NANNING, Oct. 17 -- Fernando Gaviria of Colombia powered to victory in south China's Beihai in the opening stage of the 2019 Gree Tour of Guangxi on Thursday in a time of 2 hours, 53 minutes and 32 seconds.

The UAE Team Emirates rider beat Pascal Ackermann of Bora-Hansgrohe in a tight sprint finish.

Early attackers Josef Cerny (CCC Team), Mikkel Honore (Deceuninck-Quick Step) and Ryan Mullen (Trek-Segafredo) reached a maximum advantage of 2:45 after 30km of racing. UAE Team Emirates and Bora-Hansgrohe set the pace of the peloton to favor their respective sprinters Gaviria and Ackermann.

Mullen forged on by himself with 46km remaining while Honore and Cerny were reeled in with one lap to go. The Irish time trial specialist maintained a gap of 45 seconds over the rest at 15km but it was all together again at the 30km to go mark. Julius Van den Berg (EF Education First) and Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Soudal) were the last riders to try their luck in the last 15 kilometers.

After the opening stage, Gaviria became the treble winner of red, blue and white jerseys, as the overall individual leader, best sprinter and the best young rider respectively, while Honore took the polka dot jersey for the stage's best climber, and was awarded the "most active rider".

This is the first time Gaviria crossed a finish line first since the UAE Tour in February. He also won Stage 3 of the Giro d'Italia after Elia Viviani was relegated.

The second stage of the 2019 Tour of Guangxi starts on Friday and runs from Beihai to Qinzhou.

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