| Tour of Guangxi | |
| Date: | October |
| Region: | Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China |
| English: | GREE-Tour of Guangxi |
| Localnames: | 格力·环广西公路自行车世界巡回赛 (in Chinese) |
| Discipline: | Road |
| Competition: | UCI World Tour UCI Women's World Tour |
| Type: | Stage race (men) One-day race (women) |
| Director: | Olivier Senn |
| Number: | 5 (as of 2024) |
| Mostwins: | No repeat winners |
| First Women: | 2017 |
| Number Women: | 5 (as of 2024) |
| Mostwins Women: | No repeat winners |
The Tour of Guangxi (officially known as the GREE-Tour of Guangxi for sponsorship purposes) is an annual professional cycling race held in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China.[1]
The men's race is a stage race and is part of the UCI World Tour.[2] The women's race is a one-day race and is part of the UCI Women's World Tour.[3] The event passes through a mix of metropolitan areas and countryside scenery.[4]
First held in 2017, the men's race is the second UCI World Tour race to be held in China, following the Tour of Beijing which was held between 2011 and 2014.[5] The women's race was first held in 2017, and joined the UCI Women's World Tour in 2018 - becoming the second event on the calendar held in China after Tour of Chongming Island.
On 1 December 2016, the UCI, Wanda Sports (part of Wanda Group) and the regional government of Guangxi signed an agreement that would see a newly-created stage race, the Tour of Guangxi, added to the UCI WorldTour from October 2017. Additionally, this agreement outlined that a women's Tour of Guangxi would be added to the calendar from 2017 and would apply for inclusion on the UCI Women's WorldTour from 2018. The UCI also announced that the UCI Cycling Gala would be held in the Chinese city of Guilin, having previously been hosted in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The inaugural men's race took place from 19–24 October 2017 and was the final event of the 2017 UCI World Tour.[6] Stage 1 took place in and around Beihai. Subsequent stages passed through Qinzhou, Nanning and Liuzhou, traversing Guangxi from south to north. Guilin hosted Stage 6, the final stage of the tour.[7] Tim Wellens finished first in the General Classification, beating runner-up Bauke Mollema by six seconds.[8] Wellens had also won Stage 4, with Dylan Groenewegen winning Stage 5.[9] [10] Sprinter Fernando Gaviria won the three flat stages at the start of the tour, as well as the final stage. The inaugural women's race took place on 24 October 2017 and covered 110 km in and around Guilin. It was won by Maria Sperotto. Amy Cure and Lucy van der Haar also finished on the podium.[11] The Tour of Guangxi was first part of the Women's WorldTour in 2018.[12]
The race was due to occur in 2020, 2021 and 2022, but was cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.[13] [14] [15]
In the 2018, 2019 and 2023 editions of the tour, the race took a similar route as in 2017, travelling through Guangxi from Beihai on the south coast to Guilin in the north, with near-identical intermediate stage hosts. The 2024 route will instead start in Fangchenggang on the south coast, then travel north through the western part of Guangxi (through Chongzuo, Jingxi, Bama, Jinchengjiang and Yizhou) before turning south to conclude in the region's capital, and regular stage host, Nanning.[16] Similarly, the first four editions of the women's race were hosted in Guilin; the 2024 edition will instead be hosted in Nanning.
| Year | Team | |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | ||
| 2018 | ||
| 2019 | ||
| 2020 | No race due to COVID-19 pandemic | |
| 2021 | No race due to COVID-19 pandemic | |
| 2022 | No race due to COVID-19 pandemic | |
| 2023 | ||
| 2024 |
First held in 2017 as the Tour of Guangxi Women's Elite World Challenge, the women's race joined the UCI Women's World Tour in 2018.[17]
The 2019 edition of the Tour of Guangxi Women's WorldTour took place on 22 October 2019 covered 145 km around Guilin.[18]