Watching UCI WorldTour riders race in person was awesome. They were going so fast! But Huang Chong didn't even join the final sprint. That was such a letdown!"
"Exactly. I thought Huang Chong would at least have a go at the sprint, but he just hid at the back of the peloton. Honestly, I'm pretty disappointed."
"I feel the same. I spent several thousand yuan on a VIP spectator package just to watch the final sprint from the finish arch. Even if it was only for us fans, Huang Chong should've at least made a